Visit of Collection as Epistemic Practice in the Scientific Community of Geosciences between 1765 and 1807.

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Gerhard Heide; Professor Dr. Jan-Michael Lange; Professorin Dr. Ulrike Ludwig
• Subject Area: Early Modern History ; Palaeontology
• Term: from 2019 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 428589664

The project pursues three interrelated aims: The first and central concern is to determine the significance of collaborative production of knowledge in the context of visits to collections. Visits to collections are therefore recognised as a central epistemic practice in early geosciences. Secondly, geoscientific collections are to be recorded and described in their diversity as networked places of production, circulation and consolidation of scientific knowledge and technical methods. Thirdly, this focus on collections and visits to collections is associated with the aim of highlighting the profile of decentralised research and the importance of private stakeholders in the successively forming and internally specialised geosciences just before their academic institutionalisation. Overall, the interdisciplinary project, which is located at the intersection of the historical and the geological sciences, promises to provide a new outline of the significance of collections for the emerging geosciences.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants