ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Future Research Directions in the History of Eclipse Expeditions

• In Event: Emerging from the Shadow: New Perspectives on Solar Eclipse Expeditions 2

English Abstract

Recent work highlights the broad appeal of eclipse expeditions to contemporary historians of science investigating topics like colonialism, visual culture, gender, and amateur-professional networks. This rich and expanding literature demonstrates the value of new and varied disciplinary approaches in shaping our understanding of how astronomical knowledge was made, valued, documented and shared in the 19th century.

Alongside scientific questions, developing technology, and travel logistics, 19th-century eclipse expeditions frequently involved the mutual interaction of local practices and imperial infrastructures. The rich confluence of skills, cultures, priorities, and politics, often in geographical areas that are lesser-studied among historians of science, invite tools from global histories, anthropology, and borderland studies to illuminate a more inclusive view of 19th-century eclipse expeditions.

Author

• Deborah Kent, University of St Andrews