Events for May 2009
May 3, 2009
Andrea Wulf
“The Brother Gardeners”
Bartram's Garden | Visit site »
Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Bartram’s Garden / Directions
Andrea Wulf, author of The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession, tells the story of a small group of 18th century naturalists who made England a nation of gardeners in this beautifully illustrated talk. The story begins when American farmer John Bartram sent hundreds of boxes filled with seeds to England, and includes Philip Miller, author of the Gardeners Dictionary, the cantankerous Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus, and two passengers on Captain Cook’s Endeavour, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. Together, these men introduced lustrous evergreens, fiery autumn foliage, and colorful shrubs that shaped the Georgian landscape. They also brought science and rational thought to horticulture.
Andrea Wulf was born in India and moved to Germany as a child. She now lives in Britain where she trained as a design historian at the Royal College of Art. An acclaimed writer and garden historian, she’s co-author with Emma Gieben-Gamal of This Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens and 300 Years of English History. She has written for the Sunday Times, Financial Times, The Garden, the Architects’ Journal, and regularly reviews for the Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement. She is also a regular contributor to BBC Radio and BBC TV.
May 5, 2009
Lawrence M. Principe, Johns Hopkins University
Galileo and the Church: Old Myths, Historical Realities, and Modern Relevance
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science and The Franklin Institute | Visit site »
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: Franklin Theater, The Franklin Institute
Directions
This lecture is free and open to the public.
The Galileo, the Medici and the Age of Astronomy exhibit at The Franklin will remain open on Tuesday evening from 5-7pm with discounted tickets available for those attending this lecture.
The encounter between Galileo and the Church is one of the most recognizable events in the history of science. But thanks to its use and abuse by generations of polemicists, it is also one of the most frequently misrepresented. The events are complex, the characters many, the context crucial, and the issues in play vastly more interesting and profound than the simplistic notion of the event as a cut-and-dried “conflict between science and religion” would allow. This lecture will explore not only the soap-opera complexity of the events themselves, but also the serious and intriguing problems and claims about science posed by each side, some of which remain unresolved to this day.
Lawrence M. Principe is Professor of the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, and Professor of Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. Professor Principe holds two doctorates: a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a Ph.D. in the History of Science from Johns Hopkins University. In 1999, the Carnegie Foundation chose Professor Principe as the Maryland Professor of the Year, and in 1998 he received the Templeton Foundation’s award for courses dealing with science and religion. In 2004, Professor Principe was the recipient of the first Francis Bacon Prize by the California Institute of Technology, awarded to an outstanding scholar whose work has had substantial impact on the history of science, the history of technology, or historically-engaged philosophy of science.
This lecture is presented in conjunction with the Franklin Institute’s exhibit ”Galileo, the Medici, and & the Age of Astronomy.”
May 5, 2009
Erin McLeary
“The Color of Science, the Science of Color”
Chemical Heritage Foundation | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org
In the early 20th century, painter A. H. Munsell sought to bring order to the chaotic world by creating a color system. He was primarily interested in devising better instructional methods for children in color theory, which he saw in moral terms. But after his death, scientists in his company became key players in an effort to systematically use color as a proxy for more time-intensive scientific and technical tests. This presentation examines this shift in Munsell’s color system from aide to moral instruction to scientific tool.
Erin McLeary was CHF’s curator of exhibitions from 2005 until earlier this year. As head curator and writer for “Making Modernity,” she led a team of scholars and collections personnel in creating the exhibition. Prior to her work at CHF, McLeary curated exhibits at the Museum of the American Philosophical Society, the Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the Mütter Museum, and the Academy of Natural Sciences. She has also taught courses in the history and sociology of science, the history of technology, and medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Delaware, and Cornell University. McLeary has a Ph.D. in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania.
May 6, 2009
Jing Li, 2nd Military Medical University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China
“Clinical Nursing Specialization in Mainland China, 1949-2008”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 2U Conference Room, Room 2019, Claire Fagin Hall
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Abstract: This historical study explores the social context in China with an understanding of how it affected the process of clinical nursing specialization. Clinical nursing specialization in China was influenced by particular political, economical, and cultural factors. It was mostly influenced by national policy and other factors also contributed to it.
May 12, 2009
Tom Tritton, Chemical Heritage Foundation
“The Cancer Problem: A Look Backward and Forward”
Chemical Heritage Foundation | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org
Most people know both more and less about cancer than they think. This talk will begin with a group exploration of how much we collectively know, with missing details filled in as needed. There will also be a people-friendly exposé of Tom’s actual research discoveries, as well as a few speculations on the future (also known as, “Why you shouldn’t start smoking yet”).
Once upon a time Tom Tritton earned a living doing cancer research at Yale University (for 12 years) and at the University of Vermont (for 12 more years). Somewhere along the way he got sidetracked into administrative responsibilities (for yet another 12 years…and counting) but still maintains ties to his former profession by various writing, teaching, and service assignments.
May 13, 2009
Julia F. Irwin, Doctoral Candidate, Yale University
“Nurses Without Borders: Health and Welfare Interventions and the Structures of American Global Power”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 2U Conference Room, Room 2019, Claire Fagin Hall
University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
Abstract: This paper examines the transcontinental travels of three American Red Cross nurses during World War I and the 1920s. In careers that took them from the United States to Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Russia, and Asia, these women transported American ideas about health and welfare worldwide. Their biographies offer historians of American internationalism a means to chart the spread of American influence in action, while for historians of medicine and nursing, they shed light on the export of health and professional ideas from the United States to the international world.
May 15, 2009
“The Historical Career of Michael Sean Mahoney”
Department of History and Program in History of Science, Princeton University | Visit site »
Time: 9:15 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. [also see May 16]
Place: 211 Dickinson Hall, Princeton University
RSVP: Minerva Fanfair, mfanfair@princeton.edu
The Department of History and the Program in the History of Science at Princeton University present a two-day conference in memory of Professor Michael Sean Mahoney. The conference will attempt to cover the breadth and depth of Professor Mahoney’s interests in the History of Science and Technology from early modernity to the present day. Papers will address topics including the History of Mathematics, the History of Engineering, and the Historiography and Pedagogy of Science.
May 16, 2009
“The Historical Career of Michael Sean Mahoney”
Department of History and Program in History of Science, Princeton University | Visit site »
Time: 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. [also see May 15]
Place: 211 Dickinson Hall, Princeton University
RSVP: Minerva Fanfair, mfanfair@princeton.edu
See May 15 for conference description.
May 18, 2009
Ken Arnold, Wellcome Collection, London
“Medicine Show: Putting Science and Health on Display”
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia | Visit site »
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
RSVP
Sponsored by the F. C. Wood Institute for the History of Medicine.
Wellcome Collection, London, opened its doors to the public just over 18 months ago. Since then it has welcomed close to 500,000 visits and has received lavish plaudits from all corners of the UK’s press and media, as well as internationally. It presents an uncompromisingly brainy approach to putting medicine on public display, but within a broad cultural context that seems to appeal to a wide grown-up audience.
In this talk, Dr. Ken Arnold outlines the Wellcome’s inquisitive curatorial approach to exploring medical science (past and present) within the broad context of the whole human condition. He discusses the permanent display of Henry Wellcome’s museum collection Medicine Man, and a recent temporary exhibition Skeletons: London’s Buried Bones, one of seven shows to have been mounted since June 2007. Dr Arnold will argue that while the work of the Wellcome represents a refreshing and innovative approach to engaging the public with medicine and its history, the approach owes much to the incurably curious instincts that led to the setting up of Europe’s first museums in the Renaissance. His conclusion is that there is something timelessly full of wonder about putting medicine on show.
Dr. Arnold is Head of Public Programmes at Wellcome Collection, London, and functions as creative director for the Collection.
May 19, 2009
Marcia Hall, Temple University
“Medici Festivals: Art and Science”
Philadelphia Museum of Art | Visit site »
The Rosalind M. Perry Endowed Lecture
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Location: Van Pelt Auditorium, Philadelphia Museum of Art
Free after Museum admission. Ticket required.
To register, call 215.235.7469.
Art historian and Renaissance scholar Marcia Hall will explore themes from the special exhibition Galileo, the Medici & the Age of Astronomy at The Franklin Institute. On view are a rare telescope and other instruments belonging to Galileo, as well as paintings, prints, and manuscripts from the priceless Medici collection. Together, the collections showcase the union of science, art, and political power.
Dr. Hall teaches the history of Renaissance Art at the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, where she is also the Director of Graduate Studies in the Art History Department.
May 19, 2009
Aristotle Tympas, Universtiy of Athens, Greece
“The ‘Fun’ and ‘Magic’ of Nomographic Calculation”
Chemical Heritage Foundation | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation
Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org
After an overview of the tremendous importance of diagrams, graphs, and related tools in calculation and computation, Tympas will focus on the elaborate class of nomograms (or nomographs). Nomograms were used extensively in engineering and science throughout the 20th century. Examples of their general use, as well as their specific use in chemical engineering and the chemical sciences, will be given. Tympas will also introduce the hypothesis that nomography helps us understand how calculation and computation have actively shaped society and nature, rather than been a passive representation.
Aristotle Tympas is an assistant professor elect on the history of technology in modernity in the philosophy and history of science department at the University of Athens in Greece. He serves as a member of the management committee of a European network of historians and as vice president for public relations of the International Master Program ESST (European Science, Society, and Technology). A specialist in the history of computing and automation in use, Tympas has published a series of articles on the history of the social meaning of the analog/digital technological relationship.
May 27, 2009
Spencer R. Weart, Center for History of Physics
The Discovery of Global Warming
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science and The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
Time: 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Place: The Academy of Natural Sciences
Directions
Spencer R. Weart describes how we got to our current understanding of global warming, beginning as a detective story involving a few scientists obsessed with the mysteries of climate change, and growing to an epic tale involving entire governments, national publics, and international communities of scientists.
Dr. Weart, originally trained as a physicist, is a noted historian specializing in the history of modern physics and geophysics. Until his retirement in 2009 he was Director of the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics (AIP) in College Park, Maryland, USA, and he continues to be affiliated with the Center. His most recent book is The Discovery of Global Warming (revised edition, 2008), a condensed version of his extensive and widely used scholarly website on the history of climate change research.
Dr. Weart’s talk is part of the ”Town Square: Science for Citizens” program of the Academy of Natural Sciences.