Specialist Tour: Black History Month: Plants and Empire

Glasgow Museums Resource Centre is hosting a specialist tour called Plants and Empire on Tuesday 27 October, from 2:30 to 3:30 pm. It's part of the city's Black History Month programme, and it draws on the Glasgow Museums Collection to look at how plants were a key factor in the colonial Empire and how they continue to shape lives today.

The tour starts with the damage and destruction of land used to produce goods that relied on enslavement, like sugar. From there, it follows the thread to the development of quinine, which Winston Churchill described as saving 'more Englishmen's lives, and minds, than all the doctors in the Empire'. It's a way of seeing how something as simple as a plant can tie together the economics of the colonial era and the medical history that followed.

Because it's run as a small group, there are only 15 spaces, so you'll need to book in advance. The tour is free, and it's run by Glasgow Museums / Glasgow Life. You can find the Resource Centre at 200 Woodhead Road, Glasgow G53 7NN.