Okay, starting next week, I am teaching elementary and middle school children writing and grammar.  In preparation for that, I have been writing some lesson plans and planning some activities.  This book, Writing Extraordinary Essays, was one of the books that Fairfax Collegiate sent me to use during my courses.  Of the books on writing that I have seen, this one is remarkably good.  It stays away from trying to teach to a test or trying to just teach a rubric and sticks to teaching the skills that make writing fun, useful, and exciting (to both read and write).

Alongside The Classic Guide to Better Writing, this book will help any teacher think about how they teach writing and the skills that are important for students to have to be successful writers.

In that future, to which he looks forward, he will not, we apprehend, be regarded as having drawn the cosmic circle of life, but rather as having indicated one of its arcs. At all events, it seems to be a historic law that the greater portion of truths in the theory of nature first appear as purple mirages –ruddy and auroral streaks gilding the matin of man’s mind ; but the appointed time- duly brings up the perfect thought, fraught with the wealth of invisible climee, and Hooding the age with the sunlight of science.

From the New York Time’s 28 March 1860 review of The Origin of Species: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection of the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life.

Origin of Species Review NYT PDF

Charlie Brown's pub showing curiosities brought back by sailors

The National Maritime Museum is on Flickr with a number of sets, including Animals at Sea, photos of the London Port area, and several concerning museum operations (such as conservation and installation).

This collection is another great visual history resource.  I hope that they continue to add images to their collections because I know that they have a great archive of vintage images.

The Science Museum’s new history of medicine website has recently been completed. According to Dr Robert Bud, the Principal Curator of Medicine,

In all it now presents 4000 new images of artefacts from the collections linked to 16 specialised themes on medicine across time, written by staff and other professional historians of medicine. Each theme is associated with bibliographies and interactives suitable for teaching at several levels.

So far, in my limited browsing of it, the Brought to Life website looks like a great resource for students and historians.

Also, all of the images on the site are available for download and use according to the creative commons license – it is defined here.

"Photograph of Camel Corps two Sihks mounted in fighting order." Photograph taken by Felice Beato on the Nile Expedition to relieve Khartoum. 1884/5

The National Archives (formerly known as the Public Records Office) at Kew have joined Flickr.  They have added about 200 items in seven sets.  The images range from the photos of Felice Beato to Historic Documents to a handful of artifacts.

Sample Child's Ration Book. Throughout the 1940s (and for nine years after the end of the war) every man woman and child in Britain owned ration books of coupons for food and clothing. The Ministry of Food's carefully formulated diet is generally believed to have improved the nation's health.

Hopefully they will continue to post images from the Archives … from my work there during my doctoral research, they have a wonderful collection full of great stories and great images!

Coming to a bookstore near you soon!  Or, to pre-order, go to Amazon.

Science for the Nation is a unique look at the history of a great national institution as well as a study of the changing roles of museums and the perceived public role that a museum of science and technology plays within larger society. It illuminates the ways in which we think about the collecting and display of scientific objects, and explores the changing and often difficult relations between the state, business and industry, and museum funding. The essays also examine the Science Museum in the context of other national museums in London, and show the key differences affecting their chosen paths and individual development.

This is a great new volume … okay, I am partial because I helped to write it (see Chapter 3, entitled “The Science Museum and the Second World War”).  A perfect gift for anyone who is interested in the history of museums, especially during the 20th century.

Osler Family at 7 Norham Gardens, Oxford, 1905

From the Marjorie Howard Futcher Photo Collection:

The youngest daughter of the influential McGill University physician and Dean of Medicine Robert Palmer Howard, Gwendolen Marjorie Howard Futcher (1882-1969) was born into a social milieu which included some of the most prominent Canadian business, political, and academic figures and families of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This collection consists of two of her photo albums of images from the 1890s and first decade of the twentieth century, when she was known as Gwendolen Marjorie Howard. It chronicles her school years in Germany and England, her life in Montreal during her late teenage years and early twenties, as well as visits with friends and relatives to various destinations in Canada, Bermuda, Britain, and Europe.

From my quick rummage through the collection, this could be a great resource for a variety of historians.  From the bio of Marjorie, she was an upper-class late-Victorian/Edwardian lady who was well-traveled and well-respected.  Her photo albums provide an interesting peek into both her social life and, for me, the ways (aka photographic technologies used) that memories were preserved.

William Jennings Bryan (seated at left) being interrogated by Clarence Seward Darrow, during the trial of the State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, July 20, 1925.

Last November, a new donation of Scopes Trial Photos was made to the Smithsonian Archives and the Archives has posted them to a Flickr set about the trial.  Like the original set that was discovered in 2005, these new images are great visual historical resource for one of the key events in twentieth-century US history.

Clarence S. Darrow (center) standing near Rhea County Courthouse with unidentified man (left) and Arthur Garfield Hays (right), Dayton, Tennessee, probably July 20, 1925.

George Washington Rappleyea

Fred E. Robinson (at right) owned the drugstore where local business leaders persuaded schoolteacher John Thomas Scopes to consent to be charged with violating state law by teaching about evolution. The sign on the tabletop says: “AT THIS TABLE THE SCOPES EVOLUTION CASE WAS STARTED MAY 5, 1925.”

Check out all of the wonderful images out on Flickr!

Historians of science and technology may like to know that a selection of special issues and articles that have been published in Notes and Records of the Royal Society since the 1960s is freely available online here.  The items will be accessible until 28 February 2010.

The initiative is part of this year’s celebrations of the 350th anniversary of the founding of The Royal Society.

Read more »

What say the birds of Australia to this?” – Darwin’s Origin at the National Library of Australia

From the library:

Earlier this year, the National Library of Australia acquired a copy of the first edition of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, perhaps one of the most influential books of the nineteenth century. Believed to be one of the earliest surviving copies of Darwin’s work to have arrived in Australia, the Library’s copy was first owned by Dr William Woolls of Parramatta, N.S.W. and it bears his inscription and the date March 17 1860 on the front free end paper. Woolls, a clergyman and schoolmaster, was also a noted botanist. He wrote many articles and papers on the subject and was made a fellow of the Linnean Society of London in 1865 and was later awarded a doctorate by the University of Göttingen for a dissertation on the botany of the Parramatta region. His name is commemorated in the genus Woollsia, as well as the name of six species. The book contains many penciled annotations made by Woolls and these provide a fascinating insight into the reception of Darwin’s revolutionary ideas on a well-educated reader at the other side of the world. Although many of the annotations have faded with the passage of time, some of Woolls notes are still legible. While some of the comments show agreement with Darwin’s theories, other comments call into question the author’s statements, in a couple of instances drawing upon Australian examples. Next to a passage on birds learning to fear man, for example, Woolls has written “what say the birds of Australia to this?”

Also, on a more light-hearted note … A Science Carol.  According to the note that I got about it, it is …

Performed and produced by Christopher Last, Casey Walruth & Jeffrey Tucker, this podcast constitutes a dramatic interpretation of Steven Shapin’s book ‘The Scientific Life: A Moral History of a Late Modern Vocation.’ Intended as a parody of Charles Dickens’ literary classic ‘A Christmas Carol,’ Last,Walruth & Tucker tell the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge, a miserly old scientist who embarks on a mystical journey to learn the true-meaning of science. Visitations by the Ghosts of Science Past, Present & Future help Scrooge to see that the scientific life is not exactly what he thought it to be, and that scientists themselves are as human as the next man. Dramatic acting, excellent scripting and good-natured humor make this a presentation not to be missed.