Discover how mathematics, theology, art, and medicine converge through the lens of “similarity” in this unique historical exhibition.
On view in the Cushing Rotunda through August 20, 2025
Curated by Laura R. Phillips, Ph.D., Curator for Visual Arts
Imagine a world in which similarity is the foundation of everything. That idea, inspired by the writings of cultural theorist Walther Benjamin (1892–1940) and Yale Professor Paul North, is the basis for the new exhibition in the Cushing Rotunda: A Cosmos of Similarity. Showcasing lesser-known works from the founding collection of the Medical Historical Library, this captivating new display charts a rich intellectual history in which mathematics, theology, natural philosophy, art, and medicine intertwine. It outlines a history of similarity and knowledge production in Europe between 1482 and 1700, connecting diverse disciplines through their visual and material traces.
At the center of this story is a remarkable array of artifacts from The Edward Clark Streeter Collection of Weights and Measures and the personal library of Harvey Cushing (1869–1939). Curated constellations of objects from these collections—and more—bring together a cosmography of similarity, in which geometrical diagrams, body parts, musical intervals, and architectural forms illustrate abstract concepts, such as harmony, proportion, and time. At stake in this assembly of images and ideas is ultimately a larger claim about measure, in its many forms, as an art of likeness.