Ordering Colours in 18th and Early 19th Century Europe

Tanja C. Kleinwächter
studied history of science and technology as well as gender studies (Technische Universität and Humboldt Universität Berlin). Currently she is a PhD candidate at the Dept. for History of Science, TU Berlin. She was part of the project The Order of Colours. Colour Systems and Colour Reference Systems in 18th Century Europe, funded by German Research Foundation. Before embarking on the PhD she undertook research on Christian Friedrich Prangens der Weltweisheit und freyen Künste Magister Farbenlexicon (Interdisciplinary Centre for European Enlightenment Studies, MLU Halle,) as well as on Circles, Triangles, and Tables: European Colour Systematization in Science, Economy, and Art from ca 1720 to ca 1810 (Dept. of History of Science, TU Berlin).

Sarah Lowengard
is a historian of technology and sciences whose research focuses on practical and philosophical engagements with colour in the early modern West: Her special expertise is the materials sciences of material culture in the 18th century. An artisan colourmaker and art conservator as well as an award-winning historian, Lowengard resides in New York City.

Friedrich Steinle
is Professor of History of Science at Technische Universität Berlin. His research focuses on the history and philosophy of experiment, on the history of colour research, the history of electricity, and on the dynamics of scientific concepts. His books include Newton’s Manuskript ‘
De gravitatione
’ (1991) and
Exploratory Experiments. Ampère, Faraday, and the origins of electrodynamics
(2016). He is coeditor of
Scientific concepts and investigative practic
e (2012, with U. Feest),
Colour Histories. Science, art, and technology in the 17th and 18th centuries
(2015, with M. Bushart) and of
Die Farben der Klassik
(2016, with M. Dönike and J. Müller-Tamm).