Scientific Metropolis: Belfast in an Age of Science, c. 1820-1914

It has long been acknowledged that the development of science and the emergence of the modern city cannot be disentangled. For all that, much work remains to be done on the complex bundle of ties - cultural, political and practical - that bound these enterprises together. The proposed project will contribute to this task by examining the growth of scientific culture in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Belfast. At the beginning of the century Belfast was a small market town with a handful of citizens engaged in scientific pursuits. At the century's end it was Ireland's largest city and only industrial centre. By then science had become an integral part of Belfast's practical success and civic identity. This trajectory followed a trend evident in many other British urban centres. Belfast thus provides a little-studied exemplar of the co-evolution of Victorian science and the Victorian city. At the same time, a number of sharp contrasts can be drawn between Belfast and other Victorian cities. For that reason, focusing on Belfast also affords an opportunity to complicate general narratives about 'science and the city' in the nineteenth century and to explore aspects of Belfast's growth and development only superficially acknowledged in standard historical accounts of the town's unique history.

The project will investigate science in Belfast from three distinct but related perspectives. First, it will examine the ways in which science was subsumed into Belfast's civic culture. From this viewpoint, the significance of science as a cultural activity and its relevance to questions of social status, cultural credibility and political advantage will be explored. Second, the project will examine the application of science to practical problems generated by rapid urban growth. Exploring the importance of applied science to urban governance will be central to this phase of the research. Third, the project will examine how science was used to link Belfast with a wider world. As well as mapping important scientific networks of exchange, this part of the research will explore the overlap between science, commerce and imperialism in what was, by the end of the nineteenth century, Ireland's busiest port city. In combination, these perspectives will provide a rich description of scientific culture in nineteenth-century Belfast and a multi-layered account of the relations between science and a modern industrial city.

The proposed project will include two major initiatives to bring the research to a non-academic audience. First, the PI and PDRA will collaborate with National Museums Northern Ireland (NMNI) to produce an exhibition commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club. The PDRA will act as a guest curator and will write a short companion history of the Field Club (published and designed by NMNI). Second, the PI and PDRA will organise a public lecture series entitled 'Belfast: City of Science'. The series will be hosted by the Ulster Museum and will coincide with the exhibition. Among other things, these lectures will showcase important natural science collections held by the Museum and highlight significant archival material held by PRONI, the Linen Hall Library and Belfast Central Library. More generally, the lectures will direct public attention to an aspect of Belfast's history often hidden by more dominant political imagery.

The beneficiaries of the project will thus include National Museums Northern Ireland, the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club and other local cultural institutions. The exhibition and lectures will benefit a local audience interested in Belfast's scientific heritage. There will be no charge for attendance at any of the proposed public events.

More generally, both the exhibition and the public lectures will contribute to wider efforts to bring Belfast's divided communities together to celebrate a shared but neglected aspect of the city's past. They will also promote public participation in the scientific activities supported by the BNFC and interest a non-academic audience in the history of science.