Jessie Wei-Hsuan Chen

Fascinating! This reminds me of other aesthetic borders in seventeenth-century albums that also have an amalgamation of (copied) images, albeit done very differently.

The Linnean Online entry 'Cassia glauca' part of the Buchanan-Hamilton Drawings collection. It shows a drawing of yellow flowers on a stem with small, light green leaves and a single pea pod, with metadata on the left-hand side.

The Linnean Online entry 'Papilio menelaus' part of the Insect specimen collection. It shows a blue butterfly, with metadata on the left-hand side.

The Linnean Online entry 'Artocarpus incisus' part of the Anderson Manuscripts collection. It shows a Triangular shaped tree with a man in blue shorts sitting in a relaxed posture underneath, with metadata on the left-hand side.

June's Treasure of the Month is our new digitised collections - Linnean Online.

The platform makes images of our herbaria, specimen and manuscript collections available for researchers around the world. It will also allow us to grow this important resource in the future.

Read more: buff.ly/8E3OiOT

This is so interesting! Do you know if the images were reproduced through intaglio printing?

Photo with a microscope attributed to John Marshall as the maker in the front and a microscope made by Giuseppe Campani in the back.

A tiny slice of a dandelion stem under on a petri dish under the lens.

Magnified view of the dandelion stem slice when it was hydrated, showing vibrant greens in coloration.

Magnified view of the dandelion stem slice when it was almost dried, becoming more shriveled in form and brown in coloration.

Back to the #MuseumBoerhaave to work with two rare compound microscopes from the 17th-c., one made by Giuseppe Campani and another attributed to John Marshall as the maker. So many new thoughts emerged from observing how colors and form changed under the lenses. #VisualizingTheUnknown #histsci

Coffee in Washington, DC Engraving of Coffea arabica by John Miller, 1774. Wellcome Collection. As I mentioned in the last post, I spent a day in March at Dumbarton Oaks Museum and Library and met with several people inter…

Post from Herbarium World on #coffee and #Planthumanities herbariumworld.wordpress.com/2025/06/16/c... @dumbartonoaks.bsky.social‬

Thank you, Bryony!

Photo of Jessie giving a talk.

A box of fifteen wax apples of various sizes and colors.

Close-up of a red wax apple.

Last highlight was a lunch talk at the uni. Herbaria to share my current research. So happy to see many interested people; the room was pretty packed. Got a bonus tour to more items at the Herbaria afterwards, including some stunning wax fruit from early 20th-c Japan from economic botany collection!

Display cases in the glass flower room at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

Display cases in the glass flower room at the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

Glass model of the Encelia californica (California Brittlebush).

Glass model of the development of Marchantia polymorpha, a kind of liverwort.

Another major event was studying the famous Blaschka glass flowers on site. It was amazing to examine these incredible models in person, together with the collection manager & conservator. I also got to spend some time in the archive consulting some historical documents on the glass flowers.

Work stations for sixteenth-century woodcutting experiments.

22 inked woodblocks carrying various letters from the alphabet and other images.

Students then tried their hands at woodcutting in the 16th-c. manner. Several students liked the technique so much that they returned for more woodcutting the following week during their free experiment times!

A slide showing, on the top half, a photo of an arrangement of art materials and images made in several mediums, and, on the bottom half, the title of the presentation, "Experimenting with Historical Reconstruction".

I visited Harvard Uni. the past two weeks. A major event was giving a workshop for the Summer Institute for Technical Studies in Art @ Art Museums. For the theme Experiment, I showed how I incorporate historical reconstruction/hands-on research in my past/present projects & the related experiments.

Next week: in the final session of the Historical Food Preservation Lecture Series, @preservare.bsky.social. PhD candidates @thijselfrink.bsky.social and Tijmen Moesker will discuss brining, pickling, and smoking.
📅 June 24, 15:30-17:00 (Amst) 🌐 Online👉 buff.ly/VlbeNIz
@mariekehendriksen.bsky.social

Looking forward to sharing some work-in-progress of my new research at the Harvard University Herbaria & Libraries! Feel free to join us if you are in the Cambridge/Boston, MA, area.

Browse preserved plant specimen collections to travel through history, exploring millennia of botanical experience.

Herbaria may look like “plant mummies,” but they’re full of life and meaning. Join us this Thursday at 6pm to hear Maura Flannery share why they matter.

Book here: bit.ly/3RZDUhy

Vossius Fund for Research Fellows 2026 open for applications - Vossius Center for the History of Humanities and Sciences The Vossius Center offers funding for Research Fellows. The next deadline is 1 June 2025 for fellowships in 2026.

Are you interested in the entangled history of humanities and science?

Then join us at the Vossius Center of the University of Amsterdam.

Applications for fellowships in 2026 are now open.

Deadline: 1 June 2025

vossius.uva.nl/shared/subsi...

Banner image for the Plant Humanities KNAW-Huc, featuring an orange daylily in front of a green background.

Poster for the Plant Humanities KNAW-HuC. Description on the poster: Plant Humanities has emerged as a convergence point for multiple disciplines interested in the connections between plants and people. Such convergence has the potential to address important questions of today, such as climate change, biodiversity decline, and decolonization of knowledge. This colloquium brings together researchers in Plant Humanities in the Netherlands to showcase the many ways in which people have related to plants in the past and present. Program: 10:15–10:30, Check-in and Coffee; 10:30–11:00, Welcome and Short Introduction; 11:00–11:30, Becoming Global? Practices of Collecting, Naming and Exchanging Seeds in Early Modern Botany by Melinda Susanto (Huygens Instituut / KNAW); 11:30–12:00, Plants that Adorn and Construct Social Bodies: Body Ornaments in the Amazon Region by Caroline Fernandes Caromano (Naturalis Biodiversity Center), 12:00–13:30, Lunch; 13:30–14:00, Wild Tulips in Historical Dutch Gardens: Where Do They Come From? by Anastasia Stefanaki (Utrecht University Botanic Gardens); 14:00–14:30, Picturing and Representing Plants in the Past: Materials, Techniques, and Artisanal Knowledge by Jessie Wei-Hsuan Chen (Huygens Instituut / KNAW); 14:30–15:00, Plants, People, and Cities: From Sao Paulo, Brazil to Amsterdam, Netherlands by Luiza Teixeira-Costa (Meertens Instituut / KNAW); 15:00–16:00, Discussion and moving forward; 16:00–17:00, Drinks. Additional info: Seats are limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis; Register before 9 May to receive the link to the live streaming; This event will not be recorded.

@l-teixeiracosta.bsky.social & I are excited to see many have signed up. There are still seats left, so register if you would like to join us for the #PlantHumanities Colloquium at @meertens-knaw.bsky.social / @huygensknaw.bsky.social, or online!

Register through forms.office.com/e/YUJEB4GzuE.

@sietskefransen.bsky.social neemt deze week de account @historicivertellen.bsky.social over. Zij vertelde gisteren iets over onze #VisualizingTheUnknown project. Kijk eens!

Motifs, policies, and functions in East and Southeast Asia: "green space" as a travelling concept

We are delighted to announce our programme for the Spring/Summer term 2025. Our first seminar will be Ian Mell's paper 'Motifs, Policies, and Functions in East and Southeast Asia: "green space" as a travelling concept', on 1st May 2025: @ihr.bsky.social
www.history.ac.uk/events/motif...

The Biodiversity Heritage Library has been a really important resource for my research! Thank you the Smithsonian for hosting this vital site for the past 20 years and hope that the BHL can find a new home soon. #ILoveBHL #OpenAccess

Poster for the Plant Humanities KNAW-HuC. Description on the poster: Plant Humanities has emerged as a convergence point for multiple disciplines interested in the connections between plants and people. Such convergence has the potential to address important questions of today, such as climate change, biodiversity decline, and decolonization of knowledge. This colloquium brings together researchers in Plant Humanities in the Netherlands to showcase the many ways in which people have related to plants in the past and present. Program: 10:15–10:30, Check-in and Coffee; 10:30–11:00, Welcome and Short Introduction; 11:00–11:30, Becoming Global? Practices of Collecting, Naming and Exchanging Seeds in Early Modern Botany by Melinda Susanto (Huygens Instituut / KNAW); 11:30–12:00, Plants that Adorn and Construct Social Bodies: Body Ornaments in the Amazon Region by Caroline Fernandes Caromano (Naturalis Biodiversity Center), 12:00–13:30, Lunch; 13:30–14:00, Wild Tulips in Historical Dutch Gardens: Where Do They Come From? by Anastasia Stefanaki (Utrecht University Botanic Gardens); 14:00–14:30, Picturing and Representing Plants in the Past: Materials, Techniques, and Artisanal Knowledge by Jessie Wei-Hsuan Chen (Huygens Instituut / KNAW); 14:30–15:00, Plants, People, and Cities: From Sao Paulo, Brazil to Amsterdam, Netherlands by Luiza Teixeira-Costa (Meertens Instituut / KNAW); 15:00–16:00, Discussion and moving forward; 16:00–17:00, Drinks. Additional info: Seats are limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis; Register before 9 May to receive the link to the live streaming; This event will not be recorded.

Want to learn more about the exciting research in #PlantHumanities in the Netherlands? Then join us on 13 May at the Spinhuis in Amsterdam or online!

Register through forms.office.com/e/YUJEB4GzuE before 9 May. Please share!

I am very thrilled and very intimidated to be speaking at the Linnean Society!

The <i>Natuurkundige Commissie</i> in the Netherlands Indies (1820–1850) "The <i>Natuurkundige Commissie</i> in the Netherlands Indies (1820–1850)" published on 14 Apr 2025 by Brill.

Our „Emergence of Natural History“ series @degruyterbrill.bsky.social is growing! The latest volume was just published: Pieter van Wingerden's fascinating account of "The Natuurkundige Commissie in the Netherlands Indies (1820–1850)."
Please get in touch if you have a #HistNatHist book proposal.

Epistemic Practices and Plant Classification in Premodern European Botanical Knowledge This volume aims to uncover the diverse approach to plants in the Renaissance and seventeenth century that paved the way for a definition of botany as a fully-fledged discipline. Its scope expands bey...

Congratulations to the editor of & contributors to

Epistemic Practices & Plant Classification in Pre-Modern Botanical Knowledge: An Interdisciplinary Treatment
Edited by @fabribald.bsky.social
www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

It appears in the @amsterdamupress.bsky social series Scientiae Studies.

Photo of a stone painting featuring a bouquet in a vase in the center, surrounded by a border with a geometric pattern.

Photo of a section of the museum, showing historical workstations for cutting, grinding, and polishing stones, with a wall-to-wall display of different kinds of precious stones used for pietre dure in the background.

Photo of a display case that shows the different stages of making a pietra dure, including the initial watercolor, model drawing for transfer, small sections of stones that are joined to create part of the image, and different kinds of stones as the color palette.

Photo of a piece of the Terra del Paese di Rimaggio, or Marna (Paesina).

Took students of NIKI/Huygens course "From Leonardo to Steno" to the Opificio delle Pietre Dure last Friday. Excellent collection for discussing early modern art, science, & material practices and for exercising looking closely by drawing textures. We were amazed by the incredible stone paintings!

Photo of many wax botanical models in pots on display. The models are in life-size to the modeled plants. The walls and display shelves are painted in green.

Photo showing the wax botanical model of "Cactus truncastus" in front of a green wall. The plant is placed in a pot with an oval cartouche that shows the name of the plant, as known in the eighteenth century. Next to the pot (to the bottom right of the picture plane) is a small wax model showing the flower head that is cut in half and placed on a ceramic dish shaped like a seashell.

Photo of wax models of plant anatomy displayed on shelves. The walls have pink wallpaper and the shelves are also painted pink.

Photo of a set of wax models showing the physiological preparation of Cucurbita pepo under a glass case.

Another article I'm working on within the #VisualizingTheUnknown project is about historical three-dimensional representations of plant anatomy. What a treat to be able to see these incredible 18th- and 19th-c. wax botanical models at #LaSpecola in Florence. #histsci

A photo featuring a woodblock and a printed impression, together with the used tools for cutting, including three kinds of knives and a gouge.

This block was for an event at the National Library of the Netherlands (KB) back in February. Finally able to finish it!

Image Source: Dialogus Creatorum/Twespraec der creaturen (Gouda: Gerard Leeu 1481[?]).

#renaissancewoodcutting #woodcut #woodblock #blockprinting #printmaking #reliefprinting

The first Thijssen-Schoute fellowship is open to advanced doctoral students and recent doctorated. This new fellowship is an initiative of the Huygens Institute and the Dr C. Louise Thijssen-Schoute Foundation. Apply by 15 May 2025. More information 👉

Yes! I was able to also work with a Leeuwenhoek microscope. Fascinating devices.

Photo showing a dead bee pinned under an 18th-century microscope for scientific observation and microscopic research.

Test run of working w/ #EarlyModern #microscopes at the Museum Boerhaave for a new article I'm starting! A big part of #visualizingtheunknown is to better understand what early microscopists saw & the encountered challenges by redoing their observations. Back for more observations soon. #histsci

Thanks, Sara!

Photo of the book cover for Embodied Experiences of Making in Early Modern Europe.

Photo of the first page of chapter 7, titled "Remaking Sixteenth-Century Botanical Woodblocks: Embodied Artisanal Knowledge in Early Modern Woodcutting."

Received my copy two weeks ago but only able to open the parcel now! Exciting book edited by @sarahabendall.bsky.social and @serenadyer.bsky.social.

More info: www.aup.nl/en/book/9789...

Get 20% off with discount code “AUP20”, valid until 31 March 2025.