Victorian Jamaica

Victorian Jamaica explores the extraordinary surviving archive of visual representation and material objects to provide a comprehensive account of Jamaican society during Queen Victoria's reign over the British Empire, from 1837 to 1901. In their analyses of material ranging from photographs of plantation laborers and landscape paintings to cricket team photographs, furniture, and architecture, as well as a wide range of texts, the contributors trace the relationship between black Jamaicans and colonial institutions, contextualize race within ritual and performance, and outline how material and visual culture helped shape the complex politics of colonial society. By narrating Victorian history from a Caribbean perspective, this richly illustrated volume—featuring 270 full color images—offers a complex and nuanced portrait of Jamaica that expands our understanding of the wider history of the British Empire and Atlantic world during this period.

Contributors. Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Tim Barringer, Anthony Bogues, David Boxer, Patrick Bryan, Steeve Buckridge, Julian Cresser, John Cross, Petrina Dacres, Elizabeth Pigou Denis, Belinda Edmondson, Nadia Ellis, Gillian Forrester, Catherine Hall, Gad Heuman, Rivke Jaffe, Erica Moiah James, O'Neil Lawrence, Jan Marsh, Wayne Modest, Daniel Neely, Mark Nesbitt, Diana Paton, Veerle Poupeye, Jennifer Raab, James Robertson, Shani Roper, Faith Smith, Nicole Smythe-Johnson, Dianne M. Stewart, Krista Thompson

Tim Barringer is Paul Mellon Professor and Chair of the Department of the History of Art at Yale University.

Wayne Modest is Head of the Research Center for Material Culture at the Stichting National Museum van Wereld Culturen and Professor of Material Culture and Critical Heritage Studies at VU University Amsterdam.