The Great British Art Tour: Pulp fiction - wallpaper with a story to tell
A form of social media … Uncle Tom’s Cabin wallpaper (detail) c1853. Photograph: Heywood, Higginbottom, Smith and Company; purchased with Art Fund support
A form of social media … Uncle Tom’s Cabin wallpaper (detail) c1853. Photograph: Heywood, Higginbottom, Smith and Company; purchased with Art Fund support
As art galleries prepare for reopening, our virtual tour exploring highlights from the UK’s public collections reaches its final week. Today’s pick: Uncle Tom’s Cabin wallpaper in Manchester’s Whitworth
DominiqueHeyse-Moore,actingheadofcollectionsandexhibitions,WhitworthArtGallery
Wed 12 May 2021 01.00 EDT
Two white men in a plantation house negotiate the sale of a small boy as his mother overhears; later she flees with him across an icy river. These are the first two of six vignettes on a wallpaper inspired by the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The full sequence concentrates on Eliza and Harry’s escape from the slave owner, alongside Tom’s sale and eventual murder.