Two events at the NMM

There are a couple of events coming up at the National Maritime Museum which sound completely fascinating if anyone happens to be in the vicinity.

Masculinity and mental health in the Georgian Navy
Dr Roland Pietsch, Queen Mary, University of London
British Maritime History Seminars 2010–11
22 February, 17.15, free, no booking required.

Abstract:

During the war against Napoleon, physician Sir Gilbert Blane observed that insanity was seven times more common in the Royal Navy than among the general population. In London’s famous Bethlem Hospital (Bedlam) sailors made up the largest group among the patients. Blane did not have any explanation for this, but presumed it had something to do with the sailors frequently banging their heads against the beams under the influence of alcohol. Today we immediately think of posttraumatic stress disorders, something that Blane’s contemporaries were only beginning to grasp. But for the eighteenth-century sailor, battle stress was just one aspect of many that could have had a negative impact on his mental health. Most sailors had entered the wooden world at a very young age, experiencing an abrupt separation from home and attachment figures. They were thrown into an adult world that was not just the most dangerous profession at the time, but which also cultivated an extreme idea of masculinity, a world in which dangers, pain and death were trivialised and meant to be taken without complaint. The sailor’s mental wounds were more likely to show once he was off the Navy’s radar, when he tried to reintegrate into life on land, away from the ship’s family he had spent his formative years in. Now it would show whether his bravado, celebrated in the songs of Charles Dibdin and other popular contemporary performers, had been genuine or whether he had just locked away all the negative impressions in a sea chest deep down in his memory, hoping that it would never be opened.

100 Years of International Women's Day
David Cordingly, Susan Ronald, Anthony Sattin and Kate Williams.
8 March, 18.00–20.00, £10/£8, booking required.

Abstract:

As part of Women’s History Month and to mark the 100th year of International Women’s Day, this day of events will explore the role of women in history.

* 18.00–19.00: David Cordingly will investigate the history and stories of female pirates.
* 19.00–20.00: A women’s history debate on the lives of Elizabeth I, Emma Hamilton and Florence Nightingale and their impact on British history and influence on British maritime history. With Susan Ronald (author of Pirate Queen: Queen Elizabeth I, Her Pirate Adventurers, and the Dawn of Empire), Anthony Sattin (author of A Winter on the Nile) on Florence Nightingale, and Kate Williams (author of England's Mistress: the Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton).

Sadly I can't get to either event *weeps* so if anyone else can make it along I'd be very grateful for a review, particularly of the "Masculinity and Mental Health" lecture. I'll contact the NMM's Research Administrator to see if slides, transcripts or podcasts will be available so I'll keep you posted.

Cross posted to anything_aos