A PROJECT will be launched today to examine how the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade has been marked across the UK.
The 1807 Commemorated scheme, set up by York University, links universities and museums, and its launch coincides with International Slavery Remembrance Day today.
The university's Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past (IPUP) secured £325,860 from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to set up the project.
It is the largest sum the AHRC has so far awarded under its new Knowledge Transfer Fellowship Scheme.
The two-year project involves five national museums -the British Museum and the National Maritime Museum in London, the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum, in Bristol, the International Slavery Museum, Merseyside, and Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
Researchers will document the commissioning, production, development and audience reception of exhibitions on the subject of abolition and slavery.
IPUP founding director Professor Helen Weinstein said: "The bicentenary of the Abolition Act of 1807 marks a unique point in time. It offers an opportunity to examine how a traumatic episode of the past is remembered. It impacts upon ideas about identity, who we are and where we have come from."
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