A Landscape Examined: Jamaica’s Role in the Making of Empire at Yale University Art Gallery

The American painter Martin Johnson Heade captured the majesty of Jamaica’s high mountains in his 1874 painting Tropical Uplands. Using this work as a starting point, Louis P. Nelson, Professor of Architectural History and Vice Provost for Academic Outreach at the University of Virginia, explores Jamaica’s role in the evolving economies of empire. Nelson will discuss how local architecture adapted to the Caribbean’s challenging climate and how the island’s geography shaped its populations, from the British-controlled coastal lowlands dependent on enslaved labor to the mountainous refuges of Maroons, self-emancipators who formed free Black communities.

The lecture will highlight Jamaica’s connections to the greater Atlantic World through trade networks that moved exotic hardwoods, foodstuffs, luxury goods, and even prefabricated house frames between the Caribbean, North America, Africa, and the United Kingdom. This annual talk honors the vision of Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, former director of the Yale University Art Gallery, and is generously sponsored by the Andrew Carnduff Ritchie Fund.

The event will take place on Thursday, October 23, 2025, from 5:30 to 6:30 pm at the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel Street, New Haven, Connecticut. Admission is free and open to the public.