Building the Scottish Diaspora: Scots and the Colonial Built Environment, c.1700-1920

This symposium takes as a point of departure, colonial cultures of Scottish entrepreneurship operating and building in the hemispheres of the Atlantic and the India-Pacific from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. It will explore Scottish traders, merchants, agents, missionaries and others influential in colonial arenas of the Atlantic and India-Pacific ‘worlds’, especially within the analytical frameworks of regional, oceanic, and World/Global historiography, methods of cultural and historical geography, as well as economic and business history.

The research presented will map diasporic networks—familial, professional, entrepreneurial, religious etc.—and their material presence with a view to better understanding the significance of Scottish modes of operation, particularly (but not exclusively) those that demonstrate their achievement as entrepreneurs in a networked, international environment. A range of disciplinary perspectives will be showcased on the spatial and material dimensions of Scottish entrepreneurship in the colonial arena.

Speakers include: Sydney Ayres, Eve Barsoum, G. A. Bremner, Harriet Edquist, Stuart King, Andrew Leach, Sarah Longair, John Lowrey, Bernard Mees, and Mark Stiles.

Full programme can be found here: https://buildingscottishdiaspora.wordpress.com/programme/

Programme

Friday 17 November, 9:00am
Old Board Room, Edinburgh College of Art, 74 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh, EH3 9DF

Welcome/Introduction
Alex Bremner, University of Edinburgh
Building Jerusalem at Botany Bay: James Barnet and John Grant
Mark Stiles, University of Technology, Sydney

Scottish Finance and the Development of the Built Environment in Colonial Australia
Bernard Mees, RMIT, Melbourne

Tea/Coffee Break 11:00am-11:30am
Scots, Networks and Building in Van Diemen’s Land
Stuart King, University of Tasmania, Launceston

Thomas Learmonth and Sons: Family Capitalism and the Pastoral Origins of Victoria’s Built Environment
Harriet Edquist, RMIT, Melbourne

Lunch Break 1:00pm-1:45pm

An English Country House in Calcutta: the Government House, Architect Robert Adam and Statesman John Adam
Sydney Ayres, University of Edinburgh

Scottish Architects and India’s Built Environment: John Begg and George Wittet
Sarah Longair, University of Lincoln

Tea/Coffee Break 3:15pm-3:45pm

Scottish Diaspora: the George Town, Maryland Question
Eve Barsoum, US Commission of Fine Arts, Washington DC

Response 1: The Wider World and Scottish Architectural History
John Lowrey, University of Edinburgh

Response 2: Scottish Architectural Agency in a Global Context
Andrew Leach, University of Sydney

End 6:15pm