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Abstract
Tools of Knowledge: tracking scientific instruments and their makers over time and space
In the work of tracking instruments in physical collections and textual sources, and through time and space, digital tools are becoming increasingly important. This paper will present some of the outcomes of the Tools of Knowledge project, funded by the UK Arts & Humanities Research Council. The major part of...Higgitt, Rebekah ; Middle, Sarah ; Butterworth, Alex ; Hay, Duncan
data, scientific instruments, accessibility, linked open data repositories , semantic database , and Digital Humanities
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2023
Abstract
From There to Posterity: Modelling Diverse Itineraries of Scientific Instruments
It is reasonable to claim that there are few types of historical artefact more complex or consequent than the scientific instruments of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In them are encoded generations of craft knowledge, while individually and in combination they enabled new vistas of knowledge production, real and figurative,...Middle, Sarah ; Butterworth, Alex ; Higgitt, Rebekah
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Lecture
The Calton Hill Observatories and their Edinburgh Audiences
This talk takes a look at the history of the Royal Observatory Edinburgh, and the longer story of popular astronomy on its Calton Hill site. Rather than focusing solely on the astronomers, it will widen the scope to those who supported, used and otherwise experienced the work of these observatories...Higgitt, Rebekah
Calton Hill, Edinburgh, popular astronomy , and Royal Observatory Edinburgh
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Lecture
Instruments, Institutions and Individuals: The Local Networks of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, in the 19th Century
Dr Rebekah Higgitt has been Principal Curator of Science at National Museums Scotland since August 2020. She was previously Senior Lecturer in History of Science at the University of Kent and Curator of History of Science at Royal Museums Greenwich, having done her PhD at Imperial College London and postdoctoral...Higgitt, Rebekah
19th century, scientific instruments, Edinburgh, Astronomy, and Royal Observatory
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Don’t believe the hype: scientific instruments and inflated expectations, 1550-1914
The Tools of Knowledge project is remodelling the legacy Scientific Instrument Makers, Observations and Notes (SIMON) database, and significantly enhancing the information it contains about the scientific instrument trade between 1550-1914. One key aim is to reconnect the persons involved in the craft and trade with the instruments that they...Middle, Sarah ; Butterworth, Alex ; Hay, Duncan ; Higgitt, Rebekah
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Lecture
Tools of Knowledge project
Tools of Knowledge is an AHRC-funded interdisciplinary research project based at the University of Cambridge, University of Sussex and National Museums Scotland, in partnership with Royal Museums Greenwich and the Science Museum. Starting in January 2021 it runs until the end of June 2023.Higgitt, Rebekah
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Lecture
Climate change: a time travel adventure
Join climate campaigner and author Alice Bell in a trip through time to the decisions, inventions and accidents which created the warming world we’re living in today – and how it could have ended up quite differently. Beginning with the discovery of CO2 in Edinburgh, travel through the pioneering age...Bell, Alice ; Higgitt, Rebekah
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Lecture
Exploring the climate crisis through collections and programming at National Museums Scotland
Climate change has a profound impact on communities of the North and their way of life. As Russia assumes the Chairmanship of the Arctic Council in 2021-2023, we open a conversation about the Arctic as a unique eco system and focus on the sustainable development of the region and what...Higgitt, Rebekah
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2022
Lecture
Nevil Maskelyne and the projects of 18th century astronomy
Focusing on the career and connections of the Fifth Astronomer Royal, Nevil Maskelyne, this talk will look at what astronomy was for in the 18th century. From his early voyage to St Helena to his long years at Greenwich, Maskelyne was an internationally significant figure who was involved with all...Higgitt, Rebekah
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Lecture
Tools of Knowledge: Exploring the Scientific Instrument Trade with Digital Tools
The second edition of the Neuchâtel Seminar in History of Science and Technology – entitled Scientific Objects: Then and Now – aims to reflect on scientific objects and the problems raised by their study by working on two aspects in particular. On the one hand, the seminar will host retrospective...Higgitt, Rebekah
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Conference paper (unpublished)
Giants and dwarfs at the Ordnance Office in the Tower of London
Higgitt, Rebekah
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2020
Lecture
Edinburgh to Hawai’i – the short astronomical career of John Walter Nichol
Talk by Dr Rebekah Higgitt, Historian of science, Principal Curator of Science, National Museums Scotland “The name John Walter Nichol enters the history of astronomy for his participation as an observer in one of the British expeditions to observe the transit of Venus in 1874. He was said to have...Higgitt, Rebekah