Ransom Center Magazine

history of science

THRESHOLD ECOLOGIES: On Earth (and on Earth Day)

-

A day turns into a week into a month, and more. Over the past year, our sense of time has extended into ongoing uncertainty from a global pandemic. For those grounded close to home, if we are lucky, our environments have become circumscribed by thresholds and windows, actual and virtual, sensing global interconnections in the very fragile air that we breathe. Others have been unable to breathe. Challenges this past year, including systemic racial inequities, grow out of long histories. Living in the present, what we call past once had alternative futures, even as our linear narratives timestamp 2020 into 2021.

[Read more…] about THRESHOLD ECOLOGIES: On Earth (and on Earth Day)

Preserving and Enhancing Access to Physicist Owen W. Richardson’s Papers

-

With the generous support of a grant from the History Programs, American Institute of Physics, the Ransom Center has created a new online finding aid for the papers of English physicist Owen W. Richardson (1879–1959). The papers were originally processed during the 1960s and described on more than 8,000 catalog cards. Enhanced collection housing was also part of the project, improving long-term preservation of the materials.

Recognized for his pioneering work on thermionics, Sir Owen Richardson was awarded the 1928 Nobel Prize in Physics for [Read more…] about Preserving and Enhancing Access to Physicist Owen W. Richardson’s Papers

Newly cataloged collection of science materials now open for research

-

A drawing of Halley's Comet by Caroline Herschel in 1835–1836.
A drawing of Halley's Comet by Sir John F. W. Herschel in 1835–1836.

A collection of science materials from the family of Sir John F. W. Herschel (1792–1871) is now open for research after a grant enabled staffers to rehouse the collection and to create an online inventory.

The Herschel family papers, acquired in 1960 with subsequent smaller accessions of additional materials, largely represent the life and work of Herschel, the English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor. John Herschel has been called Britain’s first modern physical scientist, and his correspondence has been noted as one of the most valuable archives for 19th-century science.

The Herschel family papers at the Ransom Center form a significant resource for the study of the history of science in general and also for studies in astronomy, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. The lives of the Herschels, their ground-breaking achievements, their interactions with other leading scientists of their time, and their influence on their colleagues’ work are topics scholars may pursue in the papers. The Ransom Center’s Herschel collection is exceeded in size only by the collection at the Royal Society in London.

The cataloging project was funded by a $10,000 grant from the Friends of the Center for History of Physics at the American Institute of Physics.

Copyright © 2021 Harry Ransom Center

Web Accessibility · Web Privacy