HPS Centre Seminar

Dr Anna Maerker speaks on ‘Models and role models: artificial anatomies and the creation of communities in nineteenth-century France and beyond’

Attempts to represent the human body in three dimensions proliferated in nineteenth-century Europe. Artists and anatomists experimented with materials as diverse as wax, wood, ivory, and parchment, catering to diverse users from medical students and midwives to interested lay audiences. But how, specifically, were such models considered useful, and for whom? The paper will follow the global travels of papier-mâché models made in France to investigate how the artificial bodies supported and shaped different communities, from factory workers in Normandy to Egyptian medical students and women’s rights activists in the USA.

Additional information

The research seminar of the Centre for History & Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds runs fortnightly during term time. Seminars are free and open to all.