STS Circle at Harvard [image.png] Lukas Rieppel Northwestern, STS
on Assembling the Dinosaur: Money, Museums, and American Culture, 1870-1930 Monday, March 25 12:15-2:00 p.m. Pierce Hall, 29 Oxford Street, Room 100F [image.png] Lunch is provided if you RSVP. Please RSVP to sts<mailto:[email protected]>@hks.harvard.edu<mailto:[email protected]> by 5pm Wednesday, March 20. Abstract: During the second half of the 19th century, the United States transitioned from a fractious young republic into the world’s largest producer of goods and services. By the eve of WWI, its industrial output exceeded that of France, England, and Germany combined. At the same time, paleontologists were unearthing some of the largest and most spectacular fossils anyone had ever seen in the American west: dinosaurs. Because they were widely heralded as having been larger, fiercer, and more abundant than prehistoric animals from Europe, American dinosaurs became a favorite among the nation's wealthy elite. Moreover, their origins in the deep past meant that dinosaurs were widely associated with evolutionary theory, including the conventional notion that struggle was at the root of progress. At a time of considerable labor unrest, industrial capitalists like Andrew Carnegie thus turned to dinosaur paleontology as a means to help naturalize a social order that was becoming increasingly stratified. Finally, it did not hurt that America’s best fossils hailed from places like Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. This is precisely where most of the raw materials consumed by its factories could also be found. As they became symbols of America's economic might and power, dinosaurs from the American west reveal a great deal about the culture of capitalism during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Biography: Lukas Rieppel works at the intersection of the history of science and the history of capitalism, focusing especially on the life sciences in 19th and 20th century America. He is currently working on a book that traces how dinosaurs became a symbol of American economic might and power during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Entitled "Assembling the Dinosaur: Money, Museums, and American Culture, 1870 -1930," this project uses the history of paleontology as a means to examine how the ideals, norms, and practices of modern capitalism shaped the way scientific knowledge was made, certified, and distributed. Lukas currently serves as a post-doctoral fellow at Northwestern University, jointly appointed by the History Department and the Science in Human Culture Program. Before coming to Chicago, Lukas completed a PhD in the History of Science at Harvard. During his time in Cambridge, he also completed a Master’s degree in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, studying the population genetics of a hyper-diverse Lycaenid butterfly from Europe. A complete list of STS Circle at Harvard events can be found on our website: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/ Follow us on Facebook: STS@Harvard<http://www.facebook.com/HarvardSTS> _______________________________________________
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