The Natural History of Sexuality of America

Greta LaFleur

Library Company of Philadelphia and The Davida T. Deutsch Program in Women’s History and the Charlotte Cushman Society

Wednesday, October 16, 2019 5:30 pm EDT

The Library Company of Philadelphia
1314 Locust Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107, Philadelphia
PA 19107

If sexology—the science of sex—came into being sometime in the 19th century, then how did statesmen, scientists, and everyday people make meaning out of sex before that point? In this talk, Greta LaFleur explores how 18th-century natural history—the study of organic life in its environment—actually provided the intellectual foundations for the later development of the scientific study of sex.