CivicLAB event: Professor Paul Elliott: Legacies of Joseph Wright and the Derby Philosophers

Thursday 13 November, 12:30pm, Artcore Gallery, 8 Albert Street, Osnabruck Square, Derby DE1 2DS

Although Erasmus Darwin’s house on Full Street was demolished in 1933 and there have sometimes been criticisms of the costs of growing and maintaining the Joseph Wright collection at Derby Museums and Art Gallery over the past hundred and fifty years.

Celebration and study of Wright, Darwin and their philosophical friends has been instrumental in shaping Derby’s civic identity and culture. Special exhibitions of Wright’s works, the collection of artefacts associated with Darwin and the Derby philosophers including Darwin’s microscope and remnants of his house, civic memorials, fundraising, public subscription campaigns and benefactions have helped maintain interest in Wright and Darwin even when their reputations dipped nationally and internationally. 

Major resources such as the Devonshire and Bemrose collections have wonderfully augmented the town’s libraries and museums whilst library, museum and archive staff and curators supported by friends groups, have worked tirelessly to enhance these resources and empower wider public engagement with them, aided at times by civic leaders.

In burgeoning industrial Derby when textile, railway, motor, engineering and manufacturing industries drove expansion, a significant proportion of the population were immigrants first from across the British Isles and Ireland and subsequently the wider world to create the modern dynamic, multicultural city. 

The legacies of Enlightenment and Industrialisation, and national and international engagement they have fostered, have provided inspirational visions of creative, scientific, technological and cultural innovation around which the population could unite. Heralding publication of a new paperback edition of The Derby Philosophers by Manchester University Press (2025), this talk explores some of the legacies of Wright, Darwin and the Derby Philosophers in the civic pride, culture and identity of Derby. 

CivicLAB is based at the University of Derby. The city is a UNESCO City of Life Long Learning and home to World Heritage Sites. CivicLAB has been designed to support academics, creative & cultural industry professionals, freelance creatives and the public to share their insights on research and practice through a place-based approach to knowledge generation.

Find out more: @Derby_Civic
www.derby.ac.uk/civicAll