This research seminar is concerned with all aspects of the history of natural history and the field and environmental sciences. The regular programme of papers and discussions takes place over lunch on Mondays. In addition, the Cabinet organises a beginning-of-year fungus hunt and occasional expeditions to sites of historical and natural historical interest, and holds an end-of-year garden party.
- Cabinet of Natural History publications
- See the news archive for photos and reports from Cabinet events
Seminars are held on Mondays at 1pm in Seminar Room 1 unless otherwise stated.
For further details about upcoming events, or to be added to the mailing list for the Cabinet of Natural History, please contact Mika Hyman.
Lent Term 2025
27 January
Jeremy Schneider (HPS, University of Cambridge)
Blumenbach's fossils: teaching extinction in 18th-century Göttingen
3 February
Benjamin Hegarty (Kirby Institute)
Anthropology's queer histories: John Layard's homosocial milieu and encounters in the field in Atchin (1914–15) and Cambridge
10 February
University of Cambridge HPS MPhil Flash Talks
A showcase of research from MPhil students focusing on history of natural history
17 February
Leonardo Ariel Carrió Cataldi (French National Centre for Scientific Research)
Time, science and empire: cosmography and navigation in the Iberian monarchies in the 16th century
24 February
Justine Holzman (Princeton University) and Amelia Urry (HPS, University of Cambridge)
A polar conversation: studying the histories of the Arctic and Antarctic
3 March
Isobel Newby (University of Leeds)
'Making sense' of the prion hypothesis: theory and practice, 1996–2004
10 March
Alexander van Dijk (HPS, University of Cambridge)
Paradise lost: fashioning the East Indies aboard a VOC ship in 1623
17 March
Jim Endersby (University of Sussex)
Hybrid futures: unnatural acts in American gardens