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SUMMARY:Invisible gardeners? The role of Scottish botanic gardeners in kno
 wledge creation and exchange in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth c
 entury - Clare Hickman (University of Chester)
DTSTART:20160125T130000Z
DTEND:20160125T141500Z
UID:TALK63629@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:39097
DESCRIPTION:Like many technicians in the history of science and medicine\,
  the gardeners who managed\, developed and disseminated knowledge obtained
  via botanic collections have generally been overlooked. Although unlike S
 hapin's earlier scientific technicians there are indications that they wer
 e more visible to their peers. The focus of academic work in this field ha
 s mainly concentrated on the superintendents or members of the medical fac
 ulty (in the case of the university botanic garden) who used them as teach
 ing spaces (Findlen)\, or else the collections themselves as representativ
 es of national identity creation (Spary and O'Kane) or products of Empire 
 (Drayton). This paper will instead concern itself with a small number of h
 ead gardeners at the Edinburgh and Glasgow botanic gardens and re-consider
  their roles in the teaching of botany in the late eighteenth and early ni
 neteenth centuries. As with many lower status groups\, the evidence pertai
 ning to their lives and work is fragmentary but there are indications in b
 oth the archives and material features of the gardens that such men were c
 rucial in the creation and dissemination of botanic knowledge. The 1770s
 –1800s also mark a point when botanic knowledge becomes more specialized
  and they seem to be developing a professional identity. The paper will ex
 plore these themes by considering the following head gardeners: John Willi
 amson and Thomas Somerville at the Edinburgh Botanic Garden in the 1770s a
 nd 1800s respectively\, and William Lang at the University of Glasgow in t
 he 1800s.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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