Spring/Summer 1996 Smithsonian Institution Libraries page 5
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Books on Tour

This image of Wilkes's 5-volume Narrative is used as a signature logo with the exhibition's title,America's Smithsonian, the Institution's travelling exhibition, displays three books from the Libraries' collections among its exhibits. J.J. Audubon's The Birds of North America, vol. 5 (1839) and the scarcer The Quadrupeds of North America, vol. 2 (1854) are popular exhibits as is the 1849 edition of Charles Wilkes, Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition (vol. 1). U. S. Navy Officer Charles Wilkes led the first United States government-sponsored overseas exploring expedition and geographic survey, 1838-1842. Wilkes edited more than 20 volumes of scientific studies based on data collected during the voyage.

SIL/Dibner Library Resident Scholars, 1996

The Dibner Fund granted funds to support two SIL/Dibner Library Resident Scholars in 1996. Sara Schechner Genuth, whose fields of study include the history and philosophy of physics and astronomy and scientific instruments, is working on a project, "Models and the Order of the World," which considers globes, spheres and other instruments (16th to 20th centuries) to understand how scientists have used models in their astronomical work, and how the instruments became cultural artifacts. Sara Schechner GenuthDr. Genuth writes that her "research interests are very interdisciplinary, currently treating the social context of scientific work, the interaction of science and religion, and the relationship of high and low culture." She earned her Ph.D. and Master's degrees in the History of Science from Harvard University and an M. Phil. from Emmanuel College, Cambridge University, England. She taught at Harvard University, Sarah Lawrence College, New York, the University of Chicago, and the Newberry Library, and was curator at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago. She curated a number of exhibitions at the Adler, and has delivered many invited papers. Her book on Comets, Popular Culture, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology will be published by University of California Press.

Watch for the Fall-Winter issue of Information which will highlight the research of the second 1996 Dibner Library Resident Scholar, Howard Paul Louthan.


150th


Charles Coffin Jewett James Conaway's The Smithsonian: 150 Years of Adventure, Discovery, and Wonder (1995) introduces Charles Coffin Jewett, the Smithsonian's first librarian (1846-1855) in a featured spread on libraries at the Institution.

In a Minute...

A manuscript from SIL's Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, a personality test taken by Albert Einstein in the 1950s, was introduced by Robin Williams on one of the "Smithsonian Minutes" being shown on CBS, the Institution's 150th anniversary broadcasting partner.

Libraries Donates a Hand-Made Book

The Libraries contributed a hand-made blank book to the Silent Auction of the 1996 Washington Craft Show, sponsored by the Smithsonian Women's Committee. The vellum book, bound in green leather, was made by graduate intern Yasmin Khan in the Libraries' Book Conservation Laboratory.
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