This homogeneous and well-structured collection of essays explores geographies of nineteenth-century science in Britain with the occasional offshoot to British colonies and beyond. As a whole the volume represents an important contribution to a flourishing field in the history of science that the two editors of this collection over the last two decades have done much to develop and influence. In line with the bulk of this scholarship, the articles in the volume are primarily informed by cultural approaches to historical geography, devoting less attention to questions and methodologies relating to economic and physical geography.
The essays analyse a broad range of sciences but, as is emphasized in the clearly argued editorial introduction, as well as in an engaging afterword by Nicolaas Rupke, share the basic assumption that scientific knowledge is influenced profoundly by its spatial, local contexts, and a geographically sensitive historical account of the sciences is therefore as indispensable as one that traces developments in historical time; far from being a universal, context-independent endeavour, the production, use and communication of science are a product of the local environments in which individuals, institutions and practices are situated. These claims are not new, but the essays concentrate on bringing empirical weight to them.
The collection is divided sensibly into three subsections, each containing five essays. A wide range of locations are analysed and include sites devoted to the production, the dissemination and leisurely consumption of scientific knowledge. Several essays however, deliberately blur such boundaries in order to grasp the activities that took place in these locations and the often conflicting agendas of the people who influenced them. The status of scientific spaces were constantly reconfigured and contested and the inadequacy of clear-cut distinctions between lay and professional, highbrow and lowbrow, instruction and entertainment, production and diffusion are readily exposed as the authors unravel the spatial dynamics. Unsurprisingly, learned societies and museums feature prominently in the collection and the essays confirm the key role that the latter, in particular, played as research institutions in nineteenth-century science in Britain. The essays also, however, broaden the geographical scope beyond the traditional ‘truth spots’ of Victorian science to include, amongst others, bookshops in Soho, country house laboratories, regional geological societies and scenic regions on the British coast visited by scientifically interested Victorian tourists with budgets for guidebooks.
This broadening of scope is much welcomed. As Graeme Gooday notes in conclusion to an insightful analysis of the contested status of electrical light as a ‘safe’ technology on theatre stages and in domestic quarters, it is possible by focusing on spatial topographies to develop a more demographically and geographically inclusive appreciation of knowledge in transit. Thus the reader learns from these essays much about well-known men of Victorian science, but a whole range of other agents engaging with the world of science are also brought into focus: the ‘armchair geographers’ whom posterity has often belittled, the frustrated curators bemoaning the gradual demise of the museum as a privileged venue of knowledge production, and the botanical collectors (outside the confines of the elites) whose observational practices have left physical marks in botanical pocketbooks. Several articles, moreover, explore in imaginative ways how spatial factors shaped audience responses and experiences, as in the case of the hot, overcrowded venues housing the touring British Association for the Advancement of Science.
The collection amply demonstrates that historical geography and history of science share a common set of historical and epistemological issues. As Bernard Lightman notes in his analysis of elite spaces of science in London, it is now well proven that space mattered and attention can be directed at studying how. This is a sensible and to some extent uncontroversial point. After all, only a highly essentialist understanding of science would maintain that location was irrelevant to the development and status of the sciences in the nineteenth century. Yet the uncontroversial status of the argument for the importance of place does point to a real concern that historical geography and history of science at times appear to be too much in agreement and that the dialogue between the fields therefore becomes too frictionless to unleash its full critical potential. Indeed, it is often difficult to tell the difference between studies of science that are informed by the ‘spatial turn’ and contextualized, historically sensitive approaches to the history of science more generally. With respect to avoiding this pitfall, the essays in this collection that work best are those that use spatial categories most actively in structuring the analyses of the locations they examine. To highlight one example, Sujit Sivasundaram, in an essay that ranks among the best in this fine collection, takes the island of Ceylon as the spatial boundary of his analysis and explicitly pushes the wider imperial geography aside. This spatial demarcation enables him to present a compelling history of competing highland and lowland epistemologies on the island itself, as it gradually fell under imperial sway. When such bold, structuring, spatial choices are made, it becomes particularly evident how historical geography can push history of science in new and compelling directions. Readers will find that such choices are made in some, but not all, contributions.
Despite its broader title the collection is largely devoted to geographies of science in the British Isles and rather little is done by way of placing the British case in a wider historiographical and geographical context. On the positive side this leaves ample scope for future comparative studies and for scholars with the knowledge and linguistic skills required for analysing developments in the sciences in other local settings. The many historians who are currently engaged in this endeavour will find this highly recommended volume of original essays a virtual goldmine of inspiration when framing future research questions and agendas.
