The historical power of the natural science collection of Dominik Bilimek at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU)

Author(s): Petra Lukeneder, Irene Liebhart, Franz Ottner, Anika Mikes, Petra Heinz, Radek Polách
Abstract: The scientific world of the nineteenth century was shaped by far-reaching discoveries,expeditions, travel and collection activities as well as by the development of extensive naturalscientific social networking. During the 1840s, Dominik Bilimek (1813–1884) arose as a keypersonality in European natural sciences, with a significant impact on the biological,geoscientific and even archaeological communities. The Bilimek collection at the Universityof Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna encompasses thousands of specimens andprovides a large number of original labels with date, locality and companions in the field.This set of collection labels was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively with respect to itshistorical value to increase our knowledge about the explorer’s life and his social network.The study also focuses on Bilimek’s so far unknown social links, which were recovered bythe processing of the collection, probably resulting in the use of these data for a socialnetwork analysis of a nineteenth-century scientific network.
Organisation(s): Department of Mineralogy and Crystallography, Department of Palaeontology
External organisation(s): University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Muzeum Novojičínska
Journal: Notes & records : the Royal Society journal of the history of science
Volume: 78
Pages: 403-430
No. of pages: 28
ISSN: 0035-9149
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2022.0051
Publication date: 2023
Peer reviewed: Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012: 107003 History of natural sciences
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas: History and Philosophy of Science
Portal url: https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/deb72ba9-795c-4d77-a001-5e301eda0c08

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