Send message to Author

Short abstract:

Storytelling through historical exhibits and archival presentations is a creative and effective way for drawing participants into discussions of astronomical legacies and futures.

Long abstract:

When engaged with storytelling that juxtaposes biographical histories of astronomers with global events of imperialism, material extraction, and colonization, astronomers can imagine the project of decolonizing their discipline with renewed energy and evidence. With experience building historical exhibits for the scientific community at the Wolbach Library of the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), I argue for storytelling as a creative way for drawing participants into discussions of astronomical legacies and futures. Presenting exhibits ranging from women’s labor to transnational expeditions, I connected the CfA community with a narrative of their scientific history told through archival documents, photographs, and instrumentation. I will discuss the reception of an exhibit that I constructed for Wolbach in 2019 based on my master’s research on Harvard astronomers expeditioning to the Andes in the 1890s and settling amidst historical geographies of knowledge and nation building. This research was based on the holdings of the Wolbach (formerly Harvard College Observatory) special collections, a one-sided repository that indirectly documents the encounter between North Americans and Indigenous Andeans. The history I tell from these sources discloses a familiar story of exploitation that resonates with concerned astronomers. The stakes are raised when administrative entities close libraries and consolidate historical resources, as the CfA announced for Wolbach’s integration into the Harvard Libraries in early 2024. Without a colocation of history and practice, how will astronomers interact with their scientific legacy, and how will STS critics gather the historical sources needed to tell didactic stories of local, historical relationships?