Rebuilding collections and reconstructing science: using materiality of the du Bois Herbarium to understand early modern botany

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• Madeline White (University of Oxford)
• Monday 21 November 2022, 13:00-14:00
• Seminar Room 2, Department of History and Philosophy of Science.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Silvia M. Marchiori.

The du Bois Herbarium, a collection of nearly 14,000 botanical specimens pristinely preserved within the Oxford University Herbaria, is a unique relic of early 18th-century science. Compiled by English East India Company treasurer Charles du Bois between 1680 and 1740, the Herbarium is closely tied to leading figures of 18th-century British botany, melding early British scientific and colonial histories into a single archive. Despite this rich potential, the Herbarium has remained largely unexplored by scientists and historians alike. In her talk, Madeline White will outline her work to reconstruct the Herbarium’s original early modern organisation, and how these efforts help recast this scientific collection as an historical archive. When examined closely, she argues that it becomes clear how Charles du Bois crafted a physical record of the systems of intellectual and material exchange that characterized Britain’s earliest botanical and imperial endeavours.

This talk is part of the Cabinet of Natural History series.

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