"Ways of Making and Knowing: The Material Culture of Empirical Knowledge". A
conference to be held in London 11-15 July 2005

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed/events11-07-05.html

The conference is to be held at several participating institutions in London
and is sponsored by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at
UCL, the Wellcome Trust, and the Yale Center for British Art.

This conference aims to build on exciting new work in the history of material
culture to break down the common historiographical dichotomies between craft
skill and scientific knowledge, and to showcase some of the most suggestive
studies demonstrating that natural knowledge flowed from an engagement with
natural things. The chronological orientation of the lectures and discussions
will range from the Renaissance through the nineteenth century. Historians of
science and medicine, art historians, and museum scholars from various fields
will learn from one another through a programme that mixes lectures with
hands-on demonstrations. The conference will be held on several sites where
expert curators and representative objects are available, namely Chelsea
Physic Garden, the British Museum, the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, the
Natural History Museum, London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Painshill
Park.

The conference is open to the public. A detailed programme and registration
form are available on www.ucl.ac.uk/histmed or from Ms Carol Bowen, The
Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, 210 Euston Road,
London NW1 2BE, UK (c.bowenucl.ac.uk Tel: + 44 20 7679 8163). Registration
closes on May 15, 2005.