Local History Seminars
This is a long-running public seminar series run by the Department of History, convened by Dr Richard Gaunt (Associate Professor in British Political and Electoral History). All students, academic staff, and the general public are welcome. The seminars offer an opportunity for public discussion of local history topics with specialist talks from visiting speakers and University of Nottingham academics.
We're pleased to return to in-person seminars this year. Please observe Covid-19 precautions.
A fee of £5 will be taken on the door (cash only please, or email if you wish to pay in advance).
This week
*Please note we are in Humanities, Room A03 for the February and March sessions.
Saturday 12 March: Chemists to the Nation, Pharmacy to the World: Boots the Chemists from Local to Global
with Professor Anna Greenwood (University of Nottingham) and Sophie Clapp (Boots Archives)
The history of Boots the Chemists, which started as a humble herbalist’s shop on Goose Gate, Nottingham in 1849, is relatively well known. However, Boots as an international venture is less understood. Yet, from the end of the First World War, Boots actively worked to extend its wholesale and manufacturing business abroad, establishing international agents, and building collaborative networks overseas. This talk introduces the ways Boots looked outward beyond national borders, identifying how developments and influences in America, Europe, and Britain’s colonial world both spurred company reach overseas and helped the business at home. Whether sourcing the finest international materials for the discerning customer at home, exporting Boots products to expatriates overseas, mimicking management practices from America, or taking staff to international exhibitions, Boots's British ascendancy relied on looking internationally for opportunity and inspiration.
Anna Greenwood is Professor of Health History at the University of Nottingham, Sophie Clapp is Head of Archives at the Boots Archive- both are working together (with Richard Hornsey, Hilary Ingram and Jamie Banks) on a large four-year Arts and Humanities Research Council project on the history of Boots in international perspective, which will culminate in a large exhibition at the new central library in Nottingham.
How to find us
You can find directions to University Park Campus here. Humanities building is no. 55 and Lenton Grove is no. 5 on the PDF map, close to the West Entrance.