New perspectives on the History of Natural History Museums
A joint event of the Friends of Natural History Museum Vienna & the Austrian Society for the History of Science.
Since their foundation in the 19th century, Natural History Museums challenged and shaped the way people think about the natural world. Being scientific research institutes and public educational institutions at the same time, they had to find ways of conveying their topics to diverse audiences. Although creations of the industrial revolution, the Natural History Museums stand in an intellectual tradition reaching back to medieval times: complex presentations of animals can be traced back to illuminated manuscripts like the bestiaries. The talks of this symposium will try to fathom out the different (historic and modern) approaches of displaying natural knowledge.
