Abstracts
Abstract
Across Canada, dozens of small artifact collections—whether hosted by national museums, smaller institutions, or simply stored in a university hallway cupboard—form an important yet largely untapped record of Canadian history. Assembled from laboratories, hospitals, homes, factories, farms, and fieldwork, such collections allow us to explore aspects of Canadian scientific and technological practice, innovation and labor that may be inaccessible through texts alone.
Keywords:
- artifact collections,
- science and technology,
- Canada,
- museums
Résumé
Partout au Canada, des dizaines de petites collections d'artefacts - qu'elles soient conservées dans des musées nationaux, des institutions plus petites ou simplement rangées dans le placard d'un couloir d'université - constituent un témoignage important, mais largement inexploité, de l'histoire canadienne. Rassemblées dans des laboratoires, des hôpitaux, des maisons, des usines, des fermes et sur le terrain, ces collections nous permettent d'explorer des aspects de la pratique, de l'innovation et du travail scientifiques et technologiques canadiens qui pourraient être inaccessibles par le seul biais des textes.
Mots-clés :
- collections d’artefacts,
- science et technologie,
- Canada,
- musées
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Appendices
Biographical notes
Victoria Fisher (victoria.fisher@utoronto.ca) was awarded her PhD in the History of Science in March 2023 by the University of Toronto, with the thesis “Getting Down to Brass & Wax: The Material Culture of Physics at Canadian Universities, 1890–1939.” In 2023–2024, she held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Ingenium, Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation, focused on the history of precision and scientific instrument making in Canada. She has been working with the University of Toronto Scientific Instruments Collection since 2015 and currently is Historian in Residence at the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of Toronto.
Erich Weidenhammer (erich.weidenhammer@utoronto.ca) received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 2014. His doctoral research focused on the legacy of the Scottish-born physician Dr. John Pringle (1707-1782), whose support for investigations into the chemical nature of putrid air provides important insight into the relationship between learned medicine and experimental culture in the period preceding the Chemical Revolution. He is curator of the collection of artifacts related to research and teaching in science and technology at the University of Toronto and affiliate hospitals (utsic.utoronto. ca). He is also Adjunct Curator for Scientific Processes at Ingenium: Canada’s Museums of Science & Innovation. Erich is especially interested in various approaches that seek to reenact historical experiments and experiences, especially those involving recreated materials and artifacts.