Discovering Copperopolis
Copper was arguably the first truly global industry. Swansea’s ESRC-funded Copper Project embraces academia, the heritage sector and local and global communities, to examine how the heritage of the South Wales copper industry lives on in its landscape, buildings and people. By Nick Stevens
Welsh copper smelters during the 18th to 19th centuries there might not have been the raw material to create the technologies that we depend on today. An ESRC-funded project is investigating the
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importance of copper – arguably the first truly global industry – to the economy and people of South Wales, and the world. Through high- quality research from a range of scholars, the Copper Project explores and communicates the development of Welsh copper and examines its role in technological innovations, international trade and Atlantic slavery, cultural and social consequences, and its aftermath in reclamation and regeneration. The project embraces academia, the heritage
sector and local and global communities and is run by individuals from five major academic
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magine life without the telephone, coins and cars. Or televisions, computers and the internet. All these depend on copper but without the enterprise and innovation of
and heritage organisations in Wales – Swansea University, National Waterfront Museum, City and County of Swansea, University of Glamorgan, and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. All the partners either hold significant collections of material relating to the Welsh copper industry, particularly that of South Wales, or have conducted historical research on the subject, particularly its international dimensions.
© Tom Goskar
© Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales
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