A Distant Authority: Ferdinand (von) Mueller, the Communication of Ideas, and the Colonial Search for International Standing in Science

Oct

Thursday, October 01, 2015 at 06:00 PM

Location

State Library of Victoria
328 Swanston St
Melbourne, Victoria 3000
Australia
Google map and directions

Event contact

Silvie Luscombe

Presenter: Professor R. W. Home AM, FAHA, Emeritus Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Melbourne.

How do ideas travel in science? What is involved in ideas generated by an individual, especially one working on the scientific periphery, becoming accepted internationally as part of the main corpus of science? In other words, how does one acquire the standing necessary for one’s work to be taken up by others? In this lecture I shall address questions like these by considering the experience of the young German botanist Ferdinand Mueller (1825-1896) in relation to his investigations of the Australian flora in the middle decades of the nineteenth century.

Monash University announces the Louis Green Lecture for 2015. This annual lecture is on intellectual and social history, in honour of the late Professor Louis Green, endowed by Professor Wallace Kirsop.

The lecture is organised by the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies and the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics at Monash University.

Professor Home is a distinguished historian of science who has written both on the Enlightenment and on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Australia. He has edited part of the correspondence of Ferdinand (von) Mueller, government botanist of the colony of Victoria and subsequently director of the Melbourne Botanical Gardens.

Admission is free; booking is essential.

Please click here to RSVP.

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The History Council of Victoria Incorporated (HCV) is the peak body for history in the Australian state of Victoria. Its vision is to connect Victorians with history and to inspire engagement with the past, their identity and the world today. The HCV champions the work of historians and the value of history. It recognises that history can be written about any place, any person, any period. The HCV advocates why history matters.

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Summary

The HCV was formed as an advisory body in 2001 and incorporated in 2003. It comprises representatives from cultural and educational institutions and heritage bodies; history teachers and curriculum advisors; academic and professional historians; and local, Indigenous, community and specialist history organisations.

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Credits

The History Council of Victoria acknowledges the State Library of Victoria and the Public Record Office Victoria for supply of the archival images that appear on this website.

We acknowledge the National Film and Sound Archive for the right to use of the video footage on the home page, titled "Melbourne: Life in Australia (1966)".

Image credits

Italian sailors on ship at Port Melbourne 1938, Argus Newspaper Collection of Photographs, State Library of Victoria
Chinese procession in Collins near Elizabeth Street 1901, Harvie & Sutcliffe, photographers, State Library of Victoria
People’s homes, Aboriginal station Coranderrk 1878, Fred Kruger Photographer, State Library of Victoria
Chinese nurses at Children’s Hospital under scholarship 1947, Argus Newspaper Collection of Photographs, State Library of Victoria
Ladies physical culture class VRI Melbourne c1931, Public Record Office Victoria VPRS 12903/P0001, 011/02
Melbourne Cup, Derby and Oaks Day, Flemington Racecourse 1936, Public Record Office Victoria VPRS 12903/P0001/4802, 372/30
Flinders Street viaduct at foot of Market Street with advertisement for McRobertson’s Chocolate on bridge, Public Record Office Victoria VPRS 12800/P0003, ADV 1342