ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Essay prizes and citizen-experts in the eighteenth-century Dutch Republic

• In Event: Water Knowledge and Water Experts I

English Abstract

Histories exploring the efficacy and impact of Dutch water expertise have typically focused on the first half of the seventeenth century, when the Dutch, challenged by climatic changes, war, and population growth, sought to establish control over their watery surroundings and dramatically reshaped their landscape. These environmental interventions were increasingly executed by formally trained technical experts: engineers and land surveyors who derived their standing from certification by academic and political authorities, a process that fostered growing interdependence between experts and the Republic’s political elite. However, this paper suggests that the history of Dutch water expertise looks very different from the perspective of the eighteenth century. From 1750 onward, experts became increasingly autonomous, coming together in locally or provincially organized learned societies such as the Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetenschappen, the Provinciaal Utrechts Genootschap, and the Maatschappij ter Bevordering van den Landbouw. With the express purpose to improve society and enhance prosperity, these societies directly called upon citizens to solve practical issues through essay prizes. Issues of water management featured prominently in these competitions, where questions about dike maintenance appeared alongside quests to identify new, sustainable sources of fresh water. This paper explores how the societies’ popular format of essay prizes impacted Dutch water management practices while concomitantly challenging established notions of expertise and power.

Author

• Anna-Luna Post, Leiden University