University of Missouri-Kansas city

About

William Ashworth is a historian of science, with an emphasis on the Renaissance and early modern periods. He teaches courses on The Renaissance, The Scientific Revolution, and The Darwinian Revolution, as well as the first half of the World History Survey. His research interests focus on Renaissance and early modern natural history and early scientific illustration, especially emblematic imagery. He has long been working on a book, Emblematic Conversations, which examines and interconnects the title-page images of seventeenth-century scientific books. A list of his publications, with citations, can be found on Google Scholar. Dr. Ashworth is also the Consultant for the History of Science at the Linda Hall Library, where he advises on rare book acquisitions, organizes exhibitions, and writes the Library’s daily blog, the Scientist of the Day. He has curated or co-curated 28 rare book exhibitions for the Library, many of which are available online. These include The Grandeur of Life: A Celebration of Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species (2009); Blade and Bone: The Discovery of Human Antiquity (2012); Ice: A Victorian Romance (2008); Out of This World: The Golden Age of the Celestial Atlas (2007); The Face of the Moon: Galileo to Apollo (1989); and Paper Dinosaurs, 1824-1969 (1996). Many of these are also available as printed catalogs from the Linda Hall Library.

Academic Credentials

B.A., Wesleyan University (1964)

Ph.D., History of Science, University of Wisconsin, Madison (1975)