Martin Bush

(Residential Fellow, 2020-21)

Martin Bush

Residential Fellow

Drawing Down the Moon: Changes in nineteenth-century thinking about the Moon as seen in visual language

Martin Bush is a cultural historian of popular science in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. He has extensive experience in science communication, museums, and planetariums. Current interests include meta-research, public trust in science, the history of popular astronomy, and visualizations in popular science in the nineteenth century.

Martin’s project at the Linda Hall Library, Drawing Down the Moon, will examine the development of the lunar landscape in the second half of the nineteenth century from a “freak of imagination” to a commonplace image. The project will examine the multiple strands involved in this transformation, including scientific developments in selenography and geological mapping, as well as cultural influences like science fiction, travel writing, and landscape painting. Considering all looking as acts of looking for, the project will uncover the changes in how the publics of the time understood the Moon as a place.