Historical Food Preservation

February 25, March 25, April 29, May 27, & June 6

9:30 to 11 a.m. | Online

A black and white illustration of people preserving food outdoors beneath a gnarled black tree Presented by the New York Botanical Garden’s Humanities Institute and the Huygens Institute for Dutch History and Culture, this monthly seminar series engages with a question that has obsessed humans for millennia—how do we preserve food? Bringing together historians of science, art, and capitalism, these conversations will tackle this issue from a multidisciplinary and transregional perspective.

This series is moderated by Dr. Marieke Hendriksen (Huygens Institute) and Dr. Lucas Mertehikian (NYBG), and coordinated by Ph.D. (c) Edurne De Wilde (Huygens Institute/Leiden University).

This event is free and open to the public.

RSVP

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Please confirm each of the seminars you would like to attend.
Histories of Fermentation | Tuesday, February 25; 9:30–11 a.m. ET
- Yes
In this panel, Dr. Justin A. Linds and Dr. Carmen Schmechel will examine the entangled histories of fermentation, philosophical thought, and colonialism in the Western world during the early modern period.

Speakers:
Justin A. Linds, Princeton University
Carmen Schmechel, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, KNAW
Food Consumerism | Tuesday, March 25; 9:30–11 a.m. ET
- Yes
Speakers:
Lisa Haushofer, University of Amsterdam
Anna Zeide, Virginia Tech

In this panel, speakers will engage with histories of food consumerism and how they relate to broader socioeconomic contexts and technological processes. Drawing from her book Wonder Foods: The Science and Commerce of Nutrition, Lisa Haushofer will analyze how US-imperialist impulses to dominate new territories and appropriate new resources prompted new questions about food’s material and scientific nature, which went hand in hand with the creation of new preserved food products. Anna Zeide, author of Canned: The Rise and Fall of Consumer Confidence in the American Food Industry, will focus on the 1930s as a pivotal moment in the canning industry’s trajectory, as it finally had achieved a kind of stability and market dominance that industry leaders had fought for over the previous half-century, investing in scientific research to bolster market strength and consumer confidence.
The Early Modern Kitchen | Tuesday, April 29; 9:30–11 a.m.
- Yes
Speakers:
Lucy J. Harvard, University of Cambridge
Maroesjka Verhagen, University of Amsterdam
Brining, Pickling, and Smoking | Tuesday, May 27; 9:30–11 a.m. ET
- Yes
Speakers:
Thijs Elfrink and Tijmen Moesker,
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, KNAW
Tea and Sugar | Friday, June 6; 9:30–11 a.m. ET
- Yes
Speakers:
Romita Ray, Syracuse University
Ulbe Bosma, International Institute of Social History, IISG
All of the above
- Yes

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