Skip to content Skip to navigation

News & Events

Langstroth, Lorrenzo Lorraine. <em>A Practical Treatise on the Hive and Honey-Bee.</em> 3rd ed. New York: C.M. Saxton, 1857.
Natural Things Conference logo
Inaugural Natural Things Conference: Collection & the History of Science in the Age of Global Empires

Sunday, April 7 - Tuesday, April 9, 2019
Hamilton College, Clinton, NY

We cordially invite you to the Natural Things Project inaugural conference, "Collection & the History of Science in the Age of Global Empires." For three days, participants will share their current historical and digital research on natural things. Within this collaborative workshop environment, we aim to provide constructive feedback and next steps for participants' projects.
Renaissance-era horse painting
Mackenzie Cooley: “A Race for Perfection: Renaissance Horse Breeding and Its Material Remains”

Friday, October 26, 2018, 1:45 PM EDT
MCI Theater, Museum Support Center, 4210 Silver Hill Road, Suitland, MD, 20746
“Experts, Informants, Environments: Global Nature Studies in a Digital Age”

Tuesday, April 17, 2018, 12:00-1:20 PM
Building 160, Room 433A
The skeletal perfection of the Egyptian woman
Rafflesia illustration
HSS Logo
Natural Things in their Environments: A Global Perspective

November 9-12, 2017; Toronto, ON
History of Science Society

The Natural Things project is pleased to present two panels at this year's annual conference of the History of Science Society.
Mapping Objects, Mapping Science: New Methods of Early Modern Natural History

December 7-9, 2017
University of Göttingen, Germany

The graduate researchers of the Natural Things project are pleased to present our panel, “Mapping Objects, Mapping Science: New Methods of Early Modern Natural History,” at the opening conference of the Global Natural History around 1800: Collections, Media and Pedagogy project, the second of two conferences in Mapping the Territory: Exploring People and Nature, 1700-1830.
Rendering from the nature exhibition, featuring a volcano
Detail of a cartouche in Johannes van Keulen, Grand Nouvel Atlas de la Mer, ou Monde Aquatique (Amsterdam, 1696)
Ben Breen: "Secret Books and Secret Nature in the Eighteenth Century Lusophone World"

Wednesday, November 2, 2016, 12:00 PM
Building 260, Room 216

This talk explores the imperial, commercial, and religious contexts that informed the creation of an anonymous 1764 manuscript (now housed in the Jesuit archives in Rome) that collected proprietary drug recipes from Jesuit colleges in Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Macau, and Goa. Meticulously crafted to resemble a printed text, this unusual manuscript highlights the tension between secrecy and openness in eighteenth century writings about tropical nature.