  Network analysis is becoming increasingly relevant in the historical
investigation of scientific communities and their knowledge circulation
process, because it offers the opportunity to explore and visualize connections
amog scientific actors on a scale qualitatively different from traditional
historical methods. Temporal networks are especially suitable for this task, as
they allow to investigate the evolution of scientific communities over time. In
this paper we will rely on the analytical tools provided by temporal networks
to examine the technical comission on agriculture (1913 - 1947) established by
the International Meteorological Organization (IMO). By using the membership
data available on this commission, we will investigate how this scientific
community evolved over the decades, who were its key members, which national
groups were represented, and how historical events, such as the two world wars,
impacted on the work of this organization. This will give us an insight into
the knowledge circulation process of this scientific body, as the IMO was an
international organization based on voluntary cooperation and its work was
first and foremost the immediate consequence of the interaction amog its
members. In our paper we will rely on centrality measures (eigenvector, joint,
and conditional centrality) to understand the structure of the comission's
network, and we will constantly point out the strengths and weaknesses of
temporal networks in the analysis of historical data.
