- Google, SCIEMP - the Sciences and Empires Commission (DHST/IUHPS), AlumnusUniversidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências - CIUHCT, Graduate StudentUniversidade de Lisboa, National Museum of Natural History, Undergraduateadd
- Cultural Theory, History of Science, History of Museums, History of Natural History, Natural history collections, Natural History Dioramas, and 25 moreHistory and nature of science, Historiography, University Museums, Museu Bocage, Natural History, Scientific Correspondence, Zoological Collections, Philosophy, Art History, Cultural History, Humanities, Walter Benjamin, Hannah Arendt, Landscape, Socrates, Dinosaurs, Criticism, Museum history, Diplodocus, Epistemic, Museum Studies, History of Science and Technology, Environmental History, History of Biology, and History of Life Sciencesedit
- PhD in History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon with the title "Taxonomy and Empi... morePhD in History and Philosophy of Science, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon with the title "Taxonomy and Empire. Zoogeographical knowledge on Portuguese Africa, 1862-1881"
I work on the broad subject of natural history (zoological) collections and museums in the 19th-20th centuries. I am interested in the practices of collecting and exhibiting, and the cultural, symbolic and political meanings of the knowledge produced and negotiated from these collections in these institutions.edit - Ana Isabel Simõesedit
Research Interests:
The career of José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage (1823‒1907) as director of the Zoological Section of the Museu Nacional de Lisboa (National Museum of Lisbon) followed by the presidency of the Society of Geography of Lisbon is presented in... more
The career of José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage (1823‒1907) as director of the Zoological Section of the Museu Nacional de Lisboa (National Museum of Lisbon) followed by the presidency of the Society of Geography of Lisbon is presented in this paper as an example of transfer of expertise between scientific fields, specifically from zoology to geography. Additionally, it explores the connection between scientific credit and political recognition, in the sense of the conflation of Bocage's taxonomical and zoogeographical work with the colonial agenda of his time. Although Bocage himself never visited Africa, he was part of a generation of Africanists who were members of the Portuguese elite dedicated to African matters and considered exemplary custodians of the political and diplomatic Portuguese international position regarding its African territories.
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Methodological description of work in progress
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"In 1858, the royal zoological collections hosted in Lisbon became part of the Polytechnic School (1837-1911) to be of assistance to the classes in Zoology. The previous «Museu de Lisboa» at the Royal Academy of Sciences was now to be... more
"In 1858, the royal zoological collections hosted in Lisbon became part of the Polytechnic School (1837-1911) to be of assistance to the classes in Zoology. The previous «Museu de Lisboa» at the Royal Academy of Sciences was now to be organized following proper scientific and up-to-date knowledge. José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage (1823-1907), as the head professor in Zoology, became in 1859 the Director and first organizer of the “Zoological Section of the Museum of Lisbon”. Through his work and direction the royal collections became a museum designed as part of the exchange network of specimens and the scientific knowledge within.
To discover, collect and send home to Europe natural objects and images of the new world was a comprehensive task held by many naturalists whether with an academic, military or religious background. Nevertheless, the understanding of the knowledge held in all the thousands of specimens being brought to European collections and exchanged between European societies, academies and universities was now being completed inside the collections storage rooms.
In this paper we analyse the correspondence of Barbosa du Bocage to his foreign peers aiming to contribute for a clearer picture of the importance of the network established between private collections, universities and museums in the construction of new knowledge in the study of nature at the second half of the nineteenth century. We argue that some influential authors were organizing knowledge about nature from inside the museum’s walls and that the way the trade of specimens inside Europe was made is of major importance for the production of knowledge. Analysing the relationships established between these authors (their institutions and nations) and other professors, collectors, patrons, diplomats, naturalists and taxidermists may facilitate in the study of scientific knowledge production.
{Keywords} José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage (1823-1907); Natural History Museums and Collections; Zoological Specimen Exchange Networks; Scientific Epistolary Networks; Polytechnic School of Lisboa (1837-1911).
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To discover, collect and send home to Europe natural objects and images of the new world was a comprehensive task held by many naturalists whether with an academic, military or religious background. Nevertheless, the understanding of the knowledge held in all the thousands of specimens being brought to European collections and exchanged between European societies, academies and universities was now being completed inside the collections storage rooms.
In this paper we analyse the correspondence of Barbosa du Bocage to his foreign peers aiming to contribute for a clearer picture of the importance of the network established between private collections, universities and museums in the construction of new knowledge in the study of nature at the second half of the nineteenth century. We argue that some influential authors were organizing knowledge about nature from inside the museum’s walls and that the way the trade of specimens inside Europe was made is of major importance for the production of knowledge. Analysing the relationships established between these authors (their institutions and nations) and other professors, collectors, patrons, diplomats, naturalists and taxidermists may facilitate in the study of scientific knowledge production.
{Keywords} José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage (1823-1907); Natural History Museums and Collections; Zoological Specimen Exchange Networks; Scientific Epistolary Networks; Polytechnic School of Lisboa (1837-1911).
"
Research Interests:
Situated Nature: Field collecting practices and the construction of scientific locality in the long nineteenth-century Field collecting is a political gesture. Sampling nature is a combined result of specific gestures of the hand, the... more
Situated Nature: Field collecting practices and the construction of scientific locality in the long nineteenth-century
Field collecting is a political gesture. Sampling nature is a combined result of specific gestures of the hand, the use of dedicated tools, a reliance on intermediaries, on-site negotiations of natural history knowledge, and the mobilisation of agencies that are not neutral. The context of nation and empire building in the nineteenth century paralleled a soaring accumulation of natural objects supporting naturalist trade and both private and institutional collections. Practices of field collecting resonated with social and political stakes that were intertwined with matters of appropriation of the land and the environment. In the nineteenth century, experience of the field was key in the legitimation of science, and we propose a close-up approach of outdoor practices of collecting in order to better understand the localised, and situated, production of knowledge about nature. Twenty-five years after the publication of a special issue on "Science in the field" (Kuklick and Kohler, 1996) in Osiris, we intend to cast new light on the matter of field collecting of nature. We feel there is ample space for a new interrogation on the implications of the act of gathering a specimen, and we believe that issues of sourcing for intermediaries and prospect localities of collation, processes and logistics of transportation and conservation of specimens, as well as issues of the personal agendas behind collecting can benefit from the comparative approach between diverse case studies that a special issue can provide. Our proposal on the topic of "Situated Nature: Field collecting practices and the construction of scientific locality in the long nineteenth-century," follows the organisation of panels and workshops on the topic of Nineteenth-Century Practices of Collecting Nature, and will result in a submission for the open call of the British Journal for the History of Science-Themes for the 2022 issue. We are looking for researchers who investigate natural history collections in the long nineteenth-century and whose interest may fall within one or more of the following thematic and historiographical parameters: ▪ Manual labour, instructions, and logistics: collecting and collating in the field required informants, boxes and glass containers, insect pins as well as rifles. Specialized tools and recipes for preserving specimens were either transported to the field or improvised on site; ▪ Sociability, hierarchies, and identities: collecting was carried out by professional and non-professional practitioners whose individual lives, agendas and interests provide noteworthy case-studies. Issues of class, gender, race, authority, and identity were frequently a function of natural history exchanges,
Field collecting is a political gesture. Sampling nature is a combined result of specific gestures of the hand, the use of dedicated tools, a reliance on intermediaries, on-site negotiations of natural history knowledge, and the mobilisation of agencies that are not neutral. The context of nation and empire building in the nineteenth century paralleled a soaring accumulation of natural objects supporting naturalist trade and both private and institutional collections. Practices of field collecting resonated with social and political stakes that were intertwined with matters of appropriation of the land and the environment. In the nineteenth century, experience of the field was key in the legitimation of science, and we propose a close-up approach of outdoor practices of collecting in order to better understand the localised, and situated, production of knowledge about nature. Twenty-five years after the publication of a special issue on "Science in the field" (Kuklick and Kohler, 1996) in Osiris, we intend to cast new light on the matter of field collecting of nature. We feel there is ample space for a new interrogation on the implications of the act of gathering a specimen, and we believe that issues of sourcing for intermediaries and prospect localities of collation, processes and logistics of transportation and conservation of specimens, as well as issues of the personal agendas behind collecting can benefit from the comparative approach between diverse case studies that a special issue can provide. Our proposal on the topic of "Situated Nature: Field collecting practices and the construction of scientific locality in the long nineteenth-century," follows the organisation of panels and workshops on the topic of Nineteenth-Century Practices of Collecting Nature, and will result in a submission for the open call of the British Journal for the History of Science-Themes for the 2022 issue. We are looking for researchers who investigate natural history collections in the long nineteenth-century and whose interest may fall within one or more of the following thematic and historiographical parameters: ▪ Manual labour, instructions, and logistics: collecting and collating in the field required informants, boxes and glass containers, insect pins as well as rifles. Specialized tools and recipes for preserving specimens were either transported to the field or improvised on site; ▪ Sociability, hierarchies, and identities: collecting was carried out by professional and non-professional practitioners whose individual lives, agendas and interests provide noteworthy case-studies. Issues of class, gender, race, authority, and identity were frequently a function of natural history exchanges,
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This paper follows the trajectories of explorer-collectors who were appointed by the Portuguese government to study, collect, and ship back specimens from Portuguese Africa to natural history collections in Lisbon, Coimbra, and Oporto in... more
This paper follows the trajectories of explorer-collectors who were appointed by the Portuguese government to study, collect, and ship back specimens from Portuguese Africa to natural history collections in Lisbon, Coimbra, and Oporto in the second half of the 19th century. The data they provided was managed, standardized, and given meaning and publicity when it reached metropolitan institutions. By studying their contracts, instructions, practices, and results, this paper addresses how actors with direct experience of field conditions became also agents in the co-construction of metropolitan scientific agendas and political representations of Africa. As a case-study, this paper focusses on the relationship between José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage (1823-1907), the director of the zoological section of the Museu Nacional de Lisboa, and his network of collectors that provided him with African collections, and with new species to describe. It further argues that collectors such as Bayão (1833-1883), Anchieta (1832-1897), Newton (1864-1909), among others, were, at the same time, mediators of knowledge about nature, and of political circumstances between the distant African hinterland and the museum.
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(2016, September) 7th International Conference of the European
Society for the History of Science, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC.
Society for the History of Science, Faculty of Arts, Charles University, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC.
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(2017, April) presented at the British Society for the History of Science Post-Graduate Conference. FLORENCE, ITALY.