Yorkshire Philosophical Society

Event Information

Carbon-based Gems, Carbon-based Consequences

Sarah Steele, Director Whitby Jet Works and Curator of Jet at Whitby Museum

Diamonds promise forever love, but the first synthetic ‘forever’ belonged to jet. When Victorian demand for Whitby jet outpaced supply, the quest for a substitute led to plastic. Today, lab-grown diamonds are marketed as sustainable, but history warns us: synthetic gems rarely disappear when their beauty fades. Sarah Steele, Director of The Ebor Jetworks, explores why some forevers are measured in catastrophe, not in carats.

Sarah Caldwell Steele—Curator of Jet at Whitby Museum—fell in love with Whitby jet at seven. With over forty years of commercial lapidary experience, a geology degree, and Fellowships of the Gemmological Association, she is now the leading authority on jet. She is also a PhD researcher at Durham University developing new ways to identify and classify ancient carbonaceous materials in the archaeological record.

7pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum on THURSDAY 11 JUNE 2026.

An event for York Festival of Ideas – free event tickets from May 1st at:

https://yorkfestivalofideas.com/