Video capsule
Tuesday, November 10, 2020

My Salts!
In the Night of Passion imagined by author Simon Boulerice, Ersy Contogouris takes inspiration from a pretty little vial to tell the history of smelling salts.
“A pain or strong emotion, and women would swoon. Someone would then pass a little vial of salts under their nose to revive them. This image of the use of smelling salts evokes Victorian women who fainted frequently, in part, no doubt, because of the tight corsets they wore. Yet, these same salts continue to be used today by many male professional athletes, but not without controversy…”
Watch the video capsule now!
Speaker
Ersy Contogouris, art history professor specializing in the history of gender and queer studies, Université de Montréal
History of the night
For the 2020 edition, the History of the Night lecture series offered in partnership with UQAM’s Research Group on the History of Sociabilities (GRHS) is changing formats. Through videos, four historians will introduce you to hidden facets of the history of the night, taking inspiration from artifacts presented in each world of the exhibition.