Sponsored by the Office for History of Science and Technology (UC Berkeley)
And the History of Health Sciences Program (UCSF)
Daniela Bleichmar
University of Southern California
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A Visible and Useful Empire: Natural History in the Eighteenth-Century Spanish World
This talk will discuss the practices and aims of late eighteenth-century Spanish natural history as it operated on a global stage, focusing on two central themes: utility and visuality. In the second half of the century, the Spanish crown organized and funded an impressive number of natural history expeditions. These voyages - comparable to those of Cook, La Condamine, etc. - remain virtually unknown in Anglophone scholarship. Their analysis does more than merely add case studies to existing narratives of colonial and imperial science: it suggests the need for significant revisions. This talk will address one of the expedition's more puzzling aspects: how to reconcile the concern with utility, particularly the economic promise of botany, with the fact that both naturalists and artists devoted most of their time and efforts to the production of visual materials.
4:00PM
Monday, November 20, 2006
140 Barrows Hall
UC Berkeley
Office for History of Science and Technology, 543 Stephens Hall #2350
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2350
tel: (510) 642-4581, e-mail: ohst@berkeley.edu
