The School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, University of Leeds, and the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford, are offering a fully funded Collaborative Doctoral Award "Coaxing Nature to the Screen": Frank Percy Smith and the Transformations of British Natural History in the Pre-WWII Era of Technological Innovation and Mass Entertainment.
In the 2020s, the world looks to David Attenborough to reveal the wonders of nature on the screen. But in the 1920s that position was held by the London-born amateur naturalist turned "kinematographic wizard" Frank Percy Smith (1880-1945). Drawing on little-explored archival holdings on Smith at the National Science and Media Museum, the project will use Smith's extraordinary career to open up new perspectives on how technological innovation - especially in the sound and vision technologies showcased in the Museum's new galleries - has transformed the knowledge, practice and personnel of British natural history in the long twentieth century.
The project is a historical inquiry into the remaking of British natural history in the wake of the new sound and vision technologies associated with cinema. It will be anchored in a study of the career of Frank Percy Smith, a pioneer of nature documentaries who invented several techniques (including time-lapse photography) that brought never-before-seen perspectives on the natural world to mass audiences. Without university training or credentials, Smith fought hard to be taken seriously for his contributions to natural knowledge while at the same time producing work with suffcient mass appeal to be commercially viable. Both sides of his achievement - and the tensions between them - are visible in the title of a full-page newspaper profile of him in 1936: "Coaxing Nature to the Screen: How Science is Wresting Secrets from Her."
- Open to all applicants (UK and international) for study on a full-time or part-time basis.
- Link to full project details here and details of the White Rose College of Arts & Humanities (WRoCAH) application process here.
- Deadline for applications: 12 noon (UK time) Wednesday 5th March 2025.
Lead supervisors:
- Prof. Gregory Radick, Centre for History and Philosophy of Science, School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, University of Leeds
- Dr Annie Jamieson, National Science and Media Museum, Bradford — one of five museums comprising the national Science Museum Group
For more information see here
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