Overview
This talk explores how historical recreation can deepen (and complicate) our understanding of the past by shifting the historian from observer to participant. It centers on three hands-on projects. The first is the undertaking of a marmalade recipe from Hannah Woolley’s 1670 recipe book The Queen-Like Closet to explore the sensory and tacit knowledge involved in early modern kitchen labour. This is followed by the knitting of a reconstructed mitten based on one recovered from the 1845 Franklin Expedition in search of the Northwest Passage to examine material constraint and bodily experience. Finally, I illustrated and constructed an altered version of Johann Remmelin’s 1702 anatomical flapbook A Survey of the Microcosme to investigate early modern anatomy, print culture, and visual knowledge.
Together, these case studies ask what it means to actively participate in the study of history, where the limits of historical recreation lie, and how those limits themselves can be illuminating. While taking care to ground these case studies in their historical contexts, this project shows how the process of making can deepen academic inquiry and allow us to reach a hand into the past.
Speaker
Eleanor Peebles is currently completing a Master's of Philosophy in Early Modern History at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, with a focus on textile history and material culture. They have a Bachelor of Arts honours degree from the University of King's College in Halifax, Canada, where they majored in History and Early Modern Studies, minored in Esoteric and Occult Traditions, and earned certificates in Medical Humanities and Art History & Visual Culture.
Details
This event is part of the Lunchtime Seminar Series organised by the Wolfson College Senior Members.
It is open to all, free to attend and there is no need to book.
Tea and coffee will be available for the audience.
Access
This event will take place in the Combination Room on the first floor of our main building. It has step-free access with a lift and there is an accessible toilet located on the first floor of the building.
Contact
If you have any questions, please contact our events team - events@wolfson.cam.ac.uk
Lunchtime Seminar Series
The Lunchtime Seminar Series provide an opportunity for students, Fellows and Senior Members to share their expertise in a friendly and supportive environment over lunch.
The seminars are held in the Combination Room from 13.00 for an hour on most Wednesdays during full term. The audience is encouraged to bring their lunch in on a tray and take part in the discussion.
Most people who attend are non-specialists, so the talk has to be aimed at a general audience and speakers are warned to avoid technical jargon. We very much encourage students to offer a paper and use this as an opportunity to try out their thesis ideas on listeners who come from all different academic disciplines.
