Public engagement
Details of media content, exhibitions and classroom resources for schools deriving from the Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers project.
Last revised 11 July 2024.
Broadcasts
2023
- Sophie Coulombeau. Contributor to Free Thinking: Queen Charlotte, Fashion and Music, BBC Radio 3, 25 April 2023. [Sophie discusses Mary Hamilton's life at the Court of George III.]
- Sophie Coulombeau. A Powerful Crush: A harmless teenage crush or a case of 18th-century sexual harassment?, BBC Radio 3, Sunday Feature. 2 July 2023. [Sophie re-examines the relationship between a young George IV and his sisters’ governess.]
2022
- Sophie Coulombeau. Contributor to Free Thinking: Bridgerton and Georgian Entertainment, BBC Radio 3, 5 April 2022. [Sophie discusses what Mary Hamilton did for entertainment – including a visit to the Mechanical Turk.]
Press
2023
- Rhiannon du Cann, ‘Unearthed letters from George IV to Mary Hamilton would have caused outrage in the Me Too era’, Express, 16 May 2023.
2021
- Jack Hardy, ‘George IV ‘sexual harassment’ of teenage crush revealed in letters’, The Daily Telegraph, 26 March 2021.
- Mark Bridge, ‘George IV emotionally abused his teenage crush’, The Times, 26 March 2021.
- Rebecca Cope, ‘The dark side of King George IV's teenage crush revealed’, Tatler, 29 March 2021.
- Mike Laycock, ‘York study into Royal's love letters with governess’, York Press, 8 March 2021.
Exhibitions
2024
- National Trust, ‘The Botanical World of Mary Delany’, National Trust and British Museum, Beningbrough Hall 10 September 2024 – 25 March 2025, touring thereafter. [The project team provided advice to Creative Producer Laura Turner about Mary Delany’s life, letters, and bluestocking relationships. They also provided images from letters and manuscript books in Mary Hamilton’s archive which are used in the exhibition.]
Schools materials
In collaboration with educational consultant Lucy Toop and David Caunce of Manchester-based graphic design agency Imagine, the project team has produced a set of classroom resources about the correspondence between Mary Hamilton and the future George IV. They have been developed with support from a generous grant from the University of York's Impact Priming Fund.
These resources are designed to support the teaching of English Literature, English Language, and English Literature and Language A-levels in all the major exam boards. They can be used:
- To contextualise students’ reading of Georgian literature, particularly their understanding of Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë’s novels;
- To explore in their own right as a Georgian #MeToo narrative, or to use singly as unseen texts for exam practice;
- To study as examples of eighteenth-century English;
- To open the door for visits and/or online workshops from a member of the project team, who can offer students a taste of university-level seminar-style discussion.
The materials are now live and can be accessed for free by A-level teachers who fill in a short registration form.