Objects and Methods between the Sciences and the Humanities

This panel is a response to the growing demand for an integrated history of the sciences and the humanities. We identify intellectual common ground between these realms of knowledge by tracing objects and methods that were shared across the boundaries of scientific and humanistic disciplines. Our case studies, which are situated in the nineteenth century, establish links between disciplines as diverse as archaeology and chemistry, physics and historiography, and theology and zoology. These links demonstrate that, even though the late nineteenth century was the period in which the sciences and the humanities came to be defined in distinct terms, it would be wrong to suppose that this prevented scientists and humanists from drawing inspiration from one another’s ideals and practices. What is more, we show that scientists and humanists occasionally collaborated on the very same material objects, transferring methods and sharing practices across disciplinary boundaries. In a broader sense, we wish to stimulate further research on the historical relations between the sciences and the humanities which not only acknowledges their differences, but also examines their points of intersection.