Rhind Lectures 2026 (in person and online)

This is a free hybrid event (held in person in Edinburgh and streamed online) open to everyone consisting of six lectures presented over three days. To view the programme, please click or scroll down to the bottom of the page. These lectures are open to everyone, although booking is required.

These martial decades (1793–1815) have been extensively studied by military historians, and the 2026 Rhind Lectures pursue a complementary trajectory by offering a cultural history.

They consider the mortal wounds sustained on the battlefield by Scottish Commanders-in-Chief, before turning to oil-on-canvas martial portraits and miniatures.

They explore the idealised martial body alongside hairstyles that were similarly subject to military regulation and, wherever possible, integrate the first-hand experiences of those who bore arms with the broader reception and commemoration of wartime Britain as a nation at arms.

Accessibility information for the in-person venue, Augustine United Church, can be found here.

If you require step-free access or any other assistance to enjoy the event in person, please let us know by answering the accessibility question at booking.

If there are any other ways we can make this event more accessible for you (as an online or an in-person attendee), please give us details at the booking stage. Thank you.

If you are planning to attend any of lectures in person, please ensure that you order the relevant in-person ticket/s for Friday, Saturday and/or Sunday.

If you are planning to attend any of the lectures online, please ensure that you order an online ticket as this will provide you with the joining information for the live stream for all six lectures across three days - you may tune in to as many lectures as you like.

You are welcome to book an online ticket in addition to any in-person tickets.

The Society has a zero-tolerance policy on harassment and bullying.

All attendees are requested to act with respect to one another during this event.

Anyone making comments which we believe to be inappropriate (e.g. offensive or abusive) will be removed from the event immediately.

The Rhind Lectures will be presented by Viccy Coltman.

Viccy Coltman is Professor of Eighteenth-Century History of Art at the University of Edinburgh, where she specialises in material culture – or ‘knick knack’ history – during the second half of the long 18th century in Scotland. Viccy is the author of four academic books and editor of two volumes.

She is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, the Society of Antiquaries of London, and the Royal Historical Society; a trustee of the Jacobite Studies Trust, the Runciman Apse Trust and a member of the advisory board of the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. She also edits a series with Edinburgh University Press.

The Rhind Lectures, a series of six lectures delivered annually on a subject pertaining to history or archaeology by eminent authorities on the subject, have been given since 1876. They commemorate Fellow Alexander Henry Rhind of Sibster (1833–63) who left a bequest to endow the lectures which perpetuate his name. To find out how to leave a gift your Will, visit our website.

Founded in 1780, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland is an independent heritage charity with a global Fellowship. We facilitate research through grants and awards, advocate as a voice for heritage, and share knowledge of the past through events, publications and projects.

Anyone who is interested in Scotland’s past can apply to become a Fellow. In addition to helping to support the Society achieve its aims and charitable objectives, benefits of Fellowship include exclusive online access to all articles in the most recent annual Proceedings – the Society’s peer-reviewed journal, the use of FSAScot postnominals, discounts on Society publications (20%) and some events, and invitations to Fellows-only tours and online Fellows’ meetings.

To find out more, please visit our website.

For the past decade, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland has been working towards a transformative vision: to create a new home for the Society and a national heritage hub for Scotland.

But we need your help to make this vision a reality. Visit our website for more information on the project and to find out how you can support the fundraising campaign.

Image credits: Major James Macdonell, c. 1804–09, by Henry Raeburn (© Museum of the Isles); The Battle of Alexandria, 21 March 1801 (1803) by Antoine Cardon after Jacques-Philippe de Loutherbourg (© Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection); Viccy Coltman (Credit: Edinburgh College of Art); Alexander Henry Rhind (© National Galleries Scotland); Fellows at an exclusive event (© Society of Antiquaries of Scotland); Artist’s impression of the Bristo Place Building (© Benjamin Tindall Architects).

Info: ‘The Scotch were never so national as now’: The Cultural Afterlife of
the Battle of Alexandria, 1801
Lecture One explores the cultural impact of the Battle of Alexandria, fought in Egypt on 21 March 1801. Despite being a significant land victory for British troops, the battle was marked by the mortal wounding of the Scottish-born commander-in-chief, Sir Ralph Abercromby. In Britain, the contribution of the 42nd Highland Regiment was quickly lionised, and public responses combined grief with triumph, creating a powerful mix of condolence and commemoration which the lecture traces in its visual and material culture manifestations.

Info: ‘Fortunate for his Reputation that he fell’: Rehabilitating John Moore’s Memory After the Battle of Corunna, 1809
Lecture Two focuses on Sir John Moore, who served with Abercromby in Egypt in 1801 and his mortal wounding at the Battle of Corunna in January 1809. It asks if the London portrait painter Thomas Lawrence was correct when he surmised in a private letter that it was ‘fortunate for [Moore’s] Reputation that he fell’ in the field while commanding the British army to victory following a disastrous retreat in which thousands of his men died.

Info: In-person attendees are welcome to join us for a free drinks reception after the lectures.

Info: 'The Scotchmen – “these men without breeches” – have the credit of the day at Waterloo’
Lecture Three reconsiders the contribution of the Highland regiments at Waterloo, not in order to support or refute, in incremental terms, Robert Southey’s letter of 2 October 1815 claiming that the Scots ‘had the credit of the day’. Instead, it argues that their martial participation was represented (or misrepresented) across a series of interpenetrating cultural spheres: visual and literary.

Info: Portraiture and the Professions: The Art and History of Henry Raeburn
Lecture Four interrupts the chronological sequence of the preceding three lectures to introduce the practice of Edinburgh’s leading wartime portrait painter, Sir Henry Raeburn. It privileges a social history approach over the traditional art-historical focus of the artist’s biographers and cataloguers, examining the professions of his male sitters — particularly the many medical practitioners, university professors, and legal figures who sat to Raeburn and with whom he
interacted as fellow members of Edinburgh’s many clubs and societies.

Info: The Martial Portrait I: Oil on canvas
Lecture Five foregrounds the martial portrait within Raeburn’s prodigious output, particularly during the wartime generation of 1793–1815. It challenges the longstanding characterisation of Raeburn as the in-house portrait painter of the Scottish Enlightenment by demonstrating how his officer sitters traversed the globe, participating in campaigns in the East and West Indies, Egypt, and the Peninsula.

Info: The Martial Portrait II: Miniatures
The final lecture focuses on the miniature martial portrait, typically painted in watercolour on ivory, but also on paper and on glass. Six unpublished miniatures of Scottish-born army officers painted during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars for female family members back home in Britain will be introduced, accompanied by the affectionate correspondence in which their commission, transport, viewing and display is discussed by the sitter and their female recipient.

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