Exploring Research: Experiencing Ear Trumpets in the Enlightenment

We are pleased to announce our forthcoming Exploring Research seminar at Wellcome Collection on Tuesday 26 October at 17.30 GMT will feature Dr Ruben Verwaal who will be exploring Experiencing Ear Trumpets in the Enlightenment.

Ruben will investigate how ear trumpets were developed at the turn of the 18th century and why this large acoustic device became increasingly commonplace among the hard of hearing. 

Joshua Reynolds, Elizabeth Vesey, and James Hutton are some of the best-known ear trumpet users in Georgian high society. This presentation will investigate the experiences of the hard of hearing as well as the perceptions of their interlocutors at art academies, science societies, and church congregations and show how these social contexts accepted the new technology as a means of increased participation.

British Sign Language

This event is British Sign Language interpreted. An interpreter will be embedded in the event stream/visible to all attendees and will interpret what is discussed into BSL for d/Deaf, hard of hearing and deafened attendees.

Speech-to-text

This event will have live speech-to-text transcription which may be useful for people who are D/deaf, hard of hearing, deafened or neurodiverse. The text will be embedded in the event video window and ticketholders will also receive a link to open subtitles in a separate window.

To book your free virtual seat, please book via Eventbrite: Experiencing Ear Trumpets in the Enlightenment Tickets, Tue 26 Oct 2021 at 17:30 | EventbriteJ

Julia Nurse

Research Development Specialist

Wellcome Collection