A three-day symposium held at the Manchester Museum, organized by:
- Museums and Galleries History Group
- Society for the History of Natural History
- The University of Manchester:
Centre for Museology - Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts
- Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine
- The Manchester Museum
Programme now available (PDF, 304KB); registration invited.
Aims and scope:
The conference aims to promote and communicate inter-disciplinary research on historical, theoretical and museological aspects of natural history museums. For whereas other museum sectors (such as ethnography museums) have been the subject of thriving body of reflexive literature, the collecting and display of natural objects has yet to be so thoroughly theorized. Bringing together a critical mass of scholarship engaged in research in this area, the conference will develop a theoretical community concerned with 'natural museology'. Papers will provide innovative methodological or reflexive insights and be based on original research.
Panel topics:
Papers and posters engage with historical and/or current aspects of the following areas:
- collecting nature / the nature of collecting
- museum practice (dioramas and other modes of display, conservation, documentation, taxidermy)
- research in natural history museums: the role of material culture in life science
- politics and science: evolution and the philosophy of display
- Linnaeus tercentenary: herbaria in history
- multi-sensory experiences of nature
The provisional programme is now available (PDF, 304KB).
Key Papers [provisional]:
- Professor Tony Bennett (Open University):
'Nature makes no jumps': museums of natural history and evolutionary self-management - Professor Peter Davis (University of Newcastle):
On the borders of natural history: geographical isolation and collection building in the nineteenth century - Dr Sophie Forgan (Teesside University):
Hero, muse or fossil? Reflections on the growth of the personality museum - Professor Simon Knell (University of Leicester):
Fossil people: studying research communities through their engagement with objects - Dr Bernadette Lynch (University of Manchester):
Amenable objects: cultural perspectives on natural history specimens - Professor John Pickstone (University of Manchester)
What is a natural about objects? Perspectives from the history of science - Dr Anne Secord (University of Cambridge):
Private collections and the public good: skill and desire in natural history
Registration:
Registration is now invited (by 30 June 2007): please download the booking form.
Full rate: £25 per day
Speakers; MGHG/SHNH members; students: £15 per day.
Accommodation can be secured by delegates at the nearby Manchester Business School.
Programme panel:
Dr Sam Alberti (Manchester Museum / Centre for Museology); Dr Nick Merriman (Manchester Museum); Prof. Penny Harvey (Social Anthropology); Prof. Piotr Bienkowski (Manchester Museum); Dr Helen Rees Leahy (Centre for Museology); Louise Tythacott (Centre for Museology); Prof. Mick Worboys (CHSTM); Dr Joe Cain (University College London); Dr Chris Whitehead (University of Newcastle; Chair, MGHG); Prof. Arthur Lucas (President, SHNH); Gina Douglas (Linnean Society; Programme Secretary, SHNH).
For further details contact:
Dr Sam Alberti, Manchester Museum, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, MANCHESTER M13 9PL, sam.alberti@manchester.ac.uk