National Trust will avoid slavery links in celebration of Sir Isaac Newton’s discoveries
The National Trust will avoid highlighting Sir Isaac Newton’s links to slavery in a year-long celebrations of his scientific discoveries. The conservation body has been challenged by an ‘anti-woke’ insurgent members’ group
By Adam Sherwin
Arts and Media Correspondent, inews
January 27, 2023 2:55 pm (Updated 6:41 pm)
The National Trust is to launch a year-long programme celebrating the “genius” of Sir Isaac Newton, whose links to slavery have recently been highlighted by academics.
The Trust, facing a rebellion from members who accuse it of adopting “woke” views,will avoid drawing direct attention to Newton’s links with colonialism, when the events are held at his Woolsthorpe Manor home.
The centrepiece of the organisation’s 2023 activities will be a celebration of “curiosity and creativity”, staged at the Lincolnshire manor, described as “the birthplace of modern science”.
The Trust became embroiled in controversy in 2020 when it produced a report investigating the connections between the charity’s properties and colonialism, including its links with historic slavery. Ministers criticised the decision to include Sir Winston Churchill’s family home, Chartwell.
Newton’s links to colonialism and slavery have been highlighted to engineering students as part of a decolonisation drive at Sheffield University.
Along with many contemporaries, the mathematician and astronomer held stock in the company set up to supply slaves to Spanish America. He lost heavily when the South Sea Bubble burst in 1720 and the share price collapsed.
Newton’s portrait at Woolsthorpe-by-Colsterworth by an 18th century anonymous artist in Florence. Newton held stock in the company set up to supply slaves to Spanish America (Photo: Getty Images)
Asked if the Newton celebration would highlight those links, a National Trust spokesperson said: “We are taking Newton’s ‘annus mirabilis’ and the discoveries he made at Woolsthorpe Manor during his ‘lockdown’ years in 1665-66 as our stimulus for a celebration of new talent and discovery from recent years.
“The aim of the campaign is not to give a historical account of Newton’s life and doesn’t explore beyond the ‘annus mirabilis’ and formative Woolsthorpe years.”
The Woolsthorpe grounds include the garden where Newton, observing an apple fall from a tree, was inspired to formulate his law of universal gravitation.
Newton made his discoveries after being sent to Woolsthorpe in 1666 to avoid the Great Plague, and the Trust programme will “shed light on creativity that emerged from our own lockdowns” with a children’s prize recognising the “next generation of thinkers and innovators wherever they are”.
Hilary McGrady, the Trust’s director-general, said the conservation body was “back to doing what we do best” after facing down a campaign from members who accused the Trust of going “woke” and being forced to plug Covid losses of £170m.
The Trust will also showcase political cartoons portraying Sir Winston Churchill at his Chartwell family home and mark 300 years since the birth of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Britain’s leading 18th century portraitist.
“His magnificent paintings in the Trust’s collection are to be newly researched and conserved,” the body said.
The National Gallery’s Reynolds biography has a “slavery connections” entry, noting the presence of a formerly enslaved black servant in the painter’s household.
Downplaying those associations could help heal wounds after an anti-woke “insurgent” group tried to take control of the Trust at a stormy AGM last November.
The group has objected to the approach the 5.4 million-member charity has taken to addressing historical links to the slave trade and its approach to gay and transgender rights.
The Trust hopes to move the discussion back to its core conservation mission with its 2023 programme. Ms McGrady said: “We want to offer as many people as we can the chance to experience nature, beauty and history, in the spirit in which we were founded.”
“Our ambitious conservation programme also continues, and we’re continuing to help nature thrive. From beavers and blossom to Sir Joshua Reynolds, there’s something in our 2023 programme for everyone.”
The Trust’s longest-ever conservation project will finally end: 13 Elizabethan tapestries acquired by Bess of Hardwick that have collectively taken 24 years to restore, are set to be placed back on display at Hardwick Hall.
King Charles’s coronation in May will be marked with special events at Trust properties and Poet Laureate Simon Armitage will write new poetry to celebrate the Trust’s annual Blossom campaign.
A new six-part BBC series, Treasures of the National Trust, will “shed light on delicate conservation, fascinating historic stories, and spotlight the staff and volunteers at its core”.