Month: September 2024

World-renowned scientist, Prof Sir Ghillean Prance, will be giving two talks at the Plymouth Athenaeum on the survival of the Amazon rainforest and the work of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in October and November 2024.

Prof Prance is a botanist and former Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He has travelled and researched extensively in South America, with a focus on sustainability and management of the environment.

Sir Ghillean is a Fellow of The Royal Society, past President of the The Linnean Society of London and has been recognised in honours across the globe for his scientific achievements.

He has carried out extensive fieldwork, principally in the Amazon rainforest, where he lived with many Amazonian tribes and identified more than 350 new species of plant.

On Thursday, 10 October (7.30pm)Prof Prance discusses the irreplaceable Amazon rainforest and the impact of man’s intrusion into it in The survival of the Amazon rainforest is under threat.

And Sir Ghillean returns on Tuesday, 12 November (12.30pm) to highlight the horticulture, science and education at the heart of the work of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Entry is free for both talks.

You can find more information on the talks and register on Eventbrite HERE.

New date – Thursday, 21 November (7.30pm)

Join us as Dr Sandra Barkhof discusses the wave of Germanophobia that swept across Britain during the First World War.

During World War One, Britain was gripped with Germanophobia, with both the government and the press playing central roles. Germanophobia impacted the German community living in the UK and resulted in a change of name for the British Royal Family.

Dr Sandra Barkhof is a lecturer in modern world history with special focus on German history and the Cold War. Her research focuses on German imperialism, the German colonies in the Pacific during World War One, and German colonial memory and memorialisation in the Weimar Republic.Entry Free.

Register on Eventbrite HERE.

Tuesday, 8 October 2024 (12.30pm)

Plymouth has long laid claim to be the venue for the naming of dinosaurs. Join us as we try to separate fact from fiction in the city’s assertion that it be credited as the birthplace of these ‘terrible reptiles’.

Discover more about the man who coined the term ‘dinosauria’, Sir Richard Owen, his campaign which led to the formation of the Natural History Museum and his friction and rivalry with Charles Darwin.

The lecture will be given by Owen Ryles, Chief Executive of the Plymouth Athenaeum. Owen is a Fellow of the Linnean Society and the Zoological Society.

His previous talks include Education, enlightenment and entertainment: Plymouth Mechanics’ Institute 1825-1899 , Walking through the storm: William Snow Harris v The Admiralty, Bitten by Barnacles: The Life of Charles Spence Bate and Charles Hamilton Smith: Writer, Illustrator, Solider, Spy.

Entry Free.

Register on Eventbrite HERE.

Thursday, 3 October (7.30pm)

Join Eileen Willey for an illustrated talk and take a gentle pictorial journey around Plymouth’s historic Barbican.

In the Plymouth Athenaeum’s annual President’s Address, Eileen looks at the historic Barbivan with an eye to the past and present.

The Barbican is the area to the western and northern sides of Sutton Harbour, and was one of the few parts of the city to escape most of the destruction of The Blitz during the Second World War.

Retaining some of the buildings from the historic fishing port, the Barbican has the largest concentration of cobbled streets in Britain and contains 100 listed buildings.

Entry Free.

Register on Eventbrite HERE.

 

Tuesday, 22 October 2024 (12.30pm)

Join us as Cat Richards discusses the Future Saltram project and how the house and estate can continue to play a pivotal role in supporting health, well-being, and education in Plymouth as the historic estate grows.

Cat Richards, who is a Project Coordinator with the National Trust at Saltram, will discuss how the Trust and partners through the Future Saltram project aims over the next decade to work to support well-being through connections with heritage and nature; opening up more free-to-use country park for people; creating habitats for wildlife; restoring historic landscape and parkland views; improving visitor facilities and offering better access and connections to Saltram for local communities.

Overlooking the River Plym, Saltram is set in a rolling landscape park on the outskirts of Plymouth. It was home to the Parker family from 1743, and the house is decorated with original Chinese wallpapers and a collection of paintings including works by Sir Joshua Reynolds. It also has a superb country house library and Robert Adam’s Neo-classical Saloon.

The garden is mostly 19th century, with a working 18th-century orangery and follies, tropical planting and specimen trees providing year-round interest.

Entry Free.

Register on Eventbrite HERE.

Tuesday, 12 November 2024 (12.30pm)

Join us as Prof Sir Ghillean Prance discusses the horticulture, science and education at the heart of the work of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Located in southwest London, the Gardens house the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world.

Founded in 1840, its living collections include some of the 27,000 taxa, while the herbarium has more than 8.5 million preserved plant and fungal specimens.

Its library contains more than 750,000 volumes, including more than 175,000 prints and drawings of plants.

Prof Prance, who is a Fellow of the Royal Society and past President of the Linnean Society, is a botanist and was Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens from 1988-1999.

Entry Free.

Register on Eventbrite HERE.

Thursday, 10 October 2024 (7.30pm)

Join us as Prof Sir Ghillean Prance discusses the irreplaceable Amazon rainforest and how man’s intrusion into it has caused the wholesale destruction of an ecological system involving both humans and plants.

The Amazon rainforest is a broadleaf tropical rainforest that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. The basin encompasses 7,000,000 km2 of which 6,000,000 km2 is covered by rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations and 3,344 indigenous territories.
Prof Prance is a botanist and former Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. He has travelled and researched extensively in South America, with a focus on sustainability and management of the environment.

He has carried out extensive fieldwork, principally in the Amazon rainforest, where he lived with many Amazonian tribes and identified more than 350 new species of plant.

Prof Prance says that further destruction of the rainforest could be prevented by learning about sustainable management of the rainforest from the tribes that live there.

Entry Free.

Register on Eventbrite HERE.