"Making Nature: The Labor of Natural History" Program
June 6 and 7, 2024
Hosted by the American Philosophical Society and The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

Note: Times are subject to change **All times are listed in ET**

Thursday, June 6  (all sessions at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Auditorium; pre-registration required)

12:30-2:00pm Panel 1: Sensory Experiences

“John Tyley's Experiments in Illustration” Julie Kim, Associate Professor of English, Fordham University

“Arthur Dove’s Sand and Sea: On Abstract Landscape’s Place in Natural History” Jesse Curran, Lecturer in English, SUNY Old Westbury

“Paper Gardens: Collecting and Representing Nature” Alison Carranza, Post-baccalaureate in Cultural Heritage Research and Practice, Yale University

“Specimens of Nuclear Nature: The Aesthetics and Imagination of Irradiated Life” Marisa Karyl Franz, Clinical Assistant Professor of Museum Studies, New York University 

2:00-2:30pm: Break

2:30-4:00pm Panel 2: Materiality & Resistance

““Ocean Gems, Paper Seas: Preserving Seaweed in the Nineteenth-Century Album” Julia Carabatsos, Ph.D. Candidate in Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University

“Sculpting Plant Life, Stopping Time: The Blaschkas’ Botanical Models at Harvard” Ellery Foutch, Associate Professor of American Studies, Middlebury College

“Making Nature Accessible: Wallace Craig and the Wood PeWee” Kristoffer Whitney, Associate Professor, Science, Technology, & Society, Rochester Institute of Technology

“Crafting Nature: Reactivating Indigenous Knowledge in Navajo Dye Charts” Hadley Welch Jensen, Curator of Collections & Research, Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian

4:00-4:15pm: Break

4:15-5:30pm: Academy Collections Highlights Roundtable

“André Michaux and Communities of Practice and Plants” Elizabeth Hyde, Professor of History, Kean University

“Labouring for Seeds: De-Classifying Eighteenth-Century Seed Packets” Maria Zytaruk, Professor of English, University of Calgary

“Don't Fear the Geaster: Anna Maria Hussey's (1805-1853) Illustrations of British Mycology (1847-55)” Kelsey Manahan-Phelan, Special Collections Librarian, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University

“Exsiccatae, xylotheks, and lepidochromes - Illustrating Nature with Itself” Robert McCracken Peck, Senior Fellow and Curator of Art and Artifacts, The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University 

6:30-8:00pm: Keynote
Jennifer Ackerman, “What an Owl Knows” 

Friday, June 7 (all sessions held at the American Philosophical Society)

9:00-10:30am: Panel 3: Philadelphia Connections

“Reconstructing the Environment John Bartram Observed” Kacey Stewart, Postdoctoral Associate, Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, University of Buffalo

“Ornithology in Peale's Museum” Matthew Halley, Assistant Curator of Birds, Delaware Museum of Nature & Science

“The Exhumation of the Mastodon' by Charles W. Peale or, Looking at the Laborious Making of the Deep Past” Victor Monnin, Substitute Assistant Professor of History, John Jay College, CUNY

“‘Portrait of Nature’: Alexander von Humboldt and the Art of Science” Tyler Spencer, PhD Candidate in History of Art and Archaeology, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

10:30-11:00am: Break

11:00-12:30pm: Panel 4: Imperial Entanglements

“Capturing the Menagerie: Animal Acquisition and Indigenous Knowledge on Britain’s Zoological Frontier”
Alexander Clayton, PhD Candidate in History, University of Michigan

“Natural History on Trial: Race and Science in the Early American Empire”
Myrna Perez, Associate Professor of Classic and Religious Studies, Ohio University

“‘That Great White Space’: British Public Perception of the Arctic, 1830-1890”
Eleanor Pschirrer-West, Curatorial Assistant, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art 

“Nahua Labor and Ecological Concepts in the Florentine Codex and the Mexican Treasury”
Marcy Norton, Associate Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

12:30-1:30pm Lunch

1:30-3:00pm: Panel 5: Labor & Expertise

“The price of collecting: sailors and the labor of French natural history in the South Seas, 1800-1840”    
Ralph Kingston, Associate Professor of History, Auburn University

““Philosophical Voyages”, natural history collections and scientific knowledge in eighteenth century Brazil: Revisiting the forgotten expedition of Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira” Luis Ceríaco, CIBIO - University of Porto

“The Legacies of Slavery and Natural History in American Science: The LeContes of Georgia and California”
Hunter Price, Associate Professor of History, Western Washington University

“Unsung Heroes: Female Community Scientists”
Ariel Hammond, Director of Research Library & Archives, San Diego Natural History Museum

3:00-3:30pm: Break

3:30-5:00pm: Panel 6: Collecting Pasts and Futures

“Relics and Natural History: Making the New World Old”
Matthew Dennis, Professor Emeritus of History and Environmental Studies, University of Oregon

“Preservation and Destruction in Early Modern Collections”
Whitney Barlow Robles, Visiting Scholar, Department of History, Dartmouth College

“Zoological Nationalism: The Role of the Beijing Zoo in PRC’s Territorial Narratives, State Power, and Nationalism after 1949”
Shung Yue Liu, MA Student in Global, International, and Comparative History, Georgetown University

“Transforming Collections, Preserving Futures: 2030 at the Museum für Naturkunde”
Elaina Foley, Bundeskanzler-Stipendium Visiting Researcher, Museum für Naturkunde

5:00-5:30pm: Wrap-Up

5:30-6:30pm: Closing Reception @ APS Museum, “Sketching Splendor”





 

Join the American Philosophical Society and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University on June 6th for a special keynote event featuring Jennifer Ackerman. This keynote is a part of the larger "Making Nature: The Labor of Natural History," conference hosted by the the American Philosophical Society and The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. *Note that registration for the keynote is separate from registration for Day 1 (June 6th) of the conference.

"Making Nature: The Labor of Natural History," will be held in-person on June 6–7, 2024. The event will be held at the Academy of Natural Sciences Auditorium and Benjamin Franklin Hall (427 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19106). *Free registrations for June 6th at the ANS must be made before June 4th 5:00 PM ET. Registrations made after this point may be subject to the ANS admission fee. *Note that registration for the keynote is separate from registration for Day 1 (June 6th) of the conference.

Please register using the link to the left. 

APS Addresses: The conference will take place in the APS’s Franklin Hall, located at 427 Chestnut Street. The Library is located at 105 South Fifth Street, and the APS Museum is housed across the street from the Library, in Philosophical Hall at 104 South Fifth Street.

Planes: The Philadelphia International Airport is 12 miles from the American Philosophical Society and is served by most major domestic and many international airlines. Philadelphia is a regional hub for American Airlines.

Ground Transportation from Airport: The airport is connected to Philadelphia through a network of public transit, rental cars, taxis, and private car services. In addition, rideshare services can be booked for transport to and from the airport. More information on specific modes of transport can be found on the airport’s website.

Trains: Philadelphia has an Amtrak station and is on the busy Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C. Both Northeast Regional and Acela trains stop at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. In addition, the Keystone, an east-west Amtrak route, stops several times a day in Philadelphia.

Automobiles: The American Philosophical Society is easily reached by I-95, 676, and the 76/Schuylkill Expressway.

Parking: There are several parking garages within a convenient distance from the APS. The Bourse Garage is the closest facility, at 4th and Ranstead Streets. Additionally, there are garages at the Independence Visitor Center and the National Constitution Center.

Buses: Many bus companies in the Northeast serve the Philadelphia area including Bolt Bus, Mega Bus, and Greyhound. Bolt Bus and Mega Bus arrive at 30th Street Station, which is a short ride away from the APS. The Greyhound station is between 12th and 13th Streets, just behind the Jefferson Station SEPTA stop.

Public Transportation in Philadelphia: The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is the major public transportation provider in the Philadelphia region. SEPTA runs Regional Rail lines through the city to the outlying suburbs and the airport. The Market-Frankford Line stops every couple of streets in Center City and runs out to West Philadelphia, by the University of Pennsylvania. SEPTA also runs trolley lines and buses throughout the city. Schedules, maps, fares, and additional information about the public transit system in Philadelphia can be found on their website.

Inspired by the APS Museum’s upcoming exhibition Sketching Splendor: Natural History in America, 1750-1850 the American Philosophical Society is organizing a two-day conference that will explore the ways humans have imagined, depicted, and constructed representations and knowledge about the natural world over time. The conference aims to bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, scientists, naturalists, and collection professionals, as well as artists, filmmakers, climate activists, and others to consider the different forms of labor and expertise that have contributed to shaping past, present, and future understandings of nature as well as the place of humans within it. The conference will be held in-person at the Society in Philadelphia on June 6-7, 2024.

The program committee invites paper proposals from scholars in all fields as well as scientists, curators, artists, educators, collections stewards, and others whose work bears upon this theme. The committee especially welcomes proposals that situate natural history in a wide range of geographic and historical contexts.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

• The economic, social, and political implications of natural history collections and collecting practices over time.
• The role of institutions, including botanical gardens, zoos, arboretums, libraries, museums, aquariums, and others, in shaping scientific and public understandings about the natural world.
• The impact and contributions of local and Indigenous labor and expertise within natural history projects.
• Critical studies addressing the relationship between natural history and empire.
• Studies of how nature and the natural world inform art, music, film, literature, and other creative pursuits in the past and present.
• The role of images, visualizations, and other non-text based approaches in conveying ideas about nature and natural history.
• Discussions about specific techniques and craft knowledge used in the preservation and display of natural history.
• The needs and opportunities of digital tools and platforms for past, present, and future work in natural history.
• The impact of climate change and extinction narratives on understandings and depictions of nature.
• Papers exploring decolonial and antiracist approaches to natural history.
   

Applicants should submit a title and a 250-word proposal along with a C.V. by February 15, 2024 via Interfolio: https://apply.interfolio.com/137229

All presenters will receive travel subsidies and hotel accommodations. Presenters may also have the opportunity to publish revised papers in the APS’s Transactions, one of the longest running scholarly journals in America.

For more information contact Adrianna Link, Assistant Director of Library & Museum Programming, at [email protected].