Scientific Collections on the Move: Provincial Museums, Archives, and Collecting Practices (1800-1950)

Project Information

SciCoMove

Grant agreement ID: 101007579

DOI

10.3030/101007579

Project closed

EC signature date 27 November 2020

Start date 1 May 2021

End date 30 April 2025

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 726 800,00

EU contribution

€ 726 800,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITE DU MANS
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - SciCoMove (Scientific Collections on the Move: Provincial Museums, Archives, and Collecting Practices (1800-1950))

Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2025-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Concern about provenance and calls for repatriating museum objects have increased considerably in recent years. In this context, the EU-funded SciCoMove project studies the history of some scientific collections in paleontology, anthropology, botany and related applied sciences. Drawing on the most recent historiography of science and scientific collections, the project shifts focus from major to smaller museums in order to demonstrate a more complex, less centralised and less hierarchical, vision of international scientific exchanges. As a result, SciCoMove will provide a more accurate account of the many dimensions of science collecting practices and multilateral contacts between Europe and Latin America. The generated knowledge will enable museums to better respond to social demands, especially concerning object provenance, and scientists to make better use of historical collections in their research.
This project is based on: 1 – the shift of focus from major to smaller museums in the “provinces” or “peripheries” in order to outline a more complex, less centralized, and less hierarchical vision of scientific exchanges; 2 – a conception of collections as nodes in networks of circulation and as structures producing knowledge, rather than as heritage and conservation institutions; 3 – an ambition to better connect the collections’ archives with the objects exhibited or conserved and provide a wider historical and social meaning to these objects. The overall methodology is based on the material analysis of objects combined with the analysis of archives recording their circulation, dispersion, exchange, and application.
This project promotes collaborations between historians of science, scientists, and museum professionals from nine countries in Latin America and Europe. In line with its objective to better account for the multiple dimensions of science collections and for multilateral interchange between Europe and Latin America, SciCoMove encourages collaborations on equal terms between Latin American and European teams.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In order to achieve its objectives, SciCoMove articulates case studies, carried out individually or by several members of the team, and workshops around crosscutting themes that these case studies will help to explore. Training seminars (summer schools) will be organized for early stage researchers, and will use the case studies as their material and the crosscutting themes as their main themes.
In the first year of the project, 23 research trips for a total duration of more than 30 months took place between partner organizations of the Consortium.
Two workshops were organized in November 2021 at Le Mans University (France), and in April 2022 at Turin University (Italy). The first training seminar open to PhD students will take place in La Plata Museum (University of La Plata, Argentina) in July 2022. The program of these meetings is available on the project website: https://scicomove.hypotheses.org
The first workshop was centered on the case studies. Many secondments have been performed, allowing members of the team to carry out their research. Some provisory results are exposed on the project website under the category “research blog”. The second workshop delt with “skulls and human remains collections”. Some Turin collections, including the famous Museo Egizio, were presented. ICOM ethical recommendations for exhibiting human remains were discussed. Some communications focused on physical anthropology and anatomy specimens on the move.
Meetings took place on the creation of a mooc (massive online open course) and of a digital exhibition. Based on the research carried out in the project, they will be delivered at the end of SciCoMove.
The main communication tool for SciComove is its website https://scicomove.hypotheses.org. The project is also on the social media (https://www.instagram.com/scicomove/ https://www.facebook.com/Scicomove-Scientific-Collections-on-the-Move-109674661309717/ ). SciCoMove was presented at 2021 Europe Researchers’ Night in Le Mans. An exhibition by Peruvian artist Fernando Bedoya on trepanning was organized in Turin Human Anatomy Museum Luigi Rolando in April-September 2022. The main dissemination event was a symposium on “Amateurs and vocational scientists: places of encounters, networks and scientific practices” held at the 26th International Congress of History of Science and Technology in Prague (virtual), July 25-31 2021.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Secondments and workshops provide opportunities to meet new colleagues and see new collections and archives. This triggered the discovery of many “objects on the move”, documenting the multidirectional aspects of the travels of specimens, as shown by specimens from Europe in the Latin American collections. Secondments also helped discover, secure access to and study new archives in relation with the circulation of specimens and ideas, such as the archives of the Prison Museum in Buenos Aires (under the process of being catalogued) and the diplomatic archives in Nantes (Western France, short train trip from Le Mans and Angers).
New analysis are developed by the team on why and how objects travel, demonstrating that we have to go beyond provenance issues. It is not sufficient to know when, by whom and from where objects came to enter the collections. It is necessary as well to understand and explain why they moved. Collective discussion also arouse on how and why some specimens were scattered and some collections lost. These analyses will have impact on the way museums can deal with provenance issue and repatriation demands, and tell their own history.
Within the team, contacts between people in charge of collections were established and strengthened. Experience sharing on sensible issues such as conservation, restoration and exhibition of human remains was organized. Meetings about the planed exhibition triggered a better common knowledge on skills and experience with digital exhibitions available within the group.
Secondments and workshops helped increase the international visibility of more experienced researchers and develop the careers of younger scholars. Enhancing career opportunities for early stage researchers is one major socio-economic impact expected from the project. Special emphasis is put on explaining EU funding possibilities to the younger researchers, notably from Latin America.

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