Science

The Victorian period was an age of great scientific upheaval as well as wide interest and participation in science. Proponents of the recently-established sciences of geology and palaeontology, for instance, intrigued the world with visions of prehistory; meanwhile, the spectre of evolutionary theory haunted Victorian respectability and religion. Printed works were important sites for shaping this knowledge. From magisterial tomes to popular periodicals with contributors from across the social spectrum, the literary conversations of Victorian science generated many of our modern disciplines 

Science has been an important element of the Victorian Studies Centre since its inception, when historians of science William H. Brock and A. J. Meadows sat on its first advisory committee. Today, research on Victorian science at Leicester looks not only to key figures such as Charles Darwin and Thomas Henry Huxley but also to the wider context of scientific participation and communication through periodicals, illustration, and the changing social world of professional science.