Immortalised: The People Loved, Left and Lost in our Landscape
Immortalised was a free exhibition in London, in autumn 2018
About the exhibition
For millennia, we have celebrated and mourned, marked and memorialised. Through our culture, places, stories and rituals we pass down what matters to us.
It is how we make people immortal.
But who decides who and how we remember?
"Immortalised" explored the ways people and events have been commemorated in England, by the statues, the plaques, shrines and murals that mark heroic, quirky, inspirational and challenging lives. But while some people are heralded, others are unrepresented: women, the working classes and people of colour are much less likely to have a place on the plinth.
An immersive exhibition, "Immortalised" invited you to enter four giant monuments that hold the key to our memorial past and future. From a Trafalgar Square lion to the Brighton Peace 'Angel,' to the boots on the contested statue of Edward Colson in Bristol, these each explored how, why and who we remember, from the well-loved and famous, to the lost local hero.
"Immortalised" also reviewed the challenging histories of some of those celebrated, and looks at how we might immortalise in the future, long after we are gone and perhaps, forgotten.
Immortalised exhibition gallery
Please click on the gallery images to enlarge.
Immortalised exhibition: 3D virtual tour
British Library panel discussion: Remembering women's achievements
The British Library organised a panel discussion taking a look at who gets immortalised, how, and why on Tuesday 11 September 2018, at the British Library in London.
The panel included: Emily Gee, London Planning Director at Historic England, Bee Rowlatt, author and chair of ‘Mary on the Green’ campaign, and Dr. Elizabeth Darling, architectural historian at Oxford Brookes University.
How to protect and save local memorials around you
Many memorials and sites are at risk of being lost.
Do you want to protect and save a memorial? Do you want to learn how you can care for your local heritage?
Search the Heritage at Risk register to find out what's at risk near you or discover how you can get involved with local Heritage at Risk Projects and how groups around the country exist to help protect and care for local heritage.
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Exhibition supported by
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