Jim Bennett (historian)

Bennett was educated at Grosvenor High School, a grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland.{{Who's Who | title=Bennett, Prof. James Arthur | id = U12694 | volume = 2023 | edition = online | doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U12694 }} He studied at Clare College, Cambridge, graduating with Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1969. He undertook a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, which he completed in 1974.{{cite thesis |last=Bennett |first= James Arthur |date=1974 |title=Studies in the life and work of Sir Christopher Wren. |degree=PhD |publisher=Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge |url=https://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/permalink/f/t9gok8/44CAM_ALMA21429593340003606 |access-date=5 November 2023}} His doctoral thesis was titled "Studies in the life and work of Sir Christopher Wren".

Bennett was subsequently a fellow and senior tutor of Churchill College and curator of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, both part of Cambridge University. His work in Cambridge included hands-on use of scientific and navigational instruments, using the Whipple collection to teach undergraduates how instruments worked, and gaining insight into the difficulties faced by the historical teachers of those instruments.

Bennett was Director of the Museum of the History of Science at Oxford University (since renamed the History of Science Museum).{{cite web| url=http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/about/staff/ |title=Staff |location=UK |accessdate=17 December 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707052031/http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/about/staff/ | archivedate=7 July 2011 | publisher=History of Science Museum, Oxford }} He was appointed on 1 October 1994, on the retirement of the previous director, Francis Maddison,{{cite news | url=http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/1995-6/supps/2_4401.htm#1Ref | title=Staff Changes | work=Annual Report of the Museum of History of Science 1994–5 | publisher=Oxford University Gazette | volume=Supplement (2) to Gazette No. 4401 | date=20 May 1996 | access-date=23 February 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227115312/https://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/1995-6/supps/2_4401.htm#1Ref | archive-date=27 February 2018 | url-status=dead }} and retired on 30 September 2012. He was also a fellow of the Faculty of History{{cite web|url=http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/staff/faculty/bennett_ja.htm |title=Dr Jim Bennett |location=UK |accessdate=17 December 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716192304/http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/staff/faculty/bennett_ja.htm |archivedate=16 July 2011 | publisher=Faculty of History, University of Oxford }} and Linacre College. In 2010, the University of Oxford gave him the title Professor of the History of Science. Under his leadership at the museum, the visitor figures increased from 25,000 to 180,000. He was an early adopter of the World Wide Web with a website for the museum, including online exhibitions such as The Measurers in 1995.{{cite web| url=https://www.archimuse.com/mw98/papers/bowen/bowen_paper.html | title=Virtual visits to virtual museums | first1=Jonathan P. | last1=Bowen | authorlink1=Jonathan Bowen | first2=Jim | last2=Bennett | first3=James | last3=Johnson | date=April 1998 |

work=MW'98: Museums and the Web | publisher=Archives & Museum Informatics | access-date=3 November 2023 }}

File:Old Ashmolean 2006.JPG]]

In 2016, Bennett became the president of the Hakluyt Society. He also held the position of Keeper Emeritus at the Science Museum, London.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vyn6|title=BBC In Our Time: Longitude| publisher=BBC | location=UK | access-date=5 May 2021}} In addition, Bennett was President of the British Society for the History of Science and President of the Scientific Instrument Commission of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science.{{cite web| url=http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/eAnnualReport02-03.doc | title=Museum of the History of Science Annual Report | publisher=Museum of the History of Science, Oxford | location=UK | date= March 2002| accessdate=17 December 2012 }}{{cite web| url=http://www.cafesci.org/oxford/bennett-1201.html |title=Professor Jim Bennett | website=cafesci.org |accessdate=17 December 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303040105/http://www.cafesci.org/oxford/bennett-1201.html | archivedate= 3 March 2012 }} He also appeared in television documentaries.{{IMDb name|id=3550435|name=Jim Bennett}}.

In 1976, Bennett was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (FRAS). He was also elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (FSA) on 3 March 1989.{{cite web |title=Fellows: Prof James Bennett |url=https://www.sal.org.uk/our-fellows/directory/prof-james-bennett/ |website=Society of Antiquaries of London |access-date=5 November 2023}}

• The Mathematical Science of Christopher Wren, J.A. Bennett. Cambridge, 1982
• The Divided Circle: A History of Instruments for Astronomy, Navigation and Surveying, Jim Bennett. Oxford, 1987.
• Church, State and Astronomy in Ireland, 200 Years of Armagh Observatory, Jim Bennett. Belfast, 1990.
• The Garden, the Ark, the Tower, the Temple. Biblical Metaphors of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe, Jim Bennett and S. Mandelbrote. Oxford, 1998.
• Practical Geometry and Operative Knowledge, Jim Bennett. Configurations, 6, 1998.
• London's Leonardo: The Life and Work of Robert Hooke, Jim Bennett, Michael Cooper, Michael Hunter and Lisa Jardine. Oxford University Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-19-852579-6}}.{{cite journal| title=Essay Review: Light on Hooke: London's Leonardo: The Life and Work of Robert Hooke, the Curious Life of Robert Hooke: The Man Who Measured London | first=Patri J. | last=Pugliese | journal=History of Science | volume=42 | issue=3 | doi=10.1177/007327530404200305 | date=September 2004 | publisher=Sage Publishing }}{{cite journal| journal=The Quarterly Review of Biology | volume=79 | issue=1 | title=London’s Leonardo: The Life and Work of Robert Hooke | date=March 2004 | first=Neil J. | last=McLellan | doi=10.1086/421581 | publisher=The University of Chicago Press }}
• Catalogue of Surveying and Related Instruments, Jim Bennett, Sillabe Srl, Livorno, Italy, 2022. {{ISBN|978-88-3340-322-9}}

;As editor

• The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science, John L. Heilbron (editor-in-chief), Jim Bennett, Frederic L. Holmes, Rachel Laudan and Giuliano Pancaldi (eds). Oxford University Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-19-511229-6}}.

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{{s-bef|before=F. R. Maddison}}

{{s-ttl|title=Director of the Museum of the
History of Science, Oxford|years=1994–2012}}

{{s-aft|after=Silke Ackermann}}

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{{s-bef|before=M. Norton Wise}}

{{s-ttl|title=George Sarton Medal|years=2020}}

{{s-aft| after =Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent}}

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Category:1947 births

Category:2023 deaths

Category:Scholars and academics from Belfast

Category:People educated at Grosvenor Grammar School

Category:Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge

Category:British curators

Category:Fellows of Churchill College, Cambridge

Category:Fellows of Linacre College, Oxford

Category:British historians of science

Category:Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society

Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London