SC Talk: Trevor Levere, History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, UofT; “Science and Arctic Exploration from Ross (1818) to Nares and Feilden (1875-76)”

Speaker: Trevor Levere, History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, UofT

Title: “Science and Arctic Exploration from Ross (1818) to Nares and Feilden (1875-76)”

Introducer: Bibhu Mohanty; Host: Daphne Maurer

Abstract: From 1818 until the loss of the last Franklin Expedition, the Royal Navy undertook a series of expeditions in search of the Northwest Passage. Admiralty instructions always included scientific observations. After the loss of Franklin and his ships and men, the Admiralty was anxious to avoid further expenses and loss. This caution persisted for 30 years, until Disraeli told the Admiralty to send an expedition to try to reach the geographic pole. The Royal Society furnished scientific instructions, George Nares was the commander, and Henry Wemyss Feilden was the naturalist in HMS Alert. The first half of this richly illustrated talk sketches the story until the loss of Erebus and Terror. The second half gives an account of the Nares Expedition, and of the role of Feilden, based largely on his journal.

Bio: Trevor Levere was educated in England and came to Canada in 1968 to join the faculty in the newly founded Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science and Technology in the University of Toronto, where he remained throughout his career. His main field is the history of chemistry in the 18th & 19th centuries, but every other book has been in different fields, including science and Romanticism, scientific apparatus and institutions, and Arctic science. His most recent book is an edition of the Arctic journal of the soldier-naturalist H. W. Feilden, and he is currently doing the research for a book on the interplay between concepts, apparatus and instrumentation in the history of chemistry from ca. 1750-1830.

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