An International Conference
at Dartmouth College, 24-27 June 2004
Co-sponsored by Dartmouth College
and the Scientific Instrument Commission,
International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science
Funded by the National Science
Foundation
and the
Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth
College
NC=Not confirmed at this time
_________________________
Thursday, 24 June
12:00
Registration in Brace Commons, Wheelock Cluster on campus
17:00
Reception in Kim Gallery, Hood Museum of Art
18:30
Keynote address in Filene Auditorium, Moore Hall
Paolo Brenni
Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence, and President,
SIC
"Sleeping beauties: Historical collections of scientific instruments at European universities"
20:00 Opening banquet, Hayward Lounge, Hanover Inn
Friday, 25 June
9:00
Session 1:
The political economy of university collections (workshop)
- David Pantalony, Dibner Institute, MIT, Chair
- James C. Day, Assoc. Professor of Physics, Transylvania University
- Ron Liebowitz, Provost and President-Elect, Middlebury College
- Robin McElheny, Associate University Archivist for Programs, Harvard University
- Alison Morrison-Low, Acting Keeper, Dept. of Social & Technological History, National Museums of Scotland
Topics to include:
--recognizing the value of university collections, defining collection
mandates
--promoting collections at departmental, university, and wider
levels
--relationships with other university collections, i.e., museums,
libraries, archives
--uses for collections and the fostering of traditional and new
clienteles
10:15
Coffee break
10:45
Session 2a: University
collections and university histories (papers)
- Jan Golinski, University of New Hampshire,Chair
- Julian Holland, University of Sydney, "University Collections of Scientific Instruments: An Australian Perspective"
- Mott Linn, Clark University, "Photographic record of Clark's new laboratories in 1892"
- Dalibor Voboril and Petr Kveton, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, "Collections of historical psychological devices in Czech universities"
Session 2b: Using university
collections for research (papers)
- Jose Bertomeu, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, Chair
- Peggy Kidwell, Smithsonian Institution, "The slide rule enters the classroom in the USA: A story from collections"
- William Fickinger, Case Western Reserve University, and Peter Hoejke, Baldwin-Wallace College, "Dayton C. Miller's phonodiek"
- Roland Wittje, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, "Playing on scientific instruments: Acoustics and the preservation and use of scientific instruments in research and public presentation"
- V. Frederick Rickey, U. S. Military Academy, "The Olivier models at Union College and West Point
12:00 Catered buffet lunch and poster session
- Anna Giatti, Fondazione scienza e tecnica, Florence: "The heritage of the Instituto Tecnico Toscao of Florence"
- Michael Littman, Princeton, "Joseph Henry's artifacts at Princeton"
- Jean-Francois Loude, University of Lausanne, "Historic physics instruments at the University of Lausanne"
14:00
Session 3: Collection
management (workshop)
- Sara Schechner, Harvard University, Chair
- Kellen Haak, Registrar, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
- Sofia Talas, Curator, Museo di Storia della Fisica, University of Padua
- James M. Edmonson, Chief Curator, Dittrick Medical History Center, Case Western Reserve University
Topics to include:
--organizing and cataloguing collections
--storage, proper handling, conservation, security
--environmental safety
--creating policies for on-going acquisition and de-accession
--dealing with large objects
15:15
Coffee break
15:45 Session 4a: Can university collections survive their founders?
(papers)
- Deborah Douglas, MIT Museum (Chair)
- M. Eugene Rudd, University of Nebraska, "The making of a collection: Historic scientific instruments at the University of Nebraska"
- Norman Heckenberg, University of Queensland, "Avoiding infant mortality"
- Joseph Bellina, St. Mary's College, "Does St. Mary's collection have a future?"
- Sebastian Soubiran, University of Strasbourg, "Getting started: Preservation and valorisation of scientific instruments at the University of Strasbourg"
Session 4b: Curatorial
challenges (papers)
- Ben Weiss, Dibner Institute for the History of Science (Chair)
- Jos Uyttenhove, Gent University, "The 'Van Heurck' collection of historical microscopes: A unique collection from a very special scholar"
- David Brock and Robert Lukens, Chemical Heritage Foundation, "Chemistry's revolutionary tools: Collecting and interpretating post-war chemical instrumentation"
- Jim Moss, Horological conservator, "The mercurial relationship between David and Goliath"
- Yaakov Zik, University of Haifa, "Instrument: An interface among theory, symbolic representation and the real world"
18:00
Dinner, organized by participants in area restaurants
20:00
Session 5: Digital
projects and exhibitions (workshop)
- Stephen Johnston, Curator, Museum of the History of Science,
Oxford University, Chair
- Francis Moon, Professor, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell
- John M. Saylor, Director, National Science Digital Library, Cornell
- Kizer Walker, Digital Projects Librarian, Cornell Science Libraries
- Steve Turner, Specialist in the Physical Sciences Collection, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Saturday, 26 June
9:00
Session 6: Teaching
with university collections (workshop)
- Jean Francois-Gauvin, Harvard, Chair
- David Hammond, Robert Arns, Thomas Warnock, Department of Physics, University of Vermont
- Sara Schechner, Curator, Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard
- Daina Taimina, Senior Research Associate, Cornell University Libraries
- Liba Taub, Director & Curator, Whipple Museum of the History of Science, University of Cambridge
10:15 Coffee break
10:45
Session 7a: Introducing
hidden collections (papers)
- Elizabeth Hanson, Rockefeller University (Chair)
- Jose Bertomeu, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin, "Scientific Instruments at Secondary Schools in Spain, 1845-1939"
- Thomas B. Greenslade, Kenyon College, "Hidden collections"
- Anne McMahon, Santa Clara University, "The Santa Clara Scientific Instrument Collection"
- Dana Freiburger, University of Wisconsin, "Traces of gold: Science and Scientific Instruments at Santa Clara College, California, 1851-1878"
- Frank Winkler, Middlebury College, "Scientific instruments at Middlebury College"
Session 7b:
Introducing hidden collections (papers)
- Jean Barrette, McGill University (Chair)
- Charlotte Erwin, Caltech, "The Millikan Legacy at Caltech"
- Richard Paselk, Humboldt State University, "From virtual to reality: The making of the Robert A. Paselk Scientific Instrument Museum"
- Bernard Ziomkiewicz, Queen's University, "The physics collection of Queen's University"
- Andrew Bell, private scholar, "Skeletons in the closet: Optical artifacts from the Dartmouth King Collection"
12:00
Lunch in local restaurants
14:00
Session 8: Whither
university astronomical observatories? (workshop)
- Marvin P. Bolt,Chair, Adler Planetarium
- John Briggs, National Solar Observatory and Yerkes Observatory
- Françoise Leguet Tully,Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur, Nice
- David Targan, Director, Ladd Observatory, Brown Unversity
- George Wise, Executive Director, Dudley Observatory
15:30
Coffee break
19:00
Cocktails and closing banquet, with music of New England (Montshire
Museum of Science)
Sunday, 27 June
9:00 AM-16:00 PM
Optional excursion to the American Precision Museum, Windsor,
Vt, and to the Russell Porter Museum and turret telescopes in
Springfield, VT, with lunch at the Hartness House. The trip starts at 9:00 AM and returns to Hanover, NH at 16:00 PM.
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