Events
August 18, 2008 - January 9, 2009
“Molecules that Matter”
Chemical Heitage Foundation | Visit site »
Time: 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Location: Hach Gallery at the Chemical Heritage Foundation
415 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia
“Molecules That Matter” showcases ten organic molecules that profoundly altered our world in the 20th century: aspirin, isooctane, penicillin, polyethylene, nylon, DNA, progestin, DDT, Prozac, and buckminsterfullerene. Each molecule is associated with one decade of the 20th century. A board of ten chemists from higher education, industry, and CHF selected the molecules, with a final review by two chemistry Nobel laureates.
This exhibit aims to stimulate our awareness of the impact molecular science has on us all, individually and as a society. All around the exhibition, models of the molecules’ chemical structures—2.5 billion times larger, but scientifically accurate—float suspended from walls and ceilings. Each molecule is surrounded with an evocative array of related cultural artifacts and artworks.
November 12, 2008
Brian Kernighan, Princeton University
Informal Discussion: “The Origins and Evolution of the C Programming Language and Other Languages”
Computer and Information Sciences, Temple University | Visit site »
Time: 2:30 - 3:30 p.m.
Place: Rm 6 (ground floor), Wachman Hall, 1805 North Broad Street
Also see listing for 3:45 p.m.
November 12, 2008
Brian Kernighan, Princeton University
CIS Distinguished Lecture Series: “The Changing Face of Programming”
Computer & Information Sciences, Temple University | Visit site »
Time: 3:45 - 4:45 p.m.
Place: Rm 447, Wachman Hall, 1805 N. Broad Street
Brian Kernighan received his BASc from the University of Toronto in 1964 and a PhD in electrical engineering from Princeton in 1969. He was in the Computing Science Research center at Bell Labs until 2000, and is now in the Computer Science Department at Princeton. He is the author of eight books and some technical papers, and holds four patents. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2002. His research areas include programming languages, tools and interfaces that make computers easier to use, often for non-specialist users. He is also interested in technology education for non-technical audiences.
November 22, 2008 - May 3, 2009
“Hadrosaurus foulkii: The Dinosaur That Changed the World”
The Academy of Natural Sciences | Visit site »
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the scientific description of Hadrosaurus foulkii. This dinosaur occupies a singular place in the history of paleontology. At the time of its description by Joseph Leidy in 1858, Hadrosaurus was the world’s most completely known dinosaur. When the skeletal mount, a collaboration of Leidy with British sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, was put on display at the Academy in 1868, it was the first dinosaur skeleton ever mounted and would serve as a model for future dinosaur mounts in museums everywhere.
September 28, 2009 - February 27, 2010
Catching a Shadow: An Exhibit of Daguerreotypes in Philadelphia, 1839-1860
The Library Company of Philadelphia | Visit site »
Times: 9:00 a.m. - 4:45 p.m., Monday through Friday
Place: Louise Lux-Sions and Harry Sions Gallery, The Library Company of Philadelphia
Free and open to the public.
This http://www.librarycompany.org/events/ explores how news of the daguerreotype spread throughout Philadelphia, both to the scientifically inclined men who experimented with the new process and to the public who sat for their portraits, and it examines the city’s role as a leading center for daguerreotyping. It highlights the careers of selected Philadelphia daguerreotypists including Robert Cornelius, Marcus Root, and the Langenheim brothers. Many examples of daguerreotypes from the Library Company’s collection and other institutional collections are featured, along with early books about daguerreotyping, studio advertisements, equipment, and related ephemera.
October 22, 2009 - February 28, 2010
Darwin’s Ancestors: Tracing the Origins of the “Origin of Species”
Bryn Mawr College Library | Visit site »
Times: 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday
Place: Class of 1912 Rare Book Room, Canaday Library, Bryn Mawr College
The Bryn Mawr College Library will celebrate the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of his landmark book On the Origin of Species with its new exhibition, “Darwin’s Ancestors: Tracing the Origins of the Origin of Species,"which will run through February 2010.
The exhibition will open on Thursday, 22 October, with a lecture by Swarthmore College Professor of Biology Scott Gilbert, titled “Disagreements Among Friends: How T. H. Morgan and E. B. Wilson’s Agreeing to Disagree Helped Establish Genetics and the Modern Synthesis.” Wilson was Bryn Mawr’s first biology professor and Morgan was the second; both played prominent roles in the international debates over evolution during the first half of the 20th century. The lecture will be at 4:30 p.m. in Carpenter Library 21, Bryn Mawr College.
“Darwin’s Ancestors” will examine the development of natural history from the mid-16th century, when the field was transformed by the appearance of strange new plants and animals brought to Europe from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Over the following 300 years, amateur and professional scientists enthusiastically collected, described, and classified the natural world both at home and abroad, and looked for ways of understanding the relationships among species. The exhibition will feature the work of many of the key collectors, classifiers, and theorists, from Leonhart Fuchs and Conrad Gesner in the early period, through John Ray and Linnaeus in the late 17th and 18th centuries, to Alexander von Humboldt, Charles Lyell, and Darwin himself in the 19th century.
The curators of the Bryn Mawr exhibition are Angelique Wille, a graduate student in the history of art; Marybeth Matlack, a senior medieval-studies major, and Eric Pumroy, director of library collections. The exhibit is sponsored by the Friends of the Library. For additional information, please contact the Library’s Special Collections Department: (610) 526-6576 or SpecColl@brynmawr.edu.
October 6, 2010 - November 12, 2010
Changing the Face of Medicine: Celebrating America’s Women Physicians
Drexel University College of Medicine, Legacy Center | Visit site »
Times: Monday - Friday, 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, 12:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Location: Falls Center, 3300 Henry Avenue, Philadelphia 19129
[Former site of Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania]
“Changing the Face of Medicine” tells the extraordinary story of how American women who wanted to practice medicine have struggled over the past two centuries to gain access to medical education and to work in a specialty field. This exhibition was developed by the Exhibition Program of the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine, in collabroation with the American Library Association’s Public Programs Office. The traveling exhibition is based on a larger exhibition that was displayed at the NLM from 2003-2005, and the NLM hosts an online counterpart.
The opening evening, on October 6 at 5:00 p.m., will feature “A Lady Alone,” a one-woman, one-act play portraying Elizabeth Blackwell, first American woman physician.
November 12, 2006 - September 30, 2007
“Amarna, Ancient Egypt’s Place in the Sun”
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology | Visit site »
This exhibit complements the Tutankhamun exhibition at The Franklin Institute.
February 3, 2007 - September 30, 2007
Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs
The Franklin Institute | Visit site »
March 5, 2007 - December 14, 2007
Exhibition: Color-Plate Books From the Collection
The Library Company of Philadelphia | Visit site »
Vibrant color-plate images were produced in Britain and America from the 1760s to the 1890s. In Franklin’s youth, pictures in color were not widely available because color was an expensive luxury. Colored pictures were usually created by adding watercolor by hand to printed plates. “Living Color: Collecting Color-Plate Books at the Library Company of Philadelphia” exhibits some of the first color-plate books that went through this lavish and time-consuming process.
May 10, 2007
Knowing Global Environments: New Historical Perspectives on the Field Sciences
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, American Philosophical Society, Chemical Heritage Foundation, The Academy of Natural Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 10 - 12, 2007
A Conference in honor of Robert E. Kohler,
Professor of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
Rich studies of local place and practice, especially in such crucial field disciplines as ecology and geology, have already demonstrated the importance of the field site to historical understanding of expertise. Scholars are increasingly interested in the production and circulation of knowledge as it moves from the local to the regional, the nation, the empire and the globe. The integration of micro and macro scales of analysis promises to illuminate the relationship of the history of the field sciences to work on place and knowledge in related disciplines such as geography, sociology, anthropology, and science studies. This conference, therefore, featured papers from scholars who work on the history of the environmental and field sciences, covering a wide variety of subjects, such as archaeology, forestry, agriculture, exploration, mapping, oceanography, climatology, polar science, geology, and biology.
The conference was organized so as to maximize opportunities for discussion, both formal and informal. Papers were pre-circulated; presentations were relatively brief; the schedule was relaxed and open; and wide-ranging panel discussions ended each day. The goal was to provide a stimulating and rich setting that will facilitate productive, creative interaction.
May 21, 2007 - January 1, 2008
Hagley at Fifty: Exploding with History
Hagley Museum and Library | Visit site »
June 1, 2007 - September 30, 2007
Film: “Mummies: Secrets of the Pharoahs”
Imax Theater at The Franklin Institute | Visit site »
June 22, 2007 - December 28, 2008
Undaunted: Five American Explorers, 1760-2007
American Philosophical Society | Visit site »
The word “exploration” usually conjures images of bold adventurers who go where no one has gone before and discover what no one else has ever found. As historian Daniel Boorstin once noted, “Every discovery is also a biography.”
But exploration entails far more than tales of adventurers scaling new heights or enduring long, lonely journeys. Exploration alters existing knowledge about the peoples, places, or things being explored, and it simultaneously unsettles them. It results in verbal descriptions, visual images, and collections of objects that embody the cultural, social, and political premises that lie behind the new discoveries. Most important, exploration never ends, as peoples, places, and things—and our ideas and questions about them—are ever-changing. In short, everything is always in flux, always ready to be explored again.
In UNDAUNTED: Five American Explorers, 1760–2007, an exhibition at the APS Museum from 22 June 2007 through 28 December 2008, the tools of exploration will be turned on exploration itself. Visitors will discover five explorers who were or are all members of the Society, and all with a Philadelphia connection: David Rittenhouse, John James Audubon, Titian Ramsay Peale, Elisha Kent Kane, and Ruth Patrick. The displays, including scientific instruments, paintings and drawings, maps, charts, photographs, and ship models, will consider these adventurers’ place in the history of American science and culture, explore their practices in the field, and reveal the various ways they documented and mapped their findings.
Self-taught astronomer and instrument maker David Rittenhouse (1732–1796) explored the heavens and the earth. The instruments he built and his meticulous observations of celestial phenomena such as the 1769 transit of Venus played important roles in accurately mapping both the solar system and the territory of colonial Pennsylvania. Known as a skilled and honest surveyor as well as astronomer, he helped establish the boundaries of his home territory, including the famous Mason-Dixon Line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. His instruments and his observations helped transform the wilderness into settled farmland, and the irregular pattern of hills, forests, and streams into the geometric shapes traced on government maps.
John James Audubon (1785–1851) described himself as an “American Woodsman” with a passion for birds that “border[ed] on Phrenzy.” Beginning in the 1820s, when most of the continent was still unknown to Euro-Americans, he tramped thousands of miles to collect specimens, take notes, and make drawings. The Birds of America, the resulting double-elephant folio book, was a scientific, artistic, and publishing landmark that catapulted him to instant fame. The 435 exquisite hand-colored plates depict the birds life-size, often in their natural habitats, presenting a “map” of North American nature from the chilly shores of Newfoundland and Labrador to the swamps of Florida and the mountains of the far West. Audubon’s artistic talent was undeniable, but some doubted his scientific ability. At the time, naturalists who primarily worked in the field, as he did, had a lower status than the theoreticians who created grand schemes of classification. Thus he had to struggle for official recognition, even in the United States where the scientific establishment was still quite young.
When he sailed as a naturalist with the United States Exploring Expedition in 1838, Philadelphia artist, naturalist, and museum curator Titian Ramsay Peale (1799–1885) was known as a gifted collector of natural history specimens and a crack shot. The “US Ex Ex,” or “Wilkes Expedition,” as it was also known, was the first and largest sea-going exploring expedition launched by the young but rapidly expanding United States. Its round-the-world voyage lasted four years, and two of the squadron of six ships were lost. But the expedition made important discoveries in Antarctica and brought back nearly 40 tons of scientific specimens, which prompted the founding of America’s first national museum. Yet its discoveries in Antarctica were hotly contested, and the nation’s still-developing scientific institutions were overwhelmed by the amount of data collected. Personal and political conflicts stymied preparation of the expedition’s scientific publications, severely limiting their potential impact. The story of Peale and the US Ex Ex is one of grand ambition and heroic daring, but also of petty disputes and inadequate scientific resources.
Despite a weak heart, physician Elisha Kent Kane (1820–1857) survived two long, cold winters marooned in the ice of the upper Arctic, where he had ventured on a second voyage in search of earlier lost explorers and the mythical “Open Polar Sea.” Kane’s undergraduate coursework in geology had trained him to observe and describe his surroundings. His accounts of glaciers and their movements would soon provide support for the Ice Age theory, a new and radical notion at the time. He also charted portions of the basin now bearing his name and learned essential survival skills from the Inuit. In the mid-19th century, when tales of travel to exotic lands were popular, the icy landscape, unfamiliar peoples, and strange animals of the Arctic had a strong grip on the public imagination. Kane’s triumphant return from his ordeal in 1855, after fending off starvation, disease, and mutinous crew members, caused an international sensation. Thousands of Americans mourned when he died prematurely in 1857 at age 37.
The final section of the show will demonstrate the importance of scientific exploration in the 20th century. It focuses on the accomplishments of Ruth Patrick (born 1907), a scientist-explorer who turns 100 this year. Beginning in the late 1940s, when science was closed to most women, Patrick traced thousands of miles of American rivers for her pioneering studies of freshwater ecology. In 1947, she founded the Limnology Department at The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. Combining fieldwork with laboratory science, she proved that diatoms—small, single-celled algae with beautiful microscopic structures—are an essential part of the web connecting all organisms in river ecosystems. As one of the first researchers to use plant life and animal species to track and chart pollution in rivers and streams, Patrick has contributed greatly to our understanding of the environment.
July 14, 2007 - September 23, 2007
Adventures in Photography: Expeditions of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and A
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology | Visit site »
September 6, 2007
Franklin Institute Lecture: “Recent Discoveries at the Pyramids and the Valley of the Kings”
The Franklin Institute | Visit site »
Speaker: Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence at The Franklin Institute
Location: Irvine Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania, 3401 Spruce Street
Time: 7:00 - 8:00 p.m
September 10, 2007
Matthew Eddy, Durham University
Fall 2007 Workshop: “Reading Practices and Natural History Texts in Enlightenment Edinburgh”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Matthew Eddy, Durham University
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall
September 12, 2007
Susanne Kreutzer, Ph.D., Institute of Sociology, Leibniz University of Hanover, Germany
History of Nursing Seminar Series: “Christian Charity Service and the Professionalization of Nursinng: A Comparison Between West Germany and the United States”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Susanne Kreutzer, Ph.D., Institute of Sociology, Leibniz University of Hanover, Germany;
2007 Bates Center Fisher Fellow
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 3R Conference Room, Claire Fagin Hall
September 14, 2007
Solomon H. Katz, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania
Lecture: “Origins of Agriculture, the Rise of Civilization and the Evolution of Cuisine”
American Philosophical Society | Visit site »
Speaker: Solomon H. Katz, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, and Director of Penn’s Krogman Center for Childhood Growth and Development
Time: 5:30 - 7:00 p.m
Location: American Philosophical Society (Benjamin Franklin Hall, 477 Chestnut Street)
RSVP: E-mail sduffy@amphilsoc.org or call 215-440-3400.
September 18, 2007
Jacqueline Wernimont, Brown University
“Margaret Cavendish’s Literary Mathematics”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th floor conference room, 315 Chestnut Street
September 19, 2007
Emily Abel, Ph.D., Health Services and Women's Studies, UCLA School of Public Health
History of Nursing Seminar Series: “Tuberculosis and the Politics of Exclusion: A History of Public Health and Migration to Los Angeles”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Emily Abel, Ph.D., Professor, Health Services and Women’s Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, School of Public Health
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 3R Conference Room, Claire Fagin Hall
September 20, 2007
Thomas L. Bartlow, Villanova University, and David E. Zitarelli, Temple University
“Who Was Miss Mullikin?”
Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics (PASHoM) | Visit site »
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Villanova University
September 20, 2007
Steven J. Peitzman, M.D., F.A.C.P., Drexel University College of Medicine
Section on Medical History Lecture: “I Am Their Physician: Dr. Owen J. Wister of Germantown and His Patients”
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia | Visit site »
Speaker: Steven J. Peitzman, M.D., F.A.C.P., Professor of Medicine, Drexel University College of Medicine
Time: 6:15 p.m.
Place: The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Registration form: http://www.collphyphil.org/pdf/progreg.pdf
September 20, 2007
Robert Kanigel, Professor of Science Writing & Director of the Graduate Program in Science Writing, MIT
Fall Lecture Series: “Faux Real: Genuine Leather and Two Hundred Years of Inspired Fakes”
Hagley Museum and Library | Visit site »
Speaker: Robert Kanigel, Professor of Science Writing and Director of the Graduate Program in Science Writing, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Time: 7:00 p.m.
September 23, 2007 - December 16, 2007
River of Gold: Precolumbian Treasures from Sitio Conte
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology | Visit site »
At the turn of the 19th century, the Rio Grande de Coclé, a river in central Panama, changed its course, and people began to find precious gold objects on its banks. RIVER OF GOLD: Precolumbian Treasures from Sitio Conte tells the remarkable story of the University of Pennsylvania Museum’s 1940 excavation at an ancient cemetery discovered when the river changed its course. The exhibition, which travels to six U.S. cities following its Philadelphia opening, features almost 150 artifacts, including 120 spectacular Precolumbian gold objects more than a thousand years old—hammered repoussé plaques, pendants cast by the lost wax method, ornaments, bells, bangles, and beads. Site photographs and drawings, original color film footage from the excavation, plus ornate ceramics and objects of precious and semi-precious stone, of ivory and of bone, found in the cemetery, help shed light upon the little-known culture of that ancient time and place. Dr. Pamela Jardine, Research Associate in Penn Museum’s American Section, is curator of the exhibition, and co-editor, with American Section Curator Dr. Robert Sharer, of the 1992 Penn Museum publication by the same name.
September 24, 2007
Simon Cole, University of California, Irvine
Fall 2007 Workshop: “Crime, Privacy, and Identity in the Age of Genetics and Information Technology”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Simon Cole, University of California, Irvine
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall
September 25, 2007
Speaker: Audra Wolfe, Chemical Heritage Foundation
“Learning from Lysenko”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th floor conference room, 315 Chestnut Street
September 26, 2007
Jean Whelan, Ph.D., R.N., School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania
History of Nursing Seminar Series: “Necessary Yet Unaffordable: The Disconnect Between Private Duty Nurses Fees and Patient Ability to Pay, 1900-1940”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Jean Whelan, Ph.D., R.N., Adjunct Assistant Professor of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 3R Conference Room, Claire Fagin Hall
September 28, 2007
MCEAS Conference Presentation: “The Communication Commonly Call’d ‘Inoculation of the Small-Pox’: Print, Medicine, and the Politics of Scientific Knowledge in the Boston Inoculation Controversy”
The McNeil Center for Early American Studies | Visit site »
Speaker: Kelly Wisecup, University of Maryland
Session time: 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Place: Franklin Hall, American Philosophical Society, 427 Chestnut Street
This presentation is part of the MCEAS Biennial Graduate Student Conference on “Conflict & Community in Early America,” session on Bodies of Knowledge. For more information or to register, visit the conference website at http://www.mceas.org/gradconference07/reg2007.htm or call 215-898-9251.
September 28, 2007
Kathryn A. Ostrofsky, University of Pennsylvania
MCEAS Conference Presentation: “ ‘All Things Righted’: Race and the Haitian Revolution During Philadelphia’s 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic”
The McNeil Center for Early American Studies | Visit site »
Speaker: Kathryn A. Ostrofsky, University of Pennsylvania
Session time: 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Place: Franklin Hall, American Philosophical Society, 427 Chestnut Street
This presentation is part of the MCEAS Biennial Graduate Student Conference on “Conflict & Community in Early America,” session on Bodies of Knowledge. For more information or to register, visit the conference website at http://www.mceas.org/gradconference07/reg2007.htm or call 215-898-9251.
September 28, 2007
Eric Otremba, University of Minnesota
MCEAS Conference Presentation: “Representations of Sugar Production in the Atlantic World”
The McNeil Center for Early American Studies | Visit site »
Speaker: Eric Otremba, University of Minnesota
Session time: 2:00 - 3:30 p.m.
Place: Franklin Hall, American Philosophical Society, 427 Chestnut Street
This presentation is part of the MCEAS Biennial Graduate Student Conference on “Conflict & Community in Early America,” session on Bodies of Knowledge. For more information or to register, visit the conference website at http://www.mceas.org/gradconference07/reg2007.htm or call 215-898-9251.
October 1, 2007
Anne Marie Rafferty, Ph.D., Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kings College, London
History of Nursing Seminar Series: Anne Marie Rafferty, Title to be announced
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Anne Marie Rafferty, Ph.D., Professor, Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kings College, London
Time: 10:30 a.m.
Place: Life Building, 4508 Chestnut Street, Rm 481 [Note change in location.]
October 1, 2007
Babak Ashrafi, Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science
Fall 2007 Workshop: “Born’s Bad Bet”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Babak Ashrafi, Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall
October 2, 2007 - December 9, 2007
Exploring Iran: The Photography of Erich F. Schmidt, 1930-1940
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology | Visit site »
October 2, 2007
Augustin Cerveaux, Université Louis Pasteur; 2007 Glenn E. and Barbara Hodson Ullyot Scholar, CHF
“Nanotechnology’s History: The Missing Link”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th floor conference room, 315 Chestnut Street
October 3, 2007
Barbara Savage, Ph.D., Department of History, University of Pennsylvania
History of Nursing Seminar Series: “The Social Science of Black Religion”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Barbara Savage, Ph.D., Geraldiine R. Segal Professor of American Thought and Professor of History, Department of History, University of Pennsylvania
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 3R Conference Room, Claire Fagin Hall
October 4, 2007 - October 10, 2007
World Space Week: 50 Years of the Space Age
The Franklin Institute | Visit site »
Week-long celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Space Age, with space-themed demonstrations, live shows, experiments; satellite-viewing in the Joel N. Bloom Observatory.
October 4, 2007
Sara E. Wermeil, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
“Norcross, Fuller, and the Rise of the General Contractor in Nineteenth Century America”
Hagley Museum and Library, Research Seminar | Visit site »
Time: 6:30 p.m.
To respond and request paper, email clockman@hagley.org.
Sponsored by the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society
October 5, 2007
Yvonne Fabella, SUNY-Stony Brook
McNeil Center Seminar: “Creolizing the Enlightenment: Print Culture, Science and Education in Late-Colonial Saint Domingue”
The McNeil Center for Early American Studies | Visit site »
Speaker: Yvonne Fabella, SUNY-Stony Brook and 2006-2007 MCEAS Consortium Dissertation Fellow
Time: 3:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Place: Campus Center--West AB Conference Room, Rutgers University—Camden
October 8, 2007
Bruno Strasser, Yale University
Fall 2007 Workshop: “Banking Biology: Property, Privacy and Priority in Late 20th Century Databases”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Bruno Strasser, Yale University
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall
October 9, 2007
Regina Blaszczyk, Writer and Independent Scholar
“Chemistry Meets the Creative Economy: DuPont and Postwar Interior Design”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th floor conference room, 315 Chestnut Street
October 10, 2007
Medical History Society of New Jersey, Annual Fall Meeting
Medical History Society of New Jersey | Visit site »
Talks by Alan Lippman, M.D., Wolfgang Jochle, D.V.M., Ph.D., William Campbell, Ph.D., Victor Parsonnet, M.D.,and Karen Reeds, Ph.D.
Dinner and University of Medicine and Dentistry of N.J. Foundation Lecture by Janet Golden, Ph.D., Department of History, Rutgers University, Camden: “Message in a Bottle: The Making of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome”
Time: 3:30 - 8:45 p.m.
Place: The Nassau Club of Princeton
Registration required; fee.
October 10, 2007
Robert McCracken Peck, The Academy of Natural Sciences
Weeknights at the Wagner: “Exploring Alaska: The Harriman Expedition Retraced”
The Wager Free Institute of Science | Visit site »
Speaker: Robert McCracken Peck, Librarian and Senior Fellow, The Academy of Natural Sciences
Time: 4:00 - 7:00 p.m.; Lecture at 5:30 p.m.
Place: 1700 Montgomery Avenue
October 12, 2007
Paul Dickson, author and journalist
Lecture & Booksigning: “Sputnik: The Shock of the Century”
American Philosophical Society | Visit site »
Speaker: Paul Dickson, author and journalist
Location: American Philosophical Society (Benjamin Franklin Hall, 477 Chestnut Street)
Time: 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
RSVP: E-mail to sduffy@amphilsoc.org or call 215-440-3400.
October 13, 2007
7th Annual New Sweden History Conference: “Carl Linnaeus, Pehr Kalm & the Early American Scientific
The Swedish Colonial Society | Visit site »
Time: 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Place: Trinity Episcopal Church, Swedesboro, New Jersey
Conference commemorating the tercentenary of Linnaeus’s birth and focusing on the role of his “apostle” in America, Pehr Kalm, in the development of the early North American scientific community during the mid-18th century. Program features talks, tours, nature walks. See conference website for complete program and to register.
October 16, 2007
Charles Falco, The University of Arizona
Keynote Lecture for Imaging Symposium: “The Science of Optics; The History of Imaging”
University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry | Visit site »
Speaker: Charles Falco, Professor of Optical Sciences, The University of Arizona
Time: 8:00 p.m.
Place: Room 102, Chemistry Department, University of Pennsylvania
231 S. 34th Street
Registration: http://imaging.chem.upenn.edu/registration.html
October 16, 2007
Mary Ellen Bowden, Senior Research Fellow, Chemical Heritage Foundation
“Messages from Dye Sample Books in the CHF Collections”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, 315 Chestnut Street
October 16, 2007
Peter Galison, Harvard University, and others.
Symposium on “Advances in Scientific Imaging: Molecules, Brain, Universe”
University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Chemistry | Visit site »
Speakers include:
Peter Galison, Professor of the History of Science and of Physics, Harvard University, on “Images and the Making of Scientific Objectivity”
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 5:15 p.m.
Place: Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania
Registration: http://imaging.chem.upenn.edu/registration.html
October 16, 2007
Peter Galison, Harvard University
Fall 2007 Workshop: “ ‘SECRECY’: Communicating Scholarship Through Film”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Peter Galison, Professor of the History of Science and of Physics, Harvard University
Time: 3:00 - 6:00 p.m
Place: 402 Logan Hall
Film Screening and Discussion
October 17, 2007
Sandy Lewenson, Ph.D., Lienhard School of Nursing, Pace University
History of Nursing Seminar Series: “Transformation of Nursing Education: The Phasing Out of the Bellevue and Mills Schools of Nursing and the Expansion of Hunter College, 1967”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Sandy Lewenson, Ph.D., Professor of Nursing, Lienhard School of Nursing, Pace University
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 3R Conference Room, Claire Fagin Hall
October 18, 2007
Edward Hogan, East Stroudsburg University
“Benjamin Peirce as Head of the Coast Survey”
Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics (PASHoM) | Visit site »
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Villanova University
October 18, 2007
Robert McCracken Peck, The Academy of Natural Sciences
“Paul DuChaillu and the ‘Discovery’ of the Gorilla, or The Science Behind ‘King Kong‘“
Friends of the Library, Princeton University | Visit site »
Speaker: Robert McCracken Peck, Librarian and Senior Fellow, The Academy of Natural Sciences
Time: 5:00 p.m.
Place: 010 East Pyne Hall, Princeton University
October 18, 2007
John J. Downes, M.D., Children's Hospital of Philadlephia
Section on Medical History: “Pediatric Critical Care Medicine—Why, When and How It Developed”
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia | Visit site »
The Samuel X. Radbill Lecture
Speaker: John J. Downes, M.D., Attending Intensivist, Critical Care Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Time: 6:15 p.m.
Place: The College of Physicians of Philadelphia
Registration form: http://www.collphyphil.org/pdf/progreg.pdf
October 20, 2007
Babak Ashrafi, Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science
PACHS Reception & Information Session, at SHOT Annual Meeting
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science, Technology and Medicine | Visit site »
Speaker: Babak Ashrafi, Executive Director, Philadelphia Area Center for Science
Time: 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Place: Massachusetts Room, Capital Hilton, Washington, D.C.
Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Technology
October 23, 2007
S. Elizabeth Bird, University of South Florida
Annenberg Scholars Program, Lecture: “Museums as Popular Culture: The Body of Evidence in Controversy”
Annenberg School for Communications, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: S. Elizabeth Bird, Professor and Chair/Department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida
Time: 5:00 - 7:30 p.m.; Lecture at 6:15 p.m.
Place: Annenberg School for Communication, Room 109
October 23, 2007
Sanford Moskowitz, College of St. Benedict/Saint John’s University
“Jockeying for Position—Global Technology and Economic Power in the U.S. and E.U.: The Case of International Advanced Materials “
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th floor conference room, 315 Chestnut Street
October 23, 2007
Alison Winter, University of Chicago
History of Science Colloquium: “ ‘No! No! Not the Comfy Chair!’ The Power of the Experimental Situation in Social Psychology”
History of Science Program, Princeton University | Visit site »
Speaker: Alison Winter, Associate Professor of History, University of Chicago
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Place: 211 Dickinson Hall
October 24, 2007
Jane Schultz, Ph.D., English, American Studies & Women's Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University
History of Nursing Seminar Series: Jane Schultz, “What’s In a Nurse?: The Civil War Diary of Harriet Eaton”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Jane Schultz, Ph.D., Professor of English and Adjunct Professor of American Studies and Women’s Studies, Indiana University-Purdue University
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 3R Conference Room, Claire Fagin Hall
October 24, 2007
Doron Swade, Computer History Museum
Delaware Valley Distinguished Lectureship Series in Computer Science: “Charles Babbage and His Legacy”
Jointly hosted by the Computing Departments of Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges and Villanova University | Visit site »
Speaker: Dr. Doron D. Swade, Computer History Museum
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Place: Swarthmore College Science Center, Room 101
October 25, 2007
Darin Hayton, Haverford College
Great Works Symposium: “Xenophobia and Moral Condemnation in Plague, Epidemics from Ancient Greece
Drexel University | Visit site »
Speaker: Darin Hayton, Assistant Professor of History, Haverford College
Time: 3:30 - 4:50 p.m.
Place: Nesbitt Hall, Rm. 125, Drexel University
October 26, 2007 - February 15, 2008
Exhibit: Fleshing Out the Bones: The Art and Science of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins
The Academy of Natural Sciences | Visit site »
The subject of this special exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences is Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (1807-1894), the creator of the world’s first life-sized dinosaur scuptures (made for London’s Crystal Palace in 1854) and the world’s first articulated dinosaur display (created for the academy of Natural Sciences in 1868).
A family collection of the artist’s sketchbooks and drawings will be highlighted in this exhibition. Also on display will be models of Hawkins’s famous Crystal Palace dinosaurs and many of the scientific publications for which he provided illustrations. These publications —from the rare book collection of the Academy’s Ewell Sale Stewart Library— include John Edward Gray’s Illustration of Indian Zoology (1830-34), Charles Darwin’s Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Beagle(1842) and Thomas Henry Huxley’s Evidence of Man’s Place in Nature (1863).
October 26, 2007
John Beatty, University of British Columbia
Fall 2007 Workshop: “Karl Popper, Darwinism, and Totalitarianism”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: John Beatty, University of British Columbia
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Place: To be announced
Joint workshop with the Philosophy Department, University of Pennsylvania
October 29, 2007
Julia Schikore, Indiana University
Fall 2007 Workshop: “Early 19th Century Microscopy”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Julia Schikore, Indiana University
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall
October 30, 2007
Ronald Smeltzer
“Illustration for the Scientific Text”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th floor conference room, 315 Chestnut Street
October 31, 2007
Anette Forss, Ph.D., Division of Nursing, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden
History of Nursing Seminar Series: “At the Margins of Health and Normality: Women’s Encounters with Biomedical Technology in the Realm of Cervical Cancer Screening”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Anette Forss, Ph.D., Division of Nursing, Karolinska Institutet, Huddinge, Sweden
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 3R Conference Room, Claire Fagin Hall
November 2, 2007
Babak Ashrafi, Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science
PACHS Reception & Information Session, at HSS Annual Meeting
Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science | Visit site »
Speaker: Babak Ashrafi, Executive Director, Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science
Time: 12:00 - 1:15 p.m.
Place: Salon H, Crystal Gateway Marriott, Arlington, VA
Annual Meeting of the History of Science Society
November 5, 2007
John Pickstone, University of Manchester
Book Discussion: “Surgeons, Manufacturers and Patients: A Transatlantic History of Total Hip Replace
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: John Pickstone, Wellcome Research Professor, Faculty of Life Sciences and Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM), University of Manchester
Time: 2:00 p.m.
Place: Lounge, 3rd Floor of Logan Hall, 249 S. 36th Street
Prof. Pickstone will discuss his forthcoming book (co-authored with J. Anderson and F. Neary) on total hip replacement (THR), which transformed orthopaedics and became the basis of a global industry.
November 5, 2007
Wendy Kline, University of Cincinnati
Fall 2007 Workshop: “Bodies of Evidence: Activists, Patients, and the FDA Regulation of Depo Provera”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Wendy Kline, Associate Professor, History, University of Cincinnati
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall
November 6, 2007
David Schleifer, New York University
“Where Did All the Trans Fats Come From?”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th floor conference room, 315 Chestnut Street
November 7, 2007
Manuel De Landa, Columbia University
Penn Humanities Forum on Origins: “Origin of Artificial Intelligence”
Penn Humanities Forum, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Manuel De Landa, Professor, Graduate School of Architecture, Columbia University
Time: 5:00 - 6:30 p.m.
Place: Rainey Auditorium, University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
November 8, 2007
APS Autumn General Meeting
American Philosophical Society | Visit site »
Thursday, 8 November, 1:15 - 3:30 p.m.
Friday, 9 November, 9:15 - 11:30 a.m. and 1:15 - 3:30 p.m.
Saturday, 10 November, 9:15 - 11:30 a.m.
Registration: westcott@amphilsoc.org
Live webcast: http://www.amphilsoc.org/meetings/webcast.htm (available only at time of meeting)
November 8, 2007
David S. Barnes, University of Pennsylvania
Great Works Symposium: “Thinking with Epidemics, from Yellow Fever to Bird Flu”
Drexel University | Visit site »
Speaker: David S. Barnes, Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania
Time: 3:30 - 4:50 p.m.
Place: Nesbitt Hall, Rm 125, Drexel University
November 12, 2007
Gabriella Petrick, New York University
Fall 2007 Workshop: “Industrializing Taste: Using Science and Technology to Historicize Our Sense of Taste”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Gabriella Petrick, Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Food Studies, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, New York University
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall
November 12, 2007 - December 28, 2007
Wagner Library Exhibit: “The Scientific Image: Illustration from the Age of Enlightenment to the Vic
The Wagner Free Institute of Science | Visit site »
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Tuesday through Friday
Place: Library, The Wagner Free Institute of Science
This exhibit will highlight original drawings by Joseph Leidy from the Institute’s archives along with examples of printed illustrations from the Library’s collection of entomology and malacology books. Selections from Audubon’s Quadrupeds folio will also be on display throughout the Institute.
November 13, 2007
John Theibault, Chemical Heritage Foundation
“Lazarus Ercker and the Spread of German Metallurgy in the 16th and 17th Centuries”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th floor conference room, 315 Chestnut Street
November 14, 2007
McNeil Center Brown Bag Seminar: “God’s Book of Nature: Popular Science and Christianity in the Early Republic”
The McNeil Center for Early American Studies | Visit site »
Speaker: Lily Santoro, Doctoral Candidate in History, University of Delaware
Time: 12:30 - 1:45 p.m.
Place: Seminar Room 105, McNeil Center, 3355 Woodland Walk
November 14, 2007
Amy Hiller, Ph.D., School of Design, University of Pennsylvania
History of Nursing Seminar Series: “Mapping the DuBois Philadelphia Negro”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Amy Hillier, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, School of Design, University of Pennsylvania
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 3R Conference Room, Claire Fagin Hall
November 14, 2007
Scott Rawlins, Arcadia University
Weeknights at the Wagner: “Aesthetics and Attitudes in the Golden Age of Natural Science Illustration”
The Wagner Free Institute of Science | Visit site »
Speaker: Scott Rawlins, Associate Professor, Fine Arts Department, Arcadia University
Time: 4:00 - 7:00 p.m.; Lecture at 5:30 p.m.
Place: The Wagner Free Institute of Science
November 15, 2007
Dr. Ronald Boyer, International Foundation for Clinical Homeopathy
Section on Medical History Lecture: “The History of Homeopathy”
College of Physicians of Philadelphia | Visit site »
Speaker: Dr. Ronald Boyer, President of the Center for Education and Development of Clinical Homeopathy, International Foundation for Clinical Homeopathy
Time: 6:15 p.m.
Registration form: http://www.collphyphil.org/pdf/progreg.pdf
November 15, 2007
Paul C. Pasles, Villanova University
Reading & Book Signing: “Benjamin Franklin’s Numbers”
University of Pennsylvania Bookstore | Visit site »
Speaker: Paul C. Pasles, Associate Professor of Mathematical Sciences, Villanova University
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Place: Penn Bookstore, 2nd Floor
November 15, 2007
Marina Vulis
“Life and Work of Luca Pacioli”
Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics (PASHoM) | Visit site »
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Villanova University
November 16, 2007
Call for Papers: Pennsylvania Hospital History of Women’s Health Conference
Pennsylvania Hospital | Visit site »
The Pennsylvania Hospital will host its third annual History of Women’s Health Conference on Wednesday, April 23, 2008. Interested persons are invited to submit a two-page proposal or abstract by Friday, November 16, for consideration. The Conference will focus on women’s health issues from the late 18th century to the present, and interdisciplinary work is encouraged. Topics include, but are not limited to, obstetric and gynecology issues, adolescence, mental health topics, geriatric concerns, access to health care, minority health and more. For more information or to submit proposals, contact Stacey C. Peeples, Curator-Lead Archivist, Pennsylvania Hospital, peepless@pahosp.com.
November 16, 2007
Book Launch: “Mütter Museum: Historic Medical Photographs”
College of Physicians of Philadelphia | Visit site »
Speaker: Laura Lindgren, author and publisher
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Discusson and book signing. A selection of historical medical photographs from the Mütter Museum’s collection will be available for public viewing.
Registration form: http://www.collphyphil.org/pdf/progreg.pdf
November 17, 2007
Celebration of the 100th Birthday of Dr. Ruth Patrick
The Academy of Natural Sciences | Visit site »
November 19, 2007
Paul Offit, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Fall 2007 Workshop: “One Scientist’s Perspectives on the History of Vaccines”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Paul Offit, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall
November 26, 2007
John Krige, Georgia Tech
Fall 2007 Workshop: “Technology as an Instrument of U.S. Foreign Policy”
Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: John Krige, Kranzberg Professor in the School of History, Technology, and Society, Georgia Tech
Time: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Place: 337 Logan Hall
November 27, 2007
Slawomir Lotysz, University of Zielona Gora (Poland); 2007-2008 Charles C. Price Fellow, CHF
“Casimir Zeglen: Pioneer of Bulletproof Vests”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th floor conference room, 315 Chestnut Street
November 28, 2007
McNeil Center Brown Bag Seminar: “Negotiating Sickness: Health and Work on British West Indian Sugar Plantations, 1750-1810”
The McNeil Center for Early American Studies | Visit site »
Speaker: Justin Roberts, Doctoral Candidate in History, The Johns Hopkins University
Time: 12:30 - 1:45 p.m.
Place: Seminar Room 105, McNeil Center, 3355 Woodland Walk
November 28, 2007
Dominique Tobell, Doctoral Student, History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
History of Nursing Seminar Series: “Allied Against Reform: Pharmaceutical Industry-Academic Physician Relations in the United States, 1945-1970”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
Speaker: Dominique Tobell, Doctoral Student, Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 3R Conference Room, Claire Fagin Hall
November 29, 2007 - November 30, 2007
Conference: “Sound in the Era of Mechanical Reproduction”
Hagley Museum and Library | Visit site »
Thursday, November 29, 1:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Friday, November 30, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Papers cover topics such as the creation of hi-fidelity sound to meet the expectations of radio and music listeners; business strategies of firms ranging from international music conglomerates to jukebox companies and local radio stations; and the development of communities organized around consumption of sound, whether jazz collectors, citizen band radio users, or music enthusiasts distributing bootleg cassettes.
For registration and information, email clockman@hagley.org.
November 30, 2007
Babak Ashrafi, Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science
History of Science Colloquium: “Max Born’s Bad Bet”
History of Science Program, Princeton University | Visit site »
Speaker: Babak Ashrafi, Executive Director, Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Place: 211 Dickinson Hall
December 3, 2007
Franklin Institute Permanent Exhibit: “Franklin. He’s Electric.”
The Franklin Institute | Visit site »
Created for the Franklin Institute’s 175th Anniversary celebration in 1999, the exhibit explores Franklin’s scientific genius: from meteorology and music, to electricity, optics, and aquatics. It also offers new insight into the inventive minds of other great scientists whom Franklin inspired, such as the Wright Brothers and Thomas Edison. Objects with historical significance are featured, including rare 18th Century artifacts from the Institute’s curatorial collections and Franklin’s own inventions and models, including his lightning rod and a reproduction of his bifocals. The role of The Franklin Institute in major scientific breakthroughs during its 175-year-plus history is highlighted in a special section, “The Wonderland of Science.” This was a term coined to describe the museum shortly after its opening in 1934.
December 3, 2007
Online Exhibit. J. G. Brill Company Photographs
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania | Visit site »
The J.G. Brill Company and its various incarnations dominated the world of trolley and undercarriage manufacturing for most of its seventy-year history. Based in Philadelphia, Brill was founded in 1868 by a German immigrant and held in family hands well into the 1930s. At its height, The J.G. Brill Company owned plants in six states as well as in Canada and France.
December 4, 2007
Doogab Yi, Princeton University; 2007-2008 Robert W. Gore Fellow, CHF
“From Laboratory to Factory and Vice Versa: Gift and Commodity in Biomedical Materials Exchange and Production at the New England Enzyme Center, 1962–1980”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th floor conference room, 315 Chestnut Street
December 11, 2007
Monica Green, Arizona State University
History of Science Colloquium: “Did Women Have a Printing Revolution? Women’s Medicine Before and After 1500”
History of Science Program, Princeton University | Visit site »
Speaker: Monica Green, Professor of History, Arizona State UniversityTime: 4:30 p.m.
Place: 209 Scheide Caldwell House
Co-sponsored with the Program in Medieval Studies.
December 12, 2007
Cynthia Connolly, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Nursing, Yale University
“ ‘Bearing Witness’: Nurses and the AIDS Epidemic in the United States, 1981-2001”
Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, History of Nursing Seminar Series | Visit site »
Time: 12:15 p.m.
Place: 3R Conference Room, Clare Fagin Hall
December 15, 2007
Exhibit: “Lewis and Clark Revisited: A Trail in Modern Day”
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology | Visit site »
In 1804 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led an unprecedented overland expedition across North America and back, pioneering the western exploration and expansion of the United States. Two centures later, photographer Greg MacGregor retraced their journey to see the present state of this historic route. This exhibition features 60 of MacGregor’s dramatic black-and-white images chronicling the transformation of the American landscape. Paried with the images are entries from the Lewis and Clark journals, which MacGregor used to follow in their footsteps, and maps of the expedition trail.
January 17, 2008
Seminar in Celebration of Benjamin Franklin’s Birthday: “Franklin’s Legacy: Celebrating Women in Science”
Celebration! Benjamin Franklin, Founder | Visit site »
Speakers:
Susan Branson, The University of Texas at Dallas: “American Women and Enlightenment Science”
Virginia M.-Y. Lee, University of Pennsylvania: “Neurodegenerative Disease Research in the Spirit of Benjamin Franklin”
Time: 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.
Place: Benjamin Franklin Hall, 427 Chestnut Street, American Philosophical Society
January 17, 2008
Alan Gluchoff, Villanova University
“Philip Schwartz, Probable Error, and the Variability of the Ballistic Trajectory”
Philadelphia Area Seminar on the History of Mathematics (PASHoM) | Visit site »
At the close of World War I those who studied ballistics began to turn their attention to the “second order effects” - how such factors as wind, density of air, and small changes in initial velocity affected the range of a projectile. Related to these questions is the matter of the dispersion of a series of shots fired under as nearly identical conditions as possible, and how one measures this dispersion. In the United States efforts were made to introduce standard tools of elementary probability: mean, standard deviation (actually “probable error") , and normal distribution of errors, into this milieu, with mixed results. The talk highlights the attempt of Philip Schwartz, a young artillery officer with some mathematical background and an associate of Oswald Veblen, to analyze these concepts as they were used in dealing with the data of artillery firing. Emphasis is given on how difficult men found it to understand, defend, and apply these concepts by viewing a controversy played out in the pages of the Coast Artillery Journal during the years 1924-1930. No knowledge other than that of elementary probability and the normal distribution is required.
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Place: Villanova University
January 22, 2008
Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue, Fisher College of Science and Mathematics, Towson University
“Critical Scientific Literacy: Examples from a Breastfeeding Information, Support, and Advocacy Group”
Chemical Heritage Foundation, Brown Bag Lecture | Visit site »
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation