- University of Edinburgh, History of Art, Graduate StudentUniversity of Edinburgh, IASH (Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities), Post-Docadd
- Robert Adam, Architectural History, History of Art, Eighteenth Century Studies, Eighteenth-Century British History and Culture, Eighteenth Century History, and 17 moreWilliam Adam, Material Culture of the English Country House, British Aristocracy and country houses, Classical Reception Studies, Historiography (in Art History), Social and Collective Memory, Reception Studies, Architectural Theory, Architectural Heritage, Historiography, Taste, Aesthetics of Taste, History of Taste, Canon Formation, Canonization Processes, Nineteenth century architecture theory, and Revivaledit
- Sydney is Tutor in Architecture & Urbanism at the Prince's Foundation, where she teaches across academic programmes a... moreSydney is Tutor in Architecture & Urbanism at the Prince's Foundation, where she teaches across academic programmes and university partnerships in sustainable urbanism, placemaking and community engagement. She is also Associate Tutor at the Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford; acts as Book Reviews Editor for the Journal of Urbanism; and works on special projects related to traditional building and heritage skills training.
As an historian of architecture & design from 1750, Sydney’s research centres on the afterlife and reception of British classical (neo)architecture and design in Britain as well as globally, from the long eighteenth to the present day. With a particular focus on the work of eighteenth-century architect Robert Adam, she writes on the history of buildings and the idea of buildings as monuments representing more about the time in which they were listed than of their original making. Sydney also has a particular interest in urban and design history relating to city expansion in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Prior to joining The King's Foundation, Sydney was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for the Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh. She completed her PhD in History of Art at the University of Edinburgh in 2020, funded by a PhD Scholarship from the Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB). Sydney completed an MScR at the University of Edinburgh, and also holds a BA from Dartmouth College.edit
Research Interests:
Government House in Calcutta, today known as the Raj Bhavan of West Bengal, was built between 1799 and 1803 as the official residence for the Governor-General of Fort William, then the 1st Marquess Wellesley. It is well-established that... more
Government House in Calcutta, today known as the Raj Bhavan of West Bengal, was built between 1799 and 1803 as the official residence for the Governor-General of Fort William, then the 1st Marquess Wellesley. It is well-established that Government House is modelled after Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, England, known for the involvement of Robert Adam in its design. A significant fact linking Adam, and therefore Kedleston, with Government House is the previously unacknowledged presence of Adam’s great-nephew, the statesman John Adam, in Calcutta at the time Government House was designed and built. In the exploration of Scottish architectural and familial networks within the British empire, this article seeks to locate the identities of Robert Adam and John Adam within a series of exchanges: between Government House and Kedleston Hall; between public buildings and private houses; between India and Britain; and finally between Scottish, English and British identities. In the context of these exchanges, the study of Government House allows us to connect Robert Adam and John Adam, explore concealments of Scottish identity, and ultimately map previously unknown familial, professional and architectural networks.
Open Access, Online: https://journals.openedition.org/abe/6193
Open Access, Online: https://journals.openedition.org/abe/6193
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The four ‘Adelphi’ brothers are today considered the leaders of architectural design in eighteenth-century Britain; John, Robert, James and William Adam have accordingly been studied in great depth. However, largely omitted from the... more
The four ‘Adelphi’ brothers are today considered the leaders of architectural design in eighteenth-century Britain; John, Robert, James and William Adam have accordingly been studied in great depth. However, largely omitted from the hundreds of publications about the brothers’ lives and works is the existence and assistance of their six sisters: Mary, Janet, Elizabeth, Helen, Susannah and Margaret Adam. This paper will explore, for the first time, the lives of the ‘Adelphe’ Sisters and their contribution to the Adam family architectural practice, c.1750 to 1800.
Though not aiming to suggest that the Adam Sisters were actively involved in the design process, this paper uncovers the crucial role the Adam Sisters played in the business and operations of their brothers’ architectural practice. Firstly, the four unmarried sisters acted as hostesses and managers for their brothers’ household in London, and later Robert Adam’s ‘satellite’ office in Edinburgh. Secondly, they acted as advisors to their brothers, consulting and commenting on patrons, draftsmen, and other business matters. Finally, through their letter writing the Adam Sisters acted as conduits for the exchange of information between the Adam offices in London and Edinburgh, as well as between Italy and England whilst Robert and James were on their Grand Tours. Through revaluating and subverting a popular architectural history, this paper will explore the previously unacknowledged yet essential role of the Adam Sisters in the success of the Adam Brothers’ architectural practice.
Though not aiming to suggest that the Adam Sisters were actively involved in the design process, this paper uncovers the crucial role the Adam Sisters played in the business and operations of their brothers’ architectural practice. Firstly, the four unmarried sisters acted as hostesses and managers for their brothers’ household in London, and later Robert Adam’s ‘satellite’ office in Edinburgh. Secondly, they acted as advisors to their brothers, consulting and commenting on patrons, draftsmen, and other business matters. Finally, through their letter writing the Adam Sisters acted as conduits for the exchange of information between the Adam offices in London and Edinburgh, as well as between Italy and England whilst Robert and James were on their Grand Tours. Through revaluating and subverting a popular architectural history, this paper will explore the previously unacknowledged yet essential role of the Adam Sisters in the success of the Adam Brothers’ architectural practice.
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Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Architectural History, Scottish Diaspora, British Empire, Colonization (British Empire), Indian Ocean (British Empire), and 9 moreHistory of the British Empire, East India Company, Calcutta \ Kolkata, Robert Adam, British East India Company, History Of Calcutta, Robert Adam Architect 1728-1792, 18th century British culture and empire, and Building the Scottish Diaspora
Research Interests:
Robert Adam’s classical style is best characterised by his extensive use of the antique. Adam translated and interpreted antiquity for his eighteenth-century audience, positioning himself between the classical and his own version of... more
Robert Adam’s classical style is best characterised by his extensive use of the antique. Adam translated and interpreted antiquity for his eighteenth-century audience, positioning himself between the classical and his own version of modernity, the neo-classical. This paper utilizes Umberto Eco’s concept of hyperreality (where reality is sacrificed for false reality that is consumed as real) as a lens with which to examine Adam period rooms from 1925 to 1955. In looking at architect A.T. Bolton’s 'Adam Room' at the 1925 British Empire Exhibition in London, the Lansdowne Dining Room (c.1765) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (acquired 1931), and the Glass Drawing Room from Northumberland House (1770) in the V&A Museum in London (acquired 1955), it is possible to utilize Eco’s idea of authentic fakes as a benchmark upon which to discuss and critique the display of these rooms. The Lansdowne Dining Room and the Northumberland Drawing Room, both genuine Adam period rooms, strive for the recreation of a pre-existing space. However, Bolton’s ‘Adam Room’ is unique in that it is a complete synthesis of Adam’s best design characteristics assembled by a modern architect, more Adamic than Adam’s own rooms—thus making it Hyper-Adam. In a sense, these spaces interpret Adam’s work for their contemporary viewers, paralleling Adam’s own interpretation of the classical. Through an examination of why these rooms entered exhibition contexts, how they were displayed and their authenticity, it is possible to examine their success in representing the Adam style in the early-twentieth century.
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Robert Adam was sixty-three years old when he died in 1792, following a fruitful career as an architect in both England and Scotland for over fifty years. Today he is remembered as one of the greatest British architects working in the... more
Robert Adam was sixty-three years old when he died in 1792, following a fruitful career as an architect in both England and Scotland for over fifty years. Today he is remembered as one of the greatest British architects working in the eighteenth century, but no account of Adam’s life and works would be complete without a narrative of his death. In giving an account of Adam’s death, many scholars combine various bits of information about the time and location, the cause of death, a notation of the funeral and pallbearers, and usually a quote from Adam’s obituary in The Gentleman’s Magazine.
However, what many of these publications fail to do is investigate and offer commentary on what the circumstances and occasion of Adam’s death say about his professional reputation at the time. In this vein, this paper explores Adam’s reputation immediately following his death, utilizing the text of his obituary to see how a contemporary writer, although anonymous, wrote about and depicted Adam for a contemporary audience; and furthermore how Adam’s architecture was read and received upon the occasion of his death.
The obituary text was afterwards copied and re-published, sometime in altered forms, in several other magazines. These instances of immediate reuse and republication of Adam’s obituary demonstrate the importance of this text as a fixed origin in the early remembrance of Adam, and going forward through the subsequent centuries. In exploring how Adam was celebrated and written about on the occasion of his death, it becomes possible to see how his faults and downfalls were forgotten and his reputation was consequently glorified and ennobled.
However, what many of these publications fail to do is investigate and offer commentary on what the circumstances and occasion of Adam’s death say about his professional reputation at the time. In this vein, this paper explores Adam’s reputation immediately following his death, utilizing the text of his obituary to see how a contemporary writer, although anonymous, wrote about and depicted Adam for a contemporary audience; and furthermore how Adam’s architecture was read and received upon the occasion of his death.
The obituary text was afterwards copied and re-published, sometime in altered forms, in several other magazines. These instances of immediate reuse and republication of Adam’s obituary demonstrate the importance of this text as a fixed origin in the early remembrance of Adam, and going forward through the subsequent centuries. In exploring how Adam was celebrated and written about on the occasion of his death, it becomes possible to see how his faults and downfalls were forgotten and his reputation was consequently glorified and ennobled.
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Research Interests:
Many scholars posit that Adam's success, after settling in London in 1758, was immediate and exponential, skipping from his Grand Tour (1754-1758) straight to major architectural commissions like Croome Court in 1760 and Syon House in... more
Many scholars posit that Adam's success, after settling in London in 1758, was immediate and exponential, skipping from his Grand Tour (1754-1758) straight to major architectural commissions like Croome Court in 1760 and Syon House in 1761. But to infer that the establishment of his professional reputation was instantaneous overlooks the reality of the first two years of Adam’s London office. This paper seeks to redress this imbalance and illustrate Adam’s career during this precarious and formative period. It suggests that Adam’s early practice is indicative of the considerable economic risk and professional challenges Scottish, and English, artists and architects faced upon arriving and establishing a practice in London.
However, Adam was at a distinct advantage to thrive because of his early training, European travels, family legacy and financial backing; each of these factors allowed him to succeed in expanding the family business from provincial Edinburgh to the commercial mecca of London. In examining the sources of his patronage and earliest commissions—Harewood, Kedleston, Thistleworth, and Hatchlands—it becomes apparent that what Adam did was at the same time both conventional and atypical. These examples show the variety of commissions Adam took on, including unpaid consultancy, which would later lead him to larger commissions and further patronage.
These new insights into Adam’s first two years in London can inform not only the way scholars look at the rest of his career, but can also provide an example with which to explore the making of a professional career in London in the mid-eighteenth century.
However, Adam was at a distinct advantage to thrive because of his early training, European travels, family legacy and financial backing; each of these factors allowed him to succeed in expanding the family business from provincial Edinburgh to the commercial mecca of London. In examining the sources of his patronage and earliest commissions—Harewood, Kedleston, Thistleworth, and Hatchlands—it becomes apparent that what Adam did was at the same time both conventional and atypical. These examples show the variety of commissions Adam took on, including unpaid consultancy, which would later lead him to larger commissions and further patronage.
These new insights into Adam’s first two years in London can inform not only the way scholars look at the rest of his career, but can also provide an example with which to explore the making of a professional career in London in the mid-eighteenth century.
Research Interests:
Government House in Calcutta, today known as the Raj Bhavan of West Bengal, was built between 1799 and 1803 as the official residence for the Governor-General of Fort William, then the 1st Marquess Wellesley. It is well-established that... more
Government House in Calcutta, today known as the Raj Bhavan of West Bengal, was built between 1799 and 1803 as the official residence for the Governor-General of Fort William, then the 1st Marquess Wellesley. It is well-established that Government House is modelled after Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, England, known for the involvement of Robert Adam in its design. A significant fact linking Adam, and therefore Kedleston, with Government House is the previously unacknowledged presence of Adam’s great-nephew, the statesman John Adam, in Calcutta at the time Government House was designed and built. In the exploration of Scottish architectural and familial networks within the British empire, this article seeks to locate the identities of Robert Adam and John Adam within a series of exchanges: between Government House and Kedleston Hall; between public buildings and private houses; between India and Britain; and finally between Scottish, English and British identities. In the context of these exchanges, the study of Government House allows us to connect Robert Adam and John Adam, explore concealments of Scottish identity, and ultimately map previously unknown familial, professional and architectural networks.
Research Interests: History, Architecture, Influence, Diaspora, British Empire, and 15 moreHistory of the British Empire, Colonial Architecture, History of architecture, East India Company, Robert Adam, British Indian Empire, Diáspora, Influenza, Architecture Coloniale, History of Architecture, Arquitectura Colonial, History Of Calcutta, Abe, Impero britannico, and Influencia
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This thematic section of ABE Journal considers the contribution of Scotland and “Scottishness” to the built environment in the wider British empire from the late eighteenth through to the early twentieth century. It focuses in particular... more
This thematic section of ABE Journal considers the contribution of Scotland and “Scottishness” to the built environment in the wider British empire from the late eighteenth through to the early twentieth century. It focuses in particular on how a better understanding of Scottish diasporic networks (familial, professional, entrepreneurial, religious, educational etc.), and their material presences through cultures of architecture and building, complicates how we interpret or indeed label such architecture as “British”. The underlying contention is that while the terms “Britain” and “British” have their uses, they are often employed in rather crude if not confounded ways with respect to the built environment, thus failing to acknowledge its many complexities and contradictions. These concerns are set here in the context of recent developments in cognate fields of scholarship, including Four Nations and New British history, which have made significant strides in disaggregating and prob...