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Birmingham Eighteenth Century Centre

Birmingham Eighteenth-Century Centre (BECC) brings together researchers with an interest in the long eighteenth century from across the University, the West Midlands, and beyond.

BECC’s members work in a range of disciplines, with particular gatherings of researchers in the areas of material culture and industrialization, West Midlands History, European women’s writing, the history of medicine and the history of European music and performance.

Browse the People section of this webpage to read more about the research interests of individual members, see the Events feed to find out about opportunities to engage with their work directly, and see below for some of the projects our members are currently involved in.

  • Eighteenth Century handwriting from a letter

    Social Bodies

    Material Identities, Social Bodies: Embodiment in British Letters c.1680-1820

    This Leverhulme Trust funded project is led by Professor Karen Harvey. It examines descriptions of everyday experiences of the body in the long eighteenth century. Using familiar letters written between 1680 and 1820, the project examines gender, race, and rank alongside the factors of age, religion and social relationship.

    Social Bodies
  • painting of the Cast Iron Bridge near Coalbrookdale by William Williams from around 1780

    Reframing the Age of Revolutions, 1750-1850

    'Reframing the Age of Revolutions' is a Research Network supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council between 2022 and 2024, led by Peter Hill at Northumbria University and Tom Cutterham in Birmingham. It brought together scholars of different aspects of the ‘age of revolutions’ of c. 1750-1850, including major workshops at Birmingham on "Knowledge, Energy, and Industry" and "Culture and Practice."

    Reframing the Age of Revolutions
  • An eighteenth century printers ornament

    Printers' Ornaments

    Compositor

    'Compositor' is a database of eighteenth-century printers’ ornaments, created by Hazel Wilkinson. Eighteenth-century books were highly decorated and decorative. Their pages were adorned with ornaments that ranged from small floral embellishments to large and intricate head- and tailpieces, depicting all manner of people, places, and things. Compositor includes ornaments cut by hand in blocks of wood or metal, as well as cast ornaments, engravings, and fleurons (ornamental typography).

    Compositor