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1801Diagram of a slave ship
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1807Shopping for fabric
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1807Wordsworth, 'Daffodils'
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1807Textiles from India
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1808Beethoven's sketches
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1810Exhibition of a rhino and zebra
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1815Deciphering the Rosetta Stone
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1815Battle of Waterloo letter
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1819Peterloo Massacre
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1822Cartoon of a street accident
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1822Shampooing Surgeon
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1827Description of London
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1829Execution of a 12 year old boy
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1829Diary entry on 'The Pillory'
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1830Invention of photography
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18321832 Reform Act
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1834Tolpuddle Martyrs
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1836Early Chartist meeting notes
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1837Dickens, Oliver Twist
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1838The People's Charter
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1839Poster for Living Mermaid
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1840The Railways
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1840First postage stamp
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1840Coal mining
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1844Popular entertainments
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1844Engels: factory conditions
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1846Freak show: What is it?
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1847Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
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1848The Communist Manifesto
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1849Chartist William Cuffay
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1851The Great Exhibition
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1851Sketch for the Crystal Palace
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1852Woman's magazine
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1852Poverty and the workhouse
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1855London Zoo
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1855Cookery for the poor
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1857Human Exhibition
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1857Mary Seacole
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1858Ship building
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1858Britain's Indian empire
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1859Nightingale, Notes on Nursing
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1860Victorian fashion
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1860Florence Nightingale letter
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1860Coal mining
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1861Mrs Beeton
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1861Mrs Beeton's Turkey
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1863Alice in Wonderland
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1866Letter from Charles Darwin
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1868City slums
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1869Opening of the Suez Canal
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1872Music Hall
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1876Street sellers
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1876Freakshow posters
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1878Invention of the telephone
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1878Illusionists and conjurers
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1880The textile industry
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1886Victorian farming
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1887Magic show
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1887Circus poster
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1887Victoria's Indian servant
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1888Match Girls Strike
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1888Jack the Ripper murders
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1890Daily shopping
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1892An Asian MP in Parliament
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1893Gladstone: Irish Home Rule
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1895Oscar Wilde on trial
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1896Nightingale Nurse diary
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1898Factory accidents
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1898Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
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Intro
English composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s (1875-1912) greatest success was his vibrant choral piece Hiawatha's Wedding Feast. Composed in 1898, the piece was based on a poem by Henry Longfellow about a native American girl named Hiawatha. Choirs were incredibly popular in Victorian Britain, and his big, attractive score, flowing with melody, appealed to both singers and audiences.
Coleridge-Taylor was mixed race - his mother was white English, his father a black Sierra Leonean. He was very well aware of the difficulties he faced because of the colour of his skin: his nickname at school, for instance, was 'coaley'. But he was a keen student and in 1890 he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music. He soon became highly respected among London's musical establishment. The composer Edward Elgar called him "the cleverest fellow going amongst the young men", and recommended him for his first big commission. In a time when amateur choirs and sheet music were a central part of popular culture Hiawatha's Wedding Feast was a score for all to enjoy.
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