ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Collections, Archives, Libraries, and Museums: How, Why, and So What?

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

English Abstract

This session brings together historians working in collections, libraries, archives, and museums to examine both the internal and external activities that go on in their institutions. It invites participants and audience members to examine not only how we steward and activate collections, but why these choices matter and what their broader impact can (and should) be.

The roundtable will invite participants and audience members to reflect on the multiple roles that CALM institutions play both outside and inside of the academy. How do institutions create meaningful collections that reflect the rich diversity of the past and present, and use these for exhibitions and public programs for a national audience? How can we use new digital technologies to improve public access to collections? How do we tell the stories that so often never leave material traces in collections? How do scholars, collectors, and curators approach collections and their significance? How do we position ourselves (both to the public and to our own institutions) as experts in our field? How do we reach diverse and sometimes skeptical audiences, and what role do CALM institutions play in an era of contested truths and declining trust in science? How can CALM institutions collaborate with historians and scientists in order to meaningfully engage the public in the questions and issues that history of science brings up?

By opening space for collective reflection, this roundtable will discuss shared challenges, highlight successes, and imagine new possibilities for CALM institutions to contribute to both public understanding and scholarly impact.

Sub Unit

• Roundtable

Chair

• Judith Kaplan, Science History Institute

Participants

• Timothy Boon, UCL

• Ad Maas, Rijksmuseum Boerhaave

• Emily Margolis, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

• Florencia Pierri, MIT Museum

• Ludmila Pollock, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

• Anna Toledano, Los Altos History Museum

Session Organizer

• Florencia Pierri, MIT Museum