Dissertation Research: The Country House as Laboratory

这是一篇关于维多利亚晚期和爱德华七世时期乡村住宅内外的科学和科学实践的论文研究。乡村住宅的实验室、天文台、植物园和博物馆在19世纪后30年蓬勃发展，在某些方面挑战了中产阶级对专业科学的愿景，这些愿景是在19世纪中叶由T.H.赫胥黎、J.廷德尔和N.洛克耶等人提出的。在这些私人背景下，科学知识的生产涉及到一个由贵族知识分子组成的复杂网络，一个由宗教、政治和社会规范塑造的独特的乡村住宅价值观，以及一个涉及家庭成员、雇佣员工和来访的科学同事合作的社会研究过程。这些网站的研究成果为科学知识做出了重大贡献，同时为从业者在同行中赢得了很高的声誉。尽管在这些圈子里经常发现政治和社会上的保守主义，但在新的职业规范低估了她们在更多公共领域的参与的时候，女士们在追求她们的智力兴趣和在科学上做出原创性贡献方面经历了高度的灵活性。有关科学贵族家庭的工作和事务的丰富文件集详细揭示了这些乡村实验室在国内和专业规范下的运作。几个有据可查的案例表明，这种背景对科学知识的构建和贵族价值观对新的科学机构的影响是至关重要的。罗斯家族、巴尔弗家族、瑞利家族和西格维克家族经营的科学家庭尤其有影响力。所资助的研究使研究人员能够对这些案例以及涉及家庭的其他几个案例进行详细分析，以便证明由乡村住宅规范形成的复杂的科学实践网络，这些规范对性别角色和科学体制发展产生了重大影响。因此，这项研究重新解释了我们对维多利亚时代晚期科学发展的历史理解，历史学家们更多地强调了新的大学和工业研究设施。这项研究将表明，私人资助的研究在爱德华七世时期仍具有持续的重要性。它有望对公众对科学的理解产生更广泛的影响，比如在达尔文的唐宫和罗斯勋爵的比尔城堡的博物馆里，以及对科学——尤其是物理科学——如何变得性别化的更全面的理解，这与鼓励女性在科学上取得成功的倡议有关。资金将允许研究人员对英格兰、苏格兰和爱尔兰大部分尚未开发的藏品进行档案研究。

This is a dissertation research study of science and scientific practices within and beyond late-Victorian and Edwardian country houses. Country house laboratories, observatories, botanical gardens, and museums thrived well into the last third of the nineteenth century, challenging in some ways the middle class visions for professional science put forth in mid-century by figures such as T.H. Huxley, J. Tyndall, and N. Lockyer. The production of scientific knowledge in these private contexts involved a complex network of aristocratic intellectuals, distinct country house values shaped by characteristic religious, political, and social norms, and a social process of research involving collaboration of family members, hired staff, and visiting scientific colleagues. The results of research in these sites contributed significantly to scientific knowledge whilst earning practitioners high reputations among their peers. Despite the political and social conservatism often found in these circles, gentlewomen experienced a high degree of flexibility to pursue their intellectual interests and make original contributions in science during a time when new professional norms, undervalued their participation in more public arenas. Rich collections of documents pertaining to the work and affairs of scientific aristocratic families reveal in detail the operations of these country house laboratories amidst domestic and professional norms. Several well-documented cases demonstrate how such contexts proved to be crucial both for the construction of scientific knowledge and the influence of aristocratic values on new institutions of science. Particularly influential were the scientific households managed by the Rosses, Balfours, Rayleighs, and Sidgwicks. The research funded allows the researcher to undertake a detailed analysis of these cases, as well as several others involving families in related same circles, in order to demonstrate the complicated networks of scientific practices shaped by country house norms which had significant consequences for gender roles and scientific institutional developments. This study thus reinterprets our historical understanding of the developments in late-Victorian science, about which historians have more often emphasized new university and industrial research facilities. The study will show the continuing importance of privately sponsored research well into the Edwardian period. It promises a broader impact both for the public understanding of science, as in the museums at Darwin's Down House and Lord Rosse's Birr Castle, and for a fuller understanding of the way in which the sciences-especially the physical science-have become gendered, relevant to initiatives that encourage women's successes in the sciences. Funds will allow the researcher to conduct archival research of collections still largely unexplored in England, Scotland, and Ireland.