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Helen Castor takes the chair as historians and archaeologists come together to discuss issues and share the latest historical research.

In this episode Helen asks what could missing paintings tell us about the way art was used to market Birmingham in the late nineteenth century; the history of the fight against smallpox; and the flying men of the eighteenth century.

Joining Helen is an art historian from the University of Sussex and from the University of East Anglia.

Dr Sally Hoban, Chief Executive of History West Midlands, is trying to find 13 paintings, the work of Birmingham art students, that were once displayed in Birmingham Town Hall but haven鈥檛 been seen since before the Second World War.

The paintings were in the pre-Raphaelite style and featured vignettes from the city鈥檚 past. Tom Holland meets Sally at Canon Hill Park in Edgbaston where听 the paintings were last seen. She explains that, at the end of the nineteenth century, Birmingham was a centre for art and music and its new municipal art school led the way in teaching art and design.

Birmingham was, of course, the home of Joseph Chamberlain a Mayor of the city who rose to the top of government as Colonial Secretary. As Mayor, Chamberlain promoted civic improvements in Birmingham and later, as Colonial Secretary, he signed himself 鈥淛oseph Chamberlain, Birmingham鈥�.

Emeritus Professor Peter Marsh, the biographer of Chamberlain at the University of Birmingham, tells Tom that the paintings that Sally is looking for should be seen as part of a wider movement to promote Birmingham not just as the second city of the UK but as the second city of Empire.

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Joseph Chamberlain: Entrepreneur in Politics by Peter Marsh

Yale, 725听pp,1994, ISBN听0听300听05801听2