By Katherine Sinclair On November 17, 2022, in the ornate “Venetian Room” of the Drake Hotel in Chicago, historians of oceans and of oceanography gathered for the “Oceans in Depth: Knowledge, Resource, Representations” round table as occasional flakes of snow fell on the Lake Michigan beaches outside the window. Organized by Helen Rozwadowski and Katharine… Read More ICHO at the History of Science Society Conference, November 2022
By Karen Urbec (Institution Archivist, MBLWHOI Library) The Data Library and Archives of the MBLWHOI (Marine Biological Laboratory Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) Library is the intellectual heart of the Woods Hole scientific community. Marine scientists have been based here for their explorations of the ocean since the mid-1800s and the Library has been here supporting their… Read More CLIR Recordings at Risk Digitization Project at MBLWHOI Library
The International Commission of the History of Oceanography (ICHO) invites applications for fellowship support from scholars studying the history of the marine sciences broadly conceived. ICHO is a global body devoted to linking scholars, writers, and teachers interested in the history of the marine sciences, broadly defined. We are a commission of the International Union… Read More Call for applications for ICHO fellowships
By Helen Rozwadowski, Natalia Gándara-Chacana, and Samantha Muka Introduction By Helen Rozwadowski, University of Connecticut, Avery Point Scholars working emerging fields, such as ocean history and allied areas like coastal history, oceanic history and the like, benefit from the enthusiasm and momentum that accompanies new questions, new approaches, and new communities. Successful recent PhDs, with… Read More Why Ocean History?
By Maureen Nolan & Lisa Oberg The Coast Salish peoples have called the Pacific Northwest home from time immemorial, their history and culture integrally linked with the region’s waterways. European explorations of the northeastern Pacific Ocean made by Sir Francis Drake in the 16th century and many others, including the voyages of Captains James Cook… Read More Stories from the Salish Sea: Special Collections at the University of Washington
It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Mme. Jacqueline Carpine-Lancre this past week. Many of us will fondly remember Mme. Carpine-Lancre for her great kindness and generosity. She remained an active and prolific scholar throughout her life, did everything she could to aid colleagues in their research, and was eager… Read More Jacqueline Carpine-Lancre (1933 – 2022)
By John R. Dolan Sorbonne Université, CNRS UMR 7093 Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche-sur-Mer, 06230 Villefranche-sur-Mer, France During the 1860s and 1870s the Darwinian Revolution was in full swing. Darwin’s critics pointed out that the origin of life was not addressed and that there appeared to be many missing links among taxa both existing and fossil.… Read More The famous and lesser-known illustrations of Thomas Huxley’s Bathybius
Posted by Vera Schwach: “Marine Lexicon is a cooperative project between Portugal and Norway, funding by EEA Grants, aiming at the construction of a thesaurus of European common names of marine mammals (cetacean, seals, sea lions, and sirenian) and symbolic elements (sea monsters, hybrid beings, folklore creatures) represented in the early modern age (15th –… Read More Marine Lexicon
By Penelope K. Hardy and Helen M. Rozwadowski Among the numerous Confederate statues targeted by protesters around the country, the one of Matthew Fontaine Maury in Richmond, Virginia, inspired only the vague graffiti condemnation, “Fuck this guy too.” Maury, who is familiar to oceanographers, historians of the ocean sciences, generations of naval officers, and… Read More Reckoning with a Racist Legacy in Ocean Science
The International Commission for the History of Oceanography is seeking abstract submissions for two proposed sessions at the 2021 Prague International Congress of History of Science and Technology (for details, see: https://www.ichst2021.org/). Please send proposed abstracts or questions by Friday, May 22nd to Penelope Hardy at phardy [AT] uwlax.edu or Helen Rozwadowski at helen.rozwadowski [AT]… Read More CFP: 2021 Prague International Congress of History of Science and Technology
History of Oceanography 