Events for September 2009
September 17, 2009
Craig P. Bauer, York College
Cryptology on Campus During World War II
Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics (PASHoM) | Visit site »
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Villanova University
Abstract: Over 30 colleges and universities offered cryptology courses during World War II. There was great diversity in who delivered the classes. Mathematicians were represented, as were the departments of astronomy, biology, classics, English, geology, Greek, philosophy, and psychology. Even a dean managed to make himself useful. Some classes were secret, run for the benefit of the military, while others were open to all. The lecture surveys these courses, along with biosketches of the professors and, in some cases, describes original research contributions they made to the field of cryptology.
September 21, 2009
Susan Reynolds Whyte, University of Copenhagen
Living with Antiretroviral Therapy (ART): The First Generation in Uganda
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Time: 4:00 - 5:30 p.m.
Place: Terrace Room, Claudia Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania
[Note departures from the usual time and location]
Susan Reynolds Whyte is Associate Professor, Institute of Anthropology, University of Copenhagen. She has carried out ethnographic fieldwork for many years in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. In addition to publishing articles and book chapters on development and health, Professor Whyte has co-edited books on pharmaceuticals in developing countries and on disability. She is African Scholar for a Day at the University of Pennsylvania, a day-long graduate student event with panel discussions and commentary.
September 22, 2009
Lisa Rosner, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey and Chemical Heritage Foundation
De Acido, de Igne, de Computer: 18th-Century Dissertations in the Digital World
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
Lisa Rosner holds the Chemical Heritage Foundation’s Theodore and Mary Herdegen Fellowship in the History of Scientific Information and the Glenn E. and Barbara Hodsdon Ullyot Scholarship. While at CHF she is working with the extensive collection of 17th- and 18th-century chemical dissertations held in the Neville Collection. She has been using the HistoryBrowser developed by Bill Ferster at the University of Virginia’s Digital Humanities Center to create visual, geospatial presentations that graphically depict the world of 18th-century chemical learning. The BBL will give an overview of work I have completed so far and allow for discussion of future directions.
Lisa Rosner is a professor of history at Stockton College, New Jersey, where she is also interim director of the South Jersey Center for Digital Humanities. Her scholarship has focused on medicine and chemistry in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Her most recent book, The Anatomy Murders, is forthcoming on 31 October 2009 from University of Pennsylvania Press.
September 23, 2009
Fellows Reception
Chemical Heritage Foundation and Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science | Visit site »
Time: 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Place: Jacobs Reading Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation, 315 Chestnut Street
RSVP by September 18
In a continued effort to build collaborative events that highlight the unique consortium that is the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science (PACHS), we wish to jointly extend an invitation to you to join us at the Chemical Heritage Foundation for a Fellows Reception on 23 September.
The reception serves to welcome all 2009 - 2010 academic year fellows of PACHS and its member institutions. The opportunity will also afford the fellows a brief opportunity to describe their research focus. Collectively, we believe PACHS-member fellows reinforce Philadelphia as a major center for the study of history of science, medicine, and technology and we encourage you to meet these remarkable individuals and learn more about the great variety of topics that they are studying.
Guided tours of CHF’s Museum will be conducted for interested guests.
September 23, 2009
Bonnie Brice Dorwart, M.D., Lankenau Hospital and The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Adventures of a Medical Historian: Researching “Death is in the Breeze: Disease in the American Civil War” at the Historical Library of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Section on Medical History | Visit site »
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Place: The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Book signing and reception follow the program.
RSVP
Dr. Dorwart’s book, Death is in the Breeze: Disease in the American Civil War, was written entirely from primary sources in the Historical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. Holdings of the College—including lectures heard by Dr. Dorwart’s great-grandfather, a member of the Class of 1851 of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine—provide a unique window into the education of the physicians responsible for the care of soldiers during that war. The book was published in 2009 by the National Museum of Civil War Medicine Press in Frederick, Maryland.
Dr. Dorwart practiced rheumatology at The Lankenau Hospital for 27 years. After retiring in 2001 to research and write a book, she volunteered as an attending physician and mentor in Lankenau’s Clinical Care Center twice weekly for five years. Still a volunteer, she serves as Archivist of The Lankenau Hospital, as it celebrates its sesquicentennial anniversary, and as Historian of the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Conference Center for Medical Education at Lankenau.
September 29, 2009
John Ceccatti, University of Pennsylvania and Chemical Heritage Foundation
Vital Forces: Yeast, Fermentation, and the Practice of Brewing
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
Although brewing is an ancient craft, the nature of fermentation remained an active area of scientific debate throughout the 19th century. Two leading figures of the discussion at mid-century—Justus Liebig and Louis Pasteur—clashed famously over the role of yeast in fermentation. Was it an inert chemical compound or a living organism, a vital force in a physiological process? Less well known is the role that brewers themselves played in this scientific debate. This lecture will explore how traditional brewing practices were transformed by new scientific theories and laboratory techniques concerning yeast and fermentation.
John S. Ceccatti is currently a Haas Fellow at the Chemical Heritage Foundation where he is writing a book on the relationship between traditional practices and laboratory techniques in the 19th-century brewing industry. He received his Ph.D. in the history and philosophy of science, as well as an M.S. in molecular genetics, from the University of Chicago.