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!

This last week, as part of the St Cross Colloquia, I was recorded and podcasted!  If you want to download the presentation, click here.

While it was a good experience, I don’t like how my voice sounds on the recording and, for some reason, I kept saying “um” during the talk (especially, the first part of it).  Anyway, it is out there and is something to go on my CV …

Steampunk has arrived at the Museum of the History of Science!  In the world’s first purpose-built museum building is the world’s first museum-housed exhibition of steampunk art.  Curated by Art Donovan and Jim Bennett, this exhibition is a radical departure for the Museum of the History of Science, and is very successful in blending the artworks in the main special exhibition with a number of museum items displayed in the small basement gallery.

If you are in town, it is definitely worth a visit.  We visited the week after it opened on Sunday and we waited in line to enter the exhibition … a real rarity for the Museum!  Inside, you are confronted with a variety of steampunk artifacts (for some photos, click here).  The overall effect is quite interesting and completely different from any of the other exhibitions that the Museum has housed.  The time that we visited, it was very busy and we were not able to spend a lot of time … so, I really need to go back and spend more time examining some of the exhibits closer.

It is a wonderland for the imagination and highly recommended!

For more information, see:

• Exhibit Blog
• Exhibit Premier

For those who cannot get to Oxford, here is video (also available on the Museum’s site):

My entire DPhil in word cloud form!

via Wordle

This is the 13,000 words of my chapter of the forthcoming Science Museum centenary volume, Science for the Nation: Perspectives on the History of the Science Museum, represented in a word cloud.

To see a larger version of the image, just click …

via Wordle

Currently, I am working on the Museum of the History of Science’s Heaven on Earth online exhibition.  Last year, a selection of the prints went on display as part of the Museum’s contribution to the UK’s ‘China Now’ festival.  Now, all 105 prints from Ferdinand Verbiest’s Xinzhi Yixiangtu (1673) are available online and I am completing the job of captioning and tagging all of them!

The Xinzhi Yixiangtu is based on Verbiest’s work at the Beijing Observatory.  He was a Jesuit missionary who went to China during the Qing dynasty (mid-17th century) to spread both Christianity and Western astronomy.  During his time in China, he proved the accuracy of western methods and instruments, corrected the Chinese calendar, became close friends to the emperor, did cartography, and, at times, worked as a diplomat, teacher, and translator.  The 105 prints that the Museum has put online cover a variety of subjects, ranging from astronomy to mechanics to construction techniques.

All of the captions and tags are not up yet … still a work in progress, but it will hopefully be done soon.

As of about 1p today, when I handed the copies into the Exam Schools, I officially finished with the writing part … all this is left now is to have my viva and make any needed corrections.  For those who are interested, here is the title and official abstract:

Science collection, exhibition, and display in public museums in Britain from World War Two through the 1960s

Science and technology is regularly featured on radio, in newspapers, and on television, but most people only get firsthand exposure to ‘cutting-edge’ technologies in museums and other exhibitions.  During this period, the Science Museum was the only permanent national presentation of science and technology.  Thus, it is important to acknowledge the Museum’s history and the socio-political framework in which it operated.  Understanding the delays in the Museum’s physical development is critical, as is understanding the gradual changes in the Museum’s educational provision, audience, and purpose.  While the Museum was the main national exhibition space, the Festival of Britain in 1951 also provided a platform for the presentation of science and technology and was a statement of Britain’s place within the new post-War world.  Specifically, within its narrative, the Festival addressed the relationship between the arts and the sciences and the influence of science and technology on daily life.  Another example of the presentation of science was the quest for a planetarium in London – a story that involves the Science Museum, entrepreneurs, and Madame Tussauds.  Comparing the Museum’s efforts with successful planetarium schemes isolates several of the Museum’s weaknesses – for example, the lack of consistent leadership and the lack of administrative and financial freedom – that are touched on throughout the work.  Since most of this history is unknown, this work provides a fundamental basis for understanding the Museum’s current position, for making connections and comparisons that can apply to similar problems at other institutions, and for learning lessons from the struggles that can, in turn, be applied to other institutions.

Also, for those who care, I am posting PDFs … the Short Abstract and Table of Contents and the Long Abstract.

On a recent rete discussion, the topic of whether small animal guillotines had been collected at any of the various collections of scientific and medical instruments.  This was raised because one had been recently been added to the collection at the University of Copenhagen.  One would not expect them to be common, but it appears that they were/are still very wide-spread.  There is one at the Smithsonian and in many other collections, according to the responses on the list.

This message also garnered a bunch of responses, including some very interesting ones from actual users of similar equipment … including how to instantly kill a small animal by whacking it against the edge of a table.

Just in case anyone was wondering, they are still available for purchase.

Visited this exhibition last week while in London but here are a few videos posted by the Museum on youTube …

More below fold … Read more »

This is a new exhibition opening at the Museum of the History of Science and it will then be going to the Yale Center for British Art.  It is focused on the role of geometry in the early modern period of English history, touching on major figures such as King Henry VIII, Queen Elizabeth, and George III, plus practicioners, such as Christopher Wren.

The exhibit will open on 16 June and run until 6 Sept in Oxford.  For more information, click here.