Welcome!
I am a historian of art, science and technology, and knowledge.
My research interests, in a nutshell, majorly concern natural history and their visual and material culture in the early modern period. Hands-on research and performative methods, such as historical reconstruction and remaking, are instrumental for my work, which often delves into the processes of making and (re)producing images.
I currently work as researcher and core member on the project Visualizing the Unknown at the Huygens Institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). My project focuses on early modern visual strategies people used to depict, represent, visualize, and communicate observations made from using microscopes and other magnifying devices.
Prior to this research, my PhD project investigated the forms of knowledge and the making of seventeenth-century florilegia. The research was funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) and received the 2020 Stacy Lloyd III Fellowship for Bibliographic Study from the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. Additionally, I have published on the woodblock making and printing of botanical woodcuts at the early modern Plantin Press.
In addition to being a historian, I am a maker of things with a background and training as an illustrator. See Creative Works (external site) for relevant projects.
Jessie Wei-Hsuan Chen
(first name Jessie Wei-Hsuan; last name Chen)