What can the study of height, health and welfare teach us about our past? Can it tell us about our cognitive development or changing lifespans?
Studying the physical stature of people through history can deliver a clearer and more accurate idea of their welfare than we could achieve by mere economic or monetary indicators. The use of anthropometric elements in studying history can greatly enhance our ideas of the changing qualities of life and welfare, and it may even enable us to uncover exciting new regions of our past.
This lecture has offered an introduction and advocation of an anthropometric approach to history.
An overview of the history of botanical collecting: the characters and their stories; the motivations and disagreements; the current situation and what the future might hold. Dr Robert Huxley is Head of Collections in Botany at the Natural History Museum
