Lectures on Tap - Culture and Perfume: How Perfume Shaped History

📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email

🧠 Lecture: "Culture and Perfume: How Perfume Shaped History"

🎤 Speaker: Saskia Wilson-Brown

Join us for an immersive evening exploring how scent has quietly shaped human history and culture. Perfume expert and founder of The Institute for Art and Olfaction, Saskia Wilson-Brown, will guide us through three iconic perfume materials and their surprising cultural impact.

We’ll begin with a brief history of perfume, then dive into jasmine and its long-standing association with seduction. From there, we’ll explore musk and its role in narratives of power in early Islamic texts and 18th century France. The talk concludes with bergamot and its use in Eau de Cologne, tracing how this ingredient influenced the perfume industry and even religious practices in the Americas.

Saskia Wilson-Brown is the founder of The Institute for Art and Olfaction, where she has developed global initiatives such as the Art and Olfaction Awards, Experimental Scent Summit, Scent Week LA, and extensive educational and library programs. She also hosts the radio show and podcast “Perfume on the Radio” and is completing her PhD on scent in creative practice at University College Dublin. Her forthcoming book, The Cultures of Perfume: Scents That Shaped History, will be published in November 2026.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌