Bringing together curators, archivists, library professionals, and scholars representing fields across the sciences and the humanities, this working group takes an interdisciplinary approach to considering the history of collections, as well as associated debates surrounding the value and purpose of collecting. This group will grapple with the past and present role of collections, and consider questions such as the following: What kinds of objects, specimens, and artifacts are considered worth collecting and by whom? How can institutions continue to maintain and care for their collections? What kinds of information and/or data are stored within collections? How can new approaches to research, teaching, and public programs allow for objects to reach new audiences and/or provide new opportunities for reinterpretation?
Participants at Consortium activities will treat each other with respect and consideration to create a collegial, inclusive, and professional environment that is free from any form of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.
Participants will avoid any inappropriate actions or statements based on individual characteristics such as age, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, ability status, educational background, or any other characteristic protected by law. Disruptive or harassing behavior of any kind will not be tolerated. Harassment includes but is not limited to inappropriate or intimidating behavior and language, unwelcome jokes or comments, unwanted touching or attention, offensive images, photography without permission, and stalking.
Participants may send reports or concerns about violations of this policy to conduct@chstm.org.
Upcoming Meetings
Friday, October 3, 2025, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EDT
Charlotte Williams (University of California, Berkeley)
"Balancing the Scale: a museum exchange and the archaeological currencies of cultural relativism"
In the 1930s and 40s, the Penn Museum advertised Maya stelae from the site of Piedras Negras, Guatemala as a major public draw. Excavated and shipped to the United States by archaeologist John Alden Mason, the monuments remained in the museum on temporary loan from the Guatemalan government. A decade later, the agreement was revisited; desperate to keep certain monuments for a longer period, archaeologists of the museum facilitated a deal with the Guatemalan government; a longer loan extension in exchange for an assemblage of Central American gold pieces excavated, from among other places, the Coclé site of Sitio Conte, Panama.
In facilitating this exchange, archaeologists, government officials, and museum professionals enfolded notions of archaeological and monetary value within paradigms of cultural relativism. This research uses the Penn Museum and the American Philosophical Society archives to trace this incident within a museum exchange economy, revealing how fluctuating standards of legal ownership, mid-century economic values, and American presence in the Canal Zone allowed for heritage objects to become enfolded into exchangeable museological currencies.
Friday, November 7, 2025, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST
TBA
Friday, December 5, 2025, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST
TBA
Friday, February 6, 2026, 12:30 - 1:30 pm EST
TBA
Friday, March 6, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST
TBA
Friday, April 3, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EDT
TBA
Friday, May 1, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EDT
TBA
Friday, June 5, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EDT
TBA
Past Meetings
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Tad Brown (University of Cambridge), “Peanut Traces: Collecting Arachis from the Telegraph Line in Brazil”
"In this paper, I trace the enrolment a specific peanut, Arachis nambyquarae Hoehne, into scientific networks as a method for understanding how Brazil became known as the geographic origin of peanuts. The species was named after an Amerindian group in Matto Grosso as well as the scientist who published its first description. Botanists would later reclassify this peanut as a variety within domesticated Arachis. The taxonomic reversal offers support for the argument that the study of plant diversity includes ideas about human diversity."
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Brooke Penaloza Patzak, FWF Schrödinger Fellow/ Visiting Scholar, University of Pennsylvania: “Geographic Provinces as a Doctrine and Framework for Scientific Collection and Display, 1860-1900"
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Katherine Arnold, London School of Economics: "Interpreting the Collector's Logic: The Pursuit of Desiderata in Early Nineteenth-Century Southern Africa"
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Andrea Marshall, Centre for Media and Celebrity Studies: "Zines as Nonbinary Objects and Questions of Privilege"
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Katherine McLeod, New York University: "What to do about rats in the archive," from her dissertation, "How to Display a Hoatzin: Ecology, Eugenics, and Zoology in the Early 20th Century United States"
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Maura C. Flannery, Professor Emerita, St. John's University, NY/Research Associate, A.C. Moore Herbarium, University of South Carolina, Columbia: "Can Digital Collections Bridge the Gap between the Humanities and Science?"
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Jesse Smith, Research Curator at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia, on “Instruments, Industries, and Invertebrates: Curating Water in the Public History of Science.”
Jesse will be giving us a brief virtual tour of the new “Downstream” exhibit at the Science History Institute and will talk through the process of its development. Then, we will turn to a broader discussion about the relationship between the history of science, public history, and museum exhibitions. Jesse has included two articles (attached) that offer some background about the collections and exhibitions at the Science History Institute.
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Nushelle de Silva, Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "Conditioning Art, Air, and Action: Exhibition Conservation in the Art Museum"
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Anisha Gupta, American Philosophical Society: "Conservation is not neutral: an anti-colonial framework for collections care"
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Nadine Löhr, Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities: "Collecting Arabic Scientific Manuscripts - Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos in Mashhad, Iran"
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Alison Laurence, Stanford University: "The Quick and the Dead at La Brea: Affective Encounters with Ice Age Los Angeles"
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Lukas Rieppel, Brown University: "Locating the Central Asiatic Expedition: Circulation and Accumulation in Early 20th Century Natural History"
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Adrianna Link, American Philosophical Society: "Cultural Diplomacy, Conservation, and Computers: Designing an International Center in the Smithsonian Quadrangle"
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Elaine Ayers, New York University: "Had There Been No Witnesses: Corpse Flowers, Monstrosity, and the Politics of Discovery in Early-Nineteenth Century Colonial Botany"
Dr. Gochberg is Associate Curator and Manager of Exhibitions at the Concord Museum, and she teaches in the Museum Studies program at Harvard Extension School. She holds a PhD in English from Boston University and is the author of Useful Objects: Museums, Science, and Literature in Nineteenth-Century America (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Adrianna Link
Dr. Link is Curator of History of Science at the American Philosophical Society's Library & Museum. She received her PhD in History of Science from The Johns Hopkins University and is interested in the history of anthropology and its relationship to collections and collecting practices.
Jesse Smith
Jesse Smith is director of curatorial affairs and digital content at the Science History Institute, where he oversees exhibitions and other interpretive projects in the history of science. He is also associate editor of the journal History and Technology. Jesse earned his PhD in the history and sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania.
