A Belgian (hi)story \ How George Sarton started mapping the history of science in Wondelgem
- Liesbeth Aerts
- Jul 28
- 7 min read
In Wondelgem, just outside Ghent, people now push shopping carts through the aisles of a Colruyt supermarket. There is nothing there to suggest that, a little over a century ago, this was the site of an intellectual project that would go on to shape an entire field. In 1912, the first edition of the scientific journal Isis was compiled here, in the home of the Sarton family.
Seeds in Wondelgem
George Sarton was not yet the “father of the history of science.” At the time, the field he would later define barely existed. Scientists wrote science. Historians wrote history. The idea that science itself had a history worth studying, systematically, rigorously, and across cultures, was not yet commonplace, but Sarton wanted to change that.
