Reading the World: British Practices of Natural History

This presentation by Dr Edwin Rose gives an overview of his new book, Reading the World: British Practices of Natural History (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2025), aspects of which were reported on in The Observer in February 2025. 

Learn more about the process of British researchers, especially on Cook’s voyages, in gathering and publishing natural history specimens. Discover new research into how Pacific Islander knowledge systems became integrated within the European scientific presentation as featured in Rose’s new book.

The book and talk covers the broad processes of gathering, organising and publishing information on natural history in the Pacific during the late eighteenth century ranging from the processes used to gather information in the field, with a particular emphasis on James Cook’s voyages to the Pacific and Indigenous knowledge systems, ranging through to the publication, distribution, reception and use of some of the first published botanical descriptions of species from these regions. A special emphasis in this new research is on the knowledge of a range of Pacific islanders and how became integrated within these materials.

Copies of the book will be available to purchase on the evening.