About

See the Queen’s House and its collections in a new light with this series of free lunchtime talks exploring art, architecture, history and the contemporary culture.

The term ‘salon’ was used historically to describe social gatherings in the domestic sphere. Participation was open to a range of individuals, and women often acted as hosts. Salons were alternative spaces for learning, debate and the exchange of ideas. 

Speakers at the Salons series include artists, researchers, curators and creative practitioners. Taking inspiration from the history of the Queen’s House and its collections, their talks bring to light new insights and share different perspectives.

Programme: 

The Seeds of Survival (25th June)
This talk by Tim May, Curator of Maps and Mobilities, will explore the atlas's hidden (and often quirky) features, as well as the colonial desires underpinning its creation. 

This talk by Akosua Paries-Osei will focus on the botanical knowledge of enslaved women. Enslaved women were highly skilled botanists whose knowledge of anti-fertility botanicals was gained both in Africa and the New World. Their use of anti-fertility botanicals, such as the peacock flower or cotton seed, was empire-disrupting. 

Enslaved people transported African plants and botanicals to the New World. They also took the knowledge of those plants with them. They shared this knowledge with the local inhabitants and learned from their new environment. 

Throughout the entire period of Caribbean slavery, enslaved women’s botanical knowledge and reproductive resistance continued to destabilise the colonial empire. The knowledge of these women was highly sought after in both enslaved and white medical communities. 

Breadfruit and the Creolising of Caribbean Foodways (16th July)
This talk by Jade Lindo will examine the historical and cultural significance of breadfruit in Caribbean foodways, particularly through the experiences of Black enslaved women. Introduced as part of colonial agricultural schemes, breadfruit was intended to sustain the enslaved population with minimal planter investment.

However, its integration into Caribbean diets was neither seamless nor passive. Black women, key figures in food cultivation and preparation, navigated and reshaped imposed food systems through provision-ground agriculture, culinary adaptation, and resistance.

By tracing the spread of breadfruit across the Caribbean from the nineteenth century to the present, this talk reveals the intersections of colonial botany, labour, and gender. It interrogates the erasure of Black women’s agency in existing historiographies and foregrounds their role in the development of Caribbean food culture.

Lindo's work draws on archival analysis, oral histories, and culinary reconstructions to reclaim the narratives of those who transformed breadfruit from a colonial imposition into a marker of resilience and identity.