Science and Commerce in Early America with Laura Clerx

This episode will be published on 6 October 2025. In this episode of Historians & Their Histories, we speak with Laura Clerx, a PhD candidate in the History Department at Boston College. Laura discusses her research into the connections between scientific inquiry and commercial enterprise in the post-revolutionary United States. She explores why the same figures who populated early scientific societies were also the ones spearheading major economic projects and how the drive to build a national economy shaped the very questions early American scientists asked. We also hear about her unique path from an undergraduate degree in evolutionary biology to the field of history and learn how the meaning of the word "science" has changed over time.  Laura Clerx is the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship from the MHS. To learn more about MHS fellowships and how to apply, please visit this page. Learn more about this episode here: https://www.masshist.org/podcast/hath-episode-19-Clerx  This episode uses materials from:   Colocate by Podington Bear (Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported)