Abstract
This paper is a contribution to the project of elucidating the geographies of science. The role of space, place and location in the production, consumption and circulation of scientific knowledge has been attracting increasing attention. Here the focus is on the significance of place in reading scientific texts. After several preliminary reflections on what is meant by ‘geographies of reading’, the paper explores the different ways Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection was interpreted in three different settings in the nineteenth century: the Charleston Museum of Natural History in South Carolina, the St Petersburg Society of Naturalists in Russia, and the Wellington Philosophical Society in New Zealand. This exercise demonstrates something of the ways in which local circumstances shaped how readers encountered Darwin's theory.
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