On Sunday 28th September 2008, the Skilliter Centre hosted a talk, “The changing city: Istanbul at the end of empire”, as part of Cambridge University’s alumni weekend. The talk, given by Kate Fleet and Ebru Boyar, covered a range of aspects of Istanbul life in the nineteenth century, from the adoption of sea-bathing to the changes in the way the city’s inhabitants dressed.
The talk was accompanied by a handout illustrated with images taken from the items in the Centre’s rare books collection. There was also a small display of some of the books from the collection.