The archive in the armoire: rediscovering the global lives of William Macintosh

Moore Building Auditorium

Professor Innes Keighren
Professor of Historical Geography

During his remarkable and restlessly mobile lifetime, William Macintosh (1737–1813) was many things: colonial legislator, world traveller, prisoner of war, best-selling author, papal advisor, counterrevolutionary spy, and self-proclaimed citizen of the world. His work was read by Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith, he corresponded with Joseph Banks and George Washington, and dined with Aaron Burr and the Princesse de Talleyrand. Yet, today, Macintosh is almost entirely unknown. For more than a decade, Professor Keighren has been working to recover Macintosh from the shadows and to understand what his forgotten world and words can tell us about slavery, war, and the contested politics of British imperialism in the eighteenth century. Drawing on an unstudied archive of Macintosh’s personal papers, hidden in a wardrobe in Avignon and seized at the height of the French Revolution, Professor Keighren offers a fascinating insight into Macintosh’s forgotten life and why it still matters. Spanning the Caribbean, South Asia, and Europe, this lecture shows how one life can illuminate a global history.

Inaugural Lecture

Admission is free, but booking is essential.

Professor Innes Keighren