Science in the marketplace : nineteenth-century sites and experiences / edited by Aileen Fyfe and Bernard Lightman. - Chicago : University of Chicago Press, (c)2007. - 1 online resource (x, 410 pages) : illustrations

Includes bibliographies and index.

Science in the marketplace : an introduction / How scientific conversation became shop talk / The diffusion of phrenology through public lecturing / Lecturing in the spatial economy of science / Publishing "popular science" in early nineteenth-century Britain / Sensitive, bashful, and chaste? articulating the mimosa in science / Reading natural history at the British Museum and the Pictorial Museum / Illuminating the expert-consumer relationship in domestic electricity / Natural history on display : the collection of Charles Waterton / Science at the crystal focus of the world / "More the aspect of magic than anything natural" : the philosophy of demonstration / The museum affect : visiting collections of anatomy and natural history / Aileen Fyfe and Bernard Lightman -- James A. Secord -- John van Wyhe -- Bernard Lightman -- Jonathan R. Topham -- Ann B. Shteir -- Aileen Fyfe -- Graeme Gooday -- Victoria Carroll -- Richard Bellon -- Iwan Rhys Morus -- Samuel J.M.M. Alberti.

(Publisher-supplied data) The nineteenth century was an age of transformation in science, when scientists were rewarded for their startling new discoveries with increased social status and authority. But it was also a time when ordinary people from across the social spectrum were given the opportunity to participate in science, for education, entertainment, or both. In Victorian Britain science could be encountered in myriad forms and in countless locations: in panoramic shows, exhibitions, and galleries; in city museums and country houses; in popular lectures; and even in domestic conversations that revolved around the latest books and periodicals. Science in the Marketplace reveals this other side of Victorian scientific life by placing the sciences in the wider cultural marketplace, ultimately showing that the creation of new sites and audiences was just as crucial to the growing public interest in science as were the scientists themselves. By focusing attention on the scientific audience, as opposed to the scientific community or self-styled popularizers, Science in the Marketplace ably links larger societal changes--in literacy, in industrial technologies, and in leisure--to the evolution of popular science.



9780226150024


Science--Social aspects--History--Great Britain--19th century--Congresses.
Science museums--History--Great Britain--19th century--Congresses.
Science--history--Great Britain--Congresses.
Exhibits as Topic--Great Britain--Congresses.
History, 19th Century--Great Britain--Congresses.
Museums--history--Great Britain--Congresses.
Publishing--history--Great Britain--Congresses.
Socioeconomic Factors--history--Great Britain--Congresses.


Electronic Books.

Q175 / .S354 2007