Monday 30th September 2024

Grace Darling and the Fine Art of Saving Lives at Sea
Dr James Taylor
 

Grace Darling’s daring rescue of steamship passengers off the Northumberland coast in 1838 brought her international fame. Discover more about her bravery and short life living in the Brownsman and Longstone Lighthouses, as well as the artists who helped to keep her in the public eye well into the 1970s. She became the ‘poster girl’ of the RNLI (that marks its 200th anniversary this year) and was the first woman to be awarded their medal for gallantry.   

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Dr James Taylor

James was a curator at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, specialising in paintings, drawings and prints and he co-ordinated various exhibitions in the museum. He has published several books including illustrated histories of Marine Painting, Yachts on Canvas, The Voyage of the Beagle, Careless Talk Costs Lives, The Secret History of the Propaganda Poster, Disguise and Disruption in War and Art, Sir Joseph Banks and the Shipboard Artists of Cook and Flinders. James's PhD at the University of Sussex was on the voyager artist William Westall (1781-1850) who sailed with Commander Matthew Flinders aboard HMS 'Investigator' (1801-1803) the first ship to circumnavigate Australia.

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