John Constable. “Trentham Park” (ca. 1801). Oil on paper laid on canvas. 10 x 13 3/8 inches (25.4 x 34 cm). Cropped to Image, Recto, Unframed. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Accession Number: B1976.7.104.
While Trentham Hall was, unfortunately, eventually demolished, Trentham Park is now open as a beautiful public garden today.

The 18th-Century Common is a web project that provides a medium for eighteenth-century scholars to communicate with an eager public non-academic readership.  The potential for public interest in our work is demonstrated by the success of popular books such as Richard Holmes’ The Age of Wonder (Knopf), named one of the top 10 books of 2009 by The New York Times, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and a winner of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books (indeed, it was so popular that it was on sale at Costco for $11).  Our project begins with responses by both scholars and students to Holmes’ work, presenting material that enriches and contextualizes his account.  We will then present short articles, images, and other content aimed not at other academics or students, but at the readers who were so enthralled with Holmes’ book.

We solicit content from academic contributors, including descriptions written for a lay audience of recently published scholarly work in eighteenth-century studies, descriptions of interesting holdings in a university archive, museum, or rare book collection, descriptions of critical controversies or research problems in the field, etc.  We seek both specific contributions as well as ideas for content development of the site.

Our vision is that The 18th-Century Common will be a site of public humanities scholarship, with the primary goal of communicating the results of our scholarship outside the academy.

Please submit articles using the Submission Form. If you experience any issues, feel free to email submissions at:

contribute@18thcenturycommon.org

For all other inquiries please contact:

Dr. Jessica Richard, Co-Editor of The 18th-Century Common
Associate Professor of English
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, North Carolina  27109
richarja@wfu.edu

Or:

Dr. Andrew Burkett, Co-Editor of The 18th-Century Common
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Union College
807 Union Street
Schenectady, New York  12308
burketta@union.edu