The Papers of Joseph Henry: January 1858-December 1865, The Smithsonian Years

The Papers of Joseph Henry: January 1858-December 1865, The Smithsonian Years PDF Author: Joseph Henry
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Physicists
Languages : en
Pages : 690

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The Papers of Joseph Henry: January 1858-December 1865, The Smithsonian Years

The Papers of Joseph Henry: January 1858-December 1865, The Smithsonian Years PDF Author: Joseph Henry
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Physicists
Languages : en
Pages : 690

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Book Description


Exchanging Objects

Exchanging Objects PDF Author: Catherine A. Nichols
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1800730535
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
As an historical account of the exchange of “duplicate specimens” between anthropologists at the Smithsonian Institution and museums, collectors, and schools around the world in the late nineteenth century, this book reveals connections between both well-known museums and little-known local institutions, created through the exchange of museum objects. It explores how anthropologists categorized some objects in their collections as “duplicate specimens,” making them potential candidates for exchange. This historical form of what museum professionals would now call deaccessioning considers the intellectual and technical requirement of classifying objects in museums, and suggests that a deeper understanding of past museum practice can inform mission-driven contemporary museum work.

William Stimpson and the Golden Age of American Natural History

William Stimpson and the Golden Age of American Natural History PDF Author: Ronald Scott Vasile
Publisher: Northern Illinois University Press
ISBN: 1501758128
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
William Stimpson was at the forefront of the American natural history community in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Stimpson displayed an early affinity for the sea and natural history, and after completing an apprenticeship with famed naturalist Louis Agassiz, he became one of the first professionally trained naturalists in the United States. In 1852, twenty-year-old Stimpson was appointed naturalist of the United States North Pacific Exploring Expedition, where he collected and classified hundreds of marine animals. Upon his return, he joined renowned naturalist Spencer F. Baird at the Smithsonian Institution to create its department of invertebrate zoology. He also founded and led the irreverent and fun-loving Megatherium Club, which included many notable naturalists. In 1865, Stimpson focused on turning the Chicago Academy of Sciences into one of the largest and most important museums in the country. Tragically, the museum was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and Stimpson died of tuberculosis soon after, before he could restore his scientific legacy. This first-ever biography of William Stimpson situates his work in the context of his time. As one of few to collaborate with both Agassiz and Baird, Stimpson's life provides insight into the men who shaped a generation of naturalists--the last before intense specialization caused naturalists to give way to biologists. Historians of science and general readers interested in biographies, science, and history will enjoy this compelling biography.

Power Struggles

Power Struggles PDF Author: Michael B. Schiffer
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262195828
Category : Electric engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
Laying the foundation for Thomas Edison, the first electric generators were built in the 1830s, the earliest commercial lighting systems before 1860, and the first commercial application of generator-powered light in the early 1860s. This book examines some of these early applications of electricity.

Immeasurable Weather

Immeasurable Weather PDF Author: Sara J. Grossman
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 1478027037
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
In Immeasurable Weather Sara J. Grossman explores how environmental data collection has been central to the larger project of settler colonialism in the United States. She draws on an extensive archive of historical and meteorological data spanning two centuries to show how American scientific institutions used information about the weather to establish and reinforce the foundations of a white patriarchal settler society. Grossman outlines the relationship between climate data and state power in key moments in the history of American weather science, from the nineteenth-century public data-gathering practices of settler farmers and teachers and the automation of weather data during the Dust Bowl to the role of meteorological satellites in data science’s integration into the militarized state. Throughout, Grossman shows that weather science reproduced the natural world as something to be measured, owned, and exploited. This data gathering, she contends, gave coherence to a national weather project and to a notion of the nation itself, demonstrating that weather science’s impact cannot be reduced to a set of quantifiable phenomena.

The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects

The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects PDF Author: Richard Kurin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143128159
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 786

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Book Description
The Smithsonian Institution is America's largest, most important, and most beloved repository for the objects that define our common heritage. Now Under Secretary for Art, History, and Culture Richard Kurin, aided by a team of top Smithsonian curators and scholars, has assembled a literary exhibition of 101 objects from across the Smithsonian's museums that together offer a marvelous new perspective on the history of the United States. Ranging from the earliest years of the pre-Columbian continent to the digital age, and from the American Revolution to Vietnam, each entry pairs the fascinating history surrounding each object with the story of its creation or discovery and the place it has come to occupy in our national memory. Kurin sheds remarkable new light on objects we think we know well, from Lincoln's hat to Dorothy's ruby slippers and Julia Child's kitchen, including the often astonishing tales of how each made its way into the collections of the Smithsonian. Other objects will be eye-opening new discoveries for many, but no less evocative of the most poignant and important moments of the American experience. Some objects, such as Harriet Tubman's hymnal, Sitting Bull's ledger, Cesar Chavez's union jacket, and the Enola Gay bomber, tell difficult stories from the nation's history, and inspire controversies when exhibited at the Smithsonian. Others, from George Washington's sword to the space shuttle Discovery, celebrate the richness and vitality of the American spirit. In Kurin's hands, each object comes to vivid life, providing a tactile connection to American history. Beautifully designed and illustrated with color photographs throughout, The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects is a rich and fascinating journey through America's collective memory, and a beautiful object in its own right.

The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects Deluxe

The Smithsonian's History of America in 101 Objects Deluxe PDF Author: Richard Kurin
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698155203
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 988

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Book Description
A magnificent new history of America told through 101 treasures from the Smithsonian’s collections. The Deluxe Edition features eight videos that go behind the scenes at the Smithsonian for a closer look at some of the book’s most important objects, hosted by author and curator Richard Kurin. The Smithsonian Institution is America’s largest and most cherished repository for the objects that define our common heritage. Richard Kurin, its Under Secretary for History, Art, and Culture, has for decades served as a driving force in the effort of our national museums to tell America’s whole story. This book is the culmination of a broad effort, led by Kurin and involving all the Smithsonian’s museums and more than a hundred of its top scholars and curators, to select a set of objects that could collectively represent the American experience. Strong deliberation honed literally millions of possibilities down to a careful selection of 101 remarkable objects that do justice to the history of our bountiful land and its people. That history begins with remains from the earliest years of the pre-Columbian continent and relics of the American Revolution and Civil War. It includes the inventions of the industrial revolution, artifacts of the Depression, World War II and cold war eras; icons of pop culture and of the Civil Rights movements as well as the objects that now symbolize the digital age and the first years of the new millennium. Each entry pairs the fascinating history of each object with the place it has come to occupy in our national memory. Kurin sheds new light on familiar objects like the Star-Spangled Banner and Abraham Lincoln’s stovepipe hat, Dorothy’s ruby slippers and Julia Child’s kitchen, the giant pandas and the space shuttle Discovery, including the often astonishing tales of how each made its way into the Smithsonian. Other objects, like the suffragists’ “Great Demand” banner and the Tuskegee flyer, will be eye-opening new discoveries for many, but no less evocative of the most poignant and important moments of American history. Others, like Sitting Bull’s ledger, Cesar Chavez’s union jacket, and the Enola Gay bomber, illustrate difficult chapters in the nation’s history. Kurin also includes behind-the-scenes insight into controversies arising from their exhibition at the Smithsonian. In Kurin’s hands these marvelous objects come to vivid life, awakening a deep and tactile connection with our nation’s history. A beautiful treasure in its own right, The Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects is an incomparable journey through America’s collective memory, and a celebration of the resilient power of objects to illustrate who we are as a people.

The Papers of Joseph Henry: January 1866-May 1878, the Smithsonian years

The Papers of Joseph Henry: January 1866-May 1878, the Smithsonian years PDF Author: Joseph Henry
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Physicists
Languages : en
Pages : 808

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Book Description


Smithsonian Stories

Smithsonian Stories PDF Author: Wilton S. Dillon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351490745
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
Why is the Smithsonian more than the "Nation's Attic?" Or more than a museum complex? As Wilton S. Dillon shows, the Smithsonian came to be the institution we know today under the twenty-year leadership of "Sun King" S. Dillon Ripley.Ripley aspired to reinvent the Smithsonian as a great university?with museums. Although little understood by the public at large, it began as a basic research center. The Smithsonian remains a key contributor to the world of higher learning and functions diplomatically as the ministry of culture for the United States. Dillon provides backstage insights into Ripley's quest for the wholeness of knowledge. He describes how he inspired its role as a "theater of ideas as well as artifacts." Under his tutelage, the National Mall became a playground for world intelligentsia, an "intellectual free trade zone" in the shadow of the nation's political capital.Dillon reminds us that interdisciplinary, international Smithsonian symposia foreshadowed twenty-first-century issues and trends. His descriptions of the educational rewards of balancing tradition with the avant-garde are inspiring. As Dillon reminds us, Ripley's twenty-year reign may well have helped spark the waning embers of the Enlightenment.

Ancient Stone Sites of New England and the Debate Over Early European Exploration, 2d ed.

Ancient Stone Sites of New England and the Debate Over Early European Exploration, 2d ed. PDF Author: David Goudsward
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476649960
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
In New England today there are megalithic stones, stone chambers and structures, carvings and petroglyphs, even an unidentified skeleton in armor that defy easy explanation. From Maine to Massachusetts, this work examines various unexplained historical remains in New England, exploring not only the layout and dimensions of such sites--some reminiscent of Stonehenge with their huge stones, astronomical alignments and undiscovered purposes--but also the history and possible explanations for their existence. Theories regarding Norse, Phoenician, Irish, Celtic and Native American origins are presented here in an impartial and logical manner. Sites discussed include Dighton Rock in Berkley, Massachusetts; Newport Tower in Newport, Rhode Island; the Bellows Falls Petroglyphs in Bellows Falls, Vermont; and Mystery Hill in North Salem, New Hampshire (also known as America's Stonehenge), with expanded coverage new to this edition. An appendix provides information regarding sites open to the public.