In-Person Program, Crafting Worldviews in Focus: Science, Trade, and European Colonialism

A group of circular objects arranged in four rows of six, stacked one atop the other in a wooden case. Each of the objects bears a different design, including plant forms and insects. At right, a knob is visible on the exterior of the case.

Set of 24 Microscope Slides (signed: “AYpelaar & comp”), Netherlands, ca. 1808–11. Brass, glass, ivory, mahogany, natural specimens, and a handwritten inscription in brown ink. Yale Peabody Museum, The Lentz Collection 

Crafting Worldviews: Art and Science in Europe, 1500–1800 is a multidisciplinary exhibition that examines the inseparable relationship among art, science, and European colonialism from the 16th through the 18th century—an era of voyage, trade, and encounters on a global scale. With nearly 100 objects drawn from across the University’s campus, Crafting Worldviews illuminates the critical role that art and science have played in shaping Europeans’ understanding of the world and their place within it. Join the exhibition cocurators—Jessie Park, the Nina and Lee Griggs Assistant Curator of European Art at the Yale University Art Gallery, and Paola Bertucci, Associate Professor in the History of Science and Medicine Program and Curator of the History of Science and Technology Division at the Yale Peabody Museum—for an object-focused session that addresses how the trade of globally obtained materials, including ivory, mahogany, ebony, and shagreen, shaped the production and consumption of scientific instruments in Europe and its colonies.

Space is limited. For our current vaccination and mask requirements, visit https://artgallery.yale.edu/visit.