The Walls of the Roses will celebrate the College's newest exhibition, which will be opened for attendees to visit at the end of the event. The exhibition marks the first time historic fragments of wallpaper, thought to have it origins in the early sixteenth century, has been publicly displayed since its discovery during refurbishments in 1911.
The event will begin with talks further exploring topics raised by the exhibition from Dr Harriet Lyon (J. H. Plumb College Lecturer and Director of Studies in History) and Dr Christina Faraday (Affiliated Lecturer in History of Art, Director of Studies in History of Art, Sidney Sussex, Lucy Cavendish and Pembroke College).
Politics and Print in Tudor Cambridge - Dr Harriet Lyon
Taking the wallpaper fragments as the starting point for a broader political and cultural history, Dr Lyon will examine the dynamics shaping life in Cambridge around the time of the College's foundation. From the proclamation of a new king to the emergence of print as an important mode of communication, the contextual history of the fragments reveals a world in transition.
When Walls Talk: Images and Interiors of Early Tudor Cambridge
In this talk, Dr Faraday will set the wallpaper fragments in the wider artistic context of early Tudor England, connecting them with the kinds of images and interior decorative schemes found in universities, and exploring their surprising links to other media and distant cultures.