Louis Agassiz: Creator of American Science

In 1846 Swiss immigrant Louis Agassiz took our country by storm, launching American science as we know it. Invited to deliver a series of lectures in Boston, he never left, becoming a professor at Harvard University and the most famous scientist of his time. A pioneer in field research and an obsessive collector, Agassiz focused his prodigious energies on the New World's fauna, enlisting the American public in a vast campaign to send him natural specimens, dead or alive, for his museum of comparative zoology. But there's a dark side to the story. Agassiz staunchly opposed Charles Darwin, questioning the process of natural selection and adhering to the theory of polygenism, the notion that human races came from separate origins. Indiana University professor Christoph Irmscher, author of a recent biography of Agassiz, comes to the Festival to discuss Agassiz's role in the history of American science as well as his racist impulses and their legacy.

This program is presented in partnership with the College Arts & Humanities Institute at Indiana University.