Seminar: THE ALCHEMIST’S CHILDREN

THE ALCHEMIST’S CHILDREN: Daughters, Sons, their Spouses, and Eighteenth-Century Uses of an Alchemical Family Heritage

Hjalmar Fors (Karolinska Institutet)
Hjarmar Fors is a PhD (2003) and Docent (2014) in the history of science and Head of Unit at the Hagströmer medico-historical library, Karolinska Institutet.

His main areas of interest are chemistry/alchemy, pharmacy, natural history
and mining sciences from c. 1550 to the beginning of the nineteenth century.
He is also interested in knowledge transfers between Europe and China, the
history of modern medical gymnastics, history of technology and STS (Science
and Technology Studies). Theoretically, he is interested in the global and
European circulation of knowledge, as well as the philosophical issues
arising from science’s claims to superior knowledge and power, especially
in relation to encounters with non-European cultures. 
Information about Hjalmar Fors from the website. 

ABSTRACT
Urban Hiärne (1641-1724) was, during his lifetime, Sweden’s most prominent physician, natural philosopher, and alchemist. In this paper I study how his thirteen children who survived into adulthood made use of their father’s reputation, and how they developed new activities in the three major spheres of thought and activity, in which he had been deeply involved. These spheres were religious and spiritual deviance/free thinking, mining/industrial project making and medicine/pharmacy. As we will see, these spheres were interconnected and, to a quite significant extent infused with, the alchemical heritage of the grand old man.  I do not present a family biography, but rather seek to show how the study of a family, makes it possible to reinterpret traditional discipline-based historiographies and the boundaries between different spheres of knowing and doing. 

This seminar is open for everyone, but registration is necessary. Register here.