• General info
• LibGuides
• Calendar
• Contact us – Visit

Only 2 more weeks to see the Crossing Cultures exhibit and the Can’t Get Enough Sherlock? display!

See the OU Libraries youTube channel for more overview videos.

To celebrate, stop by the History of Science Collections and view an early, low-serial number 1984 Macintosh, donated by Tim Long, on display in the Roller Reading Room. The Collections also holds a late-1984 Macintosh donated by Kennard and Kay Bork; these are part of a computer collection consisting of approximately 40 working computers from the 1970′s through the 1990′s.

One of my favorite portraits of Steve Jobs, taken by Tom Zimberoff, hangs above an easy chair in the Researcher Lounge of the History of Science Collections. Jobs saw that the Mac would do for computers what alphabetic writing did for ancient civilization. The Rosetta Stone displays the same text in three bands of writing, beginning with Egyptian hieroglyphics and the more-easily read demotic script. Both hieroglyphics and demotic, like Mesopotamian cuneiform languages, were written in syllabaries comprised of several hundred characters. Syllabaries were the scripts of highly trained scribes, mastered only through a long period of preparation. As a result, scribes were an elite culture, and their work was subject to the control of large, highly-organized states in Egypt and Mesopotamia. In contrast, the lowest band is Greek, an alphabetic script. With only a couple dozen characters, Greek could be mastered with determination by anyone. The resulting impact of Greek culture upon the world, made possible by literacy, signified to Jobs what the Mac and the 20th-century Information Revolution were all about.

• Apple.com: Explore 30 years of innovation on the Mac (video, 3 mins)
• Listen to the British Museum’s discussion of the Rosetta Stone in their History of the World in 100 Objects series (15 mins).
• 1984
• Steve Jobs unveils the Macintosh (5 mins)
• Tidbits: Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Macintosh
• NPR: At 30, The Original Mac Is Still An Archetype Of Innovation

• A Study in Scarlet (1888)
• The Sign of the Four (1890)
• The White Company (1892), with author’s inscription and autograph letter*
• The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
• The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894)
• The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)
• The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)
• The Speckled Band (1912)
• The Adventure of the Dying Detective (1913)
• His Last Bow (1917)

*The White Company is from the History of Science Collections. All other works are from the John and Mary Nichols Rare Books and Special Collections.

In addition to these rare books, two scholarly works are on display:

• Alvin E. Rodin & Jack D. Key, Medical Case Book of Doctor Arthur Conan Doyle (1984)
• Lawrence Frank, Victorian Detective Fiction and the Nature of Evidence (2003)

—–

More info: Exhibits and Displays LibGuide
Where: History of Science Collections, 5th Floor, Bizzell Memorial Library (visit)
When: Monday-Thursday 9am -6:45; Friday 9am-4:45 Saturday 12-3:45
Contact: (405) 325-2741

On Monday morning Janux, OU’s new digital course platform, launches with the following courses, all of which offer free public enrollment:

• Native Peoples of Oklahoma
• Practical Importance of Human Evolution
• Chemistry of Beer
• Understanding and Detecting Deception
• Power and Elegance of Computational Thinking
• Introduction to Computer Programming
• Administration of Adult and Higher Education
• Introduction to Water
• Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Resources
• Physical Geology for Science and Engineering Majors
• History of Science to the Age of Newton
• Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
• Introduction to Sociology

Go on over to the janux.ou.edu site and take a look. Sign up for any that interest you. On Monday morning, join thousands of other people around the world who will interact together as they explore these courses.

The Janux platform offers numerous features tailored to promote engaging learning opportunities, including text annotations, student interaction through forum discussions, and high-impact videos including interviews and on-location documentaries. Courses range the gamut across the sciences and humanities, offering anyone around the world access, without charge, to the intellectual resources of the University of Oklahoma.

One reason posting to this blog has lagged in recent months is because the Janux platform will include my own course, History of Science to the Age of Newton. But the truth is that this course no longer seems really my own: It began with the interested support of Dean Rick Luce and my colleagues in the Department of the History of Science, who encouraged me to engage the platform even during a time when we have other significant, large-scale digital initiatives afoot. It has been produced by a team of remarkable people with whom I have been privileged to work, whose skill and graciousness have inspired me. My debts to them are inestimable: Angie Calton, course design assistant; Grey Allman and the programming team, who have slaved away many late nights to implement new platform features to support high-quality online pedagogy; and Chris Kalinsky and the rest of the videography team (Meleah, Pat, Matt, Darren, & Jaynan), who are artists of light and shadow and have invested extended hours in filming the books – those treasures from the vault – on location in the History of Science Collections. Without their insight, initiative, skill, dogged labors, teamwork, collegiality and perseverance, my course would not be included in that list.

The launch of Janux is an exciting time for OU and for all of those involved. My hat is off to everyone who made it possible, and now the countdown to Monday morning begins…

If you have been hearing about OU Library’s new approach to exhibitions, or about the Galileo’s World exhibition that will open in August, 2015, we invite you to become involved. Plans are still in a very early stage, and you can watch this blog for announcements and further information as the scope and shape of the project become more clear.

We have created an email listserv to coordinate development and foster communication about the Galileo’s World exhibition. To subscribe, go to lists.ou.edu and search for “Galileo-L”. Then click the subscribe button on the website, and confirm it by replying to an automated email message.

By subscribing to the Galileo-L listserv, you will be kept informed of exhibit developments as our plans come together. For example, we will link to digital resource prototypes as they are being produced for your feedback and discussion. The listserv will be far more than just a venue for us to make announcements, however: it’s a virtual commons in which we invite you to participate in the exhibit development process from the ground up, to suggest ideas and work with other collaborators to see those ideas come to reality. For example, we invite educators to join with us in developing lesson plans and exhibit-related activities. We invite astronomers and amateur astronomers to join with us in planning exhibit-related activities. And it’s not just for scientists: we invite musicians, artists, engineers, philosophers and lovers of literature to get involved as well. The exhibition will provide active-learning pedagogical opportunities for university classes and area school groups from across a broad spectrum of the natural sciences and humanities, including physics, astronomy, science and music, science and art, science and religion, science and literature, manuscripts and printing, meteorology, geology, botany, zoology, microscopy, all branches of engineering, and mathematics. No matter what your field of study, or area of expertise, we believe you will find connections with the Galileo’s World exhibition. So if you’re interested in working with us to prepare for the Galileo’s World exhibit in 2015-16, come share and discuss your ideas on the Galileo-L listserv.

Watch this blog for future announcements regarding Galileo’s World.

—–

• The name of the list: GALILEO-L
• The LISTSERV host name: LISTS.OU.EDU
• To send an email to the list: [email protected]
• To contact the list owner: [email protected]
• To unsubscribe from the list: [email protected]
• The list home page: http://lists.ou.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=GALILEO-L
• The list subscription page: http://lists.ou.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=GALILEO-L

Camille Flammarion, L’Atmosphere: Météorologie Populaire (Paris, 1888), p. 163. Colorized by Susanna J. Magruder. Courtesy History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries. Download: jpg | tiff

More than a decade ago, in 1996, I prepared a small website telling the story of the above woodcut and tracing its first appearance to Camille Flammarion in 1888. That old website remains available, largely unchanged: “This is not a medieval woodcut.” It explores the image as visual rhetoric, concluding that its enduring appeal lies not so much in the flat Earth myth but as an icon of our common quest of discovery and exploration, the challenge of “boldly going where no one has gone before.”

Many colorized versions of the woodcut appear on that site in low resolution, with permission and according to fair use. However, wouldn’t it be great if there were a colorized version available in higher resolution which educators and anyone could freely use? This is why my daughter, Susanna J. Magruder, created the colorized version of Flammarion’s woodcut shown above, which she is distributing with a CC-by license. Enjoy! You can put it on your website, a t-shirt, a coffee mug, or print out a copy on quality paper for your wall.

I’ve already taken advantage of Susanna’s work by using her version as the icon for my spring 2014 course, “History of Science from Antiquity to the Age of Newton,” which will be available on OU’s Janux digital course platform. It’s already announced there, so take a look (and watch the course overview video, if you’re curious). To me, this woodcut is the ideal icon for the course, and I used it before for the same purpose.

If you’re interested in the longer story of the shape of the Earth, here is a 45-minute video I made some years ago that features the woodcut.

The original black and white illustration by Flammarion is available from our Online Galleries.

Thanks, Susanna!

• John’s twitter is jstew511.
• Come to the brown-bag discussion Friday 8/30 at noon in the Collections (calendar).

Galileo’s signature on this collection’s copy of the Sidereus Nuncius serves as the banner for this blog. If you would like to know more about this landmark book, I encourage you to look it up on Wikipedia or Google it, which amounts to the same thing. It may surprise you to find out that the article you will read (Sidereus nuncius) is largely the work of OU astrophysics senior Jodi Berdis.

In my History of Science to the Age of Newton course this past summer, I asked Jodi and her classmates to identify Wikipedia articles related to the history of science that needed improvement and to revise them. They edited a diverse array of articles including biographies ranging from the Greek philosopher Cleostratus to the 17th century German female astronomer Maria Clara Eimmart. The students also updated articles on Iatrochemistry, Psychology in medieval Islam, and Kampo, a Japanese adaptation of traditional Chinese medicine. By working with Wikipedia to publish their descriptive research essays, the students shared what they learned in my class with a worldwide audience.

My class was the first at the University of Oklahoma to use Wikipedia’s Education Program package. Despite its capabilities for knowledge creation and sharing, Wikipedia has been met with ambivalence from many professors. The articles lack the forms of authorship and peer-review standardized by academic journals and presses. As a reference tool, the articles can lack the context and sophistication of an academic text. Misuse by students is also a concern. In a particularly infamous case from 2006, sixteen students in one University of Oklahoma history of science class plagiarized material for the final exam, nine of them copying sections from Wikipedia (OU Daily).

In response to this 2006 case, Assistant Provost Greg Heiser said, “I think that since the beginning of the Internet as a research tool, we have seen a dilution of the idea of what writing should be” (OU Daily). However the lecturer in the 2006 case took an alternative lesson from the episode. “‘The university needs to do more formally to teach its students about information literacy,’ said Katherine Tredwell” (OU Daily).

As with the media revolution sparked by the printing press, the internet has diversified the “idea of what writing should be.” My approach to teaching writing across the curriculum is to move beyond the rigid academic paper to include an element of media literacy. Students tweet and text and read the internet more than newspapers or academic monographs, so I want my course to contribute to what the Center for Media Literacy calls a “framework to access, analyze, evaluate, create and participate with messages in a variety of forms — from print to video to the Internet.”

In their case studies from former classes, Wikipedia notes five learning objectives common to their course assignments:

1. Writing skills development;
2. Critical thinking and research skills;
3. Collaboration
4. Media literacy; and
5. Wiki technical and communication skills.

The first two learning objectives mirror those for any descriptive essay, but the last three provide the argument for the pedagogical value of a Wikipedia assignment.

In my class, students collaborated both with each other and with the broader community of Wikipedia editors. One student made a minor edit to the article on Newton, only to have it deleted in less than six hours. However, using the talk board for the article, the student and the other editor discussed the changes and agreed upon a revised version of the student’s information (related to Newton’s aether theory) and a detailed citation. Watching the student take ownership over his research and collaborate with someone completely unrelated to the class confirmed my hopes for the project and provided the class with a valuable learning experience about the expectations of the Wikipedia community.

Publication to a worldwide audience also has obvious advantages over the traditional term paper and its audience of one. Collaboration and exposure provided an external motivation for students to produce an article that they could be proud of. Jodi’s article on Sidereus Nuncius has received more than fifteen hundred page views a month (stats). This article, as an exercise in knowledge creation in the classroom and knowledge sharing beyond it, offered a potential self-efficacy unrivaled by more traditional college writings.

In evaluating the quality of existing articles and actively making edits, students learned to analyze the production and consumption of knowledge. Learning the language of Wikipedia demystified the coding of a particular website and at the same time provided insight into the authority of online information. In participating in an edited encyclopedia project and researching with more traditional secondary sources, the students utilized multiple forms of media. This active engagement with academic publications, an edited online encyclopedia, and unedited online sources is invaluable for media literacy, an essential skill that our students must learn as they make their way through the height of the Internet Age.

—–

• Cf. Kerry Magruder, “Wikipedia: Ready reference vs. Research literature“: “Why not incorporate group activities to improve Wikipedia into class assignments for undergraduates? If you show your students how to leave their mark on Wikipedia, you will inspire them to change the world.” Thanks, John, for changing the world!

The exhibit will be open through September 14. Visitors should come to the welcome desk of the History of Science Collections on the 5th floor of Bizzell Memorial Library. Admission is free. Individuals need no appointment; instructors and group leaders may contact Carilyn Livesey, Outreach Coordinator, to reserve the Exhibit Hall for exhibit-based instruction and group tours. See our Visit Us page for contact information and directions. Hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and noon to 4 on Saturdays (except for gamedays, when the exhibit will be open until an hour before kickoff).

Visitors will be supplied with iPads containing an interactive guidebook to the exhibit, including photographs of additional pages of the works on display. If you have an iPad, the guidebook may be downloaded for free from either of two places:

• Living Library interactive iBook at the iBookstore.
• Living Library at iTunes U (includes the iBook in a course context)

See the Exhibit Hall page for a suggested activity using the iPads for class instruction.

Galleries in this exhibit include:

• Ancient astronomy, including the first published edition of Ptolemy’s Almagest.
• Egypt, including a star map from the ancient temple of Dendera.
• China, including the memoirs of Matteo Ricci and the first map of China published in Europe.
• Medicine and the life sciences, including a 16th-century study of body ornamentation and an 18th-century guide to midwifery and family medicine.
• Charles Darwin, including an autographed letter.
• Technology, including a photograph of Thomas Edison in the scrapbook of his daughter’s wedding.
• Bonus: several display cases have been recently added, featuring treasures from the history of Geology.

This exhibit features a remarkable variety of subject areas and chronological time periods. Authors represented include Hildegard of Bingen, Galileo, Johann Kepler, Maria Merian, Buffon, William Smith, Tycho Brahe, Francesco Hernandez, Maria Cunitz, Anna Comstock and many more.

More than half of the volumes in the History of Science Collections were acquired after 1976, when a catalog of holdings was published. None of the more than 100 beautiful works on display were included in that catalog. The History of Science Collections of the University of Oklahoma Libraries is a living library, and that means exciting prospects lie ahead.

• The Visit Us page provides contact information and directions.
• To request a tour or to reserve the Harlow Room, the Gaylord Room, or the Exhibit Hall, consult with Outreach Coordinator Carilyn Livesey by completing the tour request form.
• The Harlow Room Logistics page provides important background information and describes the available technology.
• See the History of Science Department Events Calendar for colloquia, public events, and guest speakers.

The BL5 Room Calendar below may help you anticipate scheduling conflicts, but be forewarned that these spaces may not be available on a given date and time, even if they appear available on this calendar.

In recognition of National Holocaust Remembrance Day this Monday, April 8th, several works will be on display on the 5th floor of Bizzell to commemorate the persecution and genocide of approximately six million Jews.

Taken from the History of Science Collections and the Bass Business History Collections, the works showcase only some of the internationally significant contributions made by European scientists of Jewish descent in the early twentieth century, as well as the opposing force of the science of eugenics and the deadly social movement it produced.

Among the pieces on display are those by Nobel Prize winning scientists Niels Bohr, for his discoveries in atomic structure and quantum mechanics, as well as Albert Einstein, via a rare edition of his Theory of Relativity in Yiddish (description).

These books can be viewed at the History of Science Collections on the 5th floor of Bizzell Memorial Library, Monday-Thursday 9 AM -7 PM, Friday 9 AM-5 PM, and Saturday 12-4 PM. For more information, see the Visit link above, or call (405) 325-2741. While there, you may also view the Galileo display and the Living Library exhibition which features more than 100 rare works from the History of Science Collections.

The contributions to science made by Europeans of Jewish backgrounds before and during the Holocaust are remarkable for their breadth and influence even today. Einstein’s and Niels Bohr’s groundbreaking discoveries within the fields of physics won them Nobel Prizes in 1921 and 1922, respectively. Sigmund Freud’s enormously significant work in neurology and psychoanalysis throughout the early 20th century is similarly showcased here through a beautiful allegorical drawing of the unconscious.

However, despite the internationally recognized and honored impact that these works hold today, the work of Jewish scientists was not received or appreciated in the same light immediately after Hitler’s rise to power. In contrast to these notable Jewish scientific achievements during this period, the equally pervasive science of eugenics influenced Nazi ideology and undercut these discoveries. One of the most harrowing and ironic cases involves the German-Jewish chemist and 1918 Nobel Prize winner, Fritz Haber, whose work in developing poisonous gases eventually produced the deadly weapon Zyklon gas. Haber, among the other scientists recognized within this case, was stripped of his position in the university under the Nazis, and his books were burned and denounced in favor of “Aryan” science and achievements.

NORMAN – A rare manuscript written by a leading astronomer in Rome at the height of Galileo’s astronomical discoveries recently was acquired by the University of Oklahoma’s History of Science Collections.

The newly acquired manuscript, Tractatus de sphaera, by Oratio Grassi, records Grassi’s lectures in mathematics and astronomy. The Grassi manuscript is one of three works by Grassi to enhance OU’s Galileo collection this year. In two just-acquired printed books, Grassi discussed three comets that appeared in the sky in 1618.

“The Grassi manuscript is an important addition to the OU History of Science Collections, which is already recognized as among the small number of great collections in science in the world,” said OU President David L. Boren.

The Grassi manuscript is one of only a few astronomical manuscripts from the leading Jesuit university preceding the publication and subsequent condemnation of Galileo’s Dialogo (1632). OU holds Galileo’s own copy of the Dialogo, containing his handwritten comments in the margins.

“By any measure, this Grassi manuscript is a significant acquisition for the University of Oklahoma and an important addition to the prestigious Galileo works held by our History of Science Collections,” said Rick Luce, dean of University Libraries. “The penmanship is beautiful,” said Luce, noting that some of the pages have detailed illustrations, all hand-drawn.

The Grassi manuscript discusses Galileo’s discoveries, including imperfections on the surface of the Sun and Moon and the satellites of Jupiter.

These discoveries were first published by Galileo in Sidereus nuncius, printed in Venice in 1610. The OU copy of Sidereus nuncius displays Galileo’s signature on the title page.

“The OU Galileo collection is remarkable,” Luce said. “While many major libraries hold one or two first editions of Galileo, OU holds the entire set of 12 first editions. Neither the Library of Congress nor the British Library can say the same. Moreover, four of OU’s first editions, including the Sidereus nuncius and the Dialogo, contain Galileo’s handwriting. The Grassi manuscript and the two other printed books by Grassi acquired this year are unique additions to an already world-class Galileo collection.”

The acquisition was made possible because of a recent $500,000 endowment from the OU Athletics Department to support exhibits and acquire rare works for the History of Science Collections.

“We are grateful to the Athletics Department for funding the endowment that made it possible for this manuscript to find its way to OU for its permanent home,” Luce said.

Key works from the OU Galileo collection, including the newly acquired Grassi manuscript, are now on display in the lobby of the History of Science Collections on the fifth floor of Bizzell Memorial Library (directions, hours). For accommodations on the basis of disability call 405/325-2741.

—–

Read about it:

• OU Daily
• Norman Transcript
• Grassi manuscript photographs

Follow us:

• Blog, ouhos.org
• Facebook
• Twitter (Curator)
• Twitter (Collections)
• Pinterest
• Visit us, directions

by James Burnes (@LifeThruTime), graduate student, Department of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, presented at TEDxOU, January 25th, 2013.

The remains of King Richard III (1452-1485) were recently recovered from underneath a parking lot (cf. “Royal Recovery,” NPR, February 4). In recognition of this event, we have identified several rare books relating to the ill-fated monarch held at OU libraries.

Come see the following items from the John and Mary Nichols Rare Books and Special Collections, currently on display on the 5th floor of Bizzell Library:

• 1646, The History of the Life and Reigne of Richard the Third
• 1674, A Chronicle of the Kings of England
• 1707, A Genealogical History of the Kings and Queens of England
• 1788, The Battle of Bosworth Field between Richard the Third and Henry Earl of Richmond, August 22, 1485

In addition to these historical works, you may view this treasure:

• 1632, Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies (The Second Folio)

Download a brochure (pdf):

These books may be viewed at the History of Science Collections on the 5th floor of Bizzell library, Monday-Thursday 9-7 pm, Friday 9-5 pm, Saturday 12-4 pm, through February 28 (325-2741; directions and more info). While there, you may also view the Living Library exhibit, a display of more than 100 works from the History of Science Collections.

————-
Image from: The History of the Life and Reigne of Richard the Third (London, 1646), courtesy John and Mary Nichols Rare Books and Special Collections.

The editor of the History of Science Society’s Isis Current Bibliography, Stephen Weldon, requests participation in a 10-minute online questionnaire on how students and professionals in history of science and related fields use reference tools and social media in their research.

The link to the survey is here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7H3XD63

The purpose of this questionnaire is to help Weldon’s research team design a new set of discovery and networking tools for research in the history of science. He is working with a group of scholars, librarians, and technical experts on this project, exploring new possibilities for research tools in the current digital environment.

Participation in this survey by anyone whose research may include the history of science, technology, and medicine, whether or not they use the Isis Bibliography, will help provide data on current research practices that will assist in the creation of a new research tool.

The survey will be accessible until Friday, March 15. Your participation is greatly appreciated.

Isis Bibliography – more info

“The currently available digital copies of Darwin’s great work suffer serious defects from the point of view of both human and machine readers.” (Goldstein, editor’s introduction)

Adam M. Goldstein, of Iona College, has created a structured source text of Charles Darwin, Origin of Species (London, 1859). Here is the link to download a digital edition of the source text, in pdf (6.4MB), at the American Museum of Natural History website:

http://darwin.amnh.org/files/images/pdfs/e83461.pdf

The source text underlying this edition was produced by editing, correcting, and reformatting the Oxford Text Archive’s text number 1783. In the editor’s introduction, Goldstein relays the results of an initial proof-reading of the 1783 text by Eric English:

“The base text (text 1783) is rife with errors, approximately 1,000 of them identified during the first round of proofreading. Some seem to be typographical errors or errors of transcription, and some of these significantly alter the meaning of the text: missing words, a variant of a word differing in meaning from the correct word; missing punctuation; and, most startling, missing phrases or sentences. The base text is Anglicized in some cases, Americanized in others. For instance, “organization” and “organisation” both appear regularly in the base text, and double quotes where Americans today would expect them are frequently changed to single quotes in a manner that accords with today’s British practice. Additionally, no diphthongs, ampersands, or accented characters appear anywhere in text 1783. Dashes, commas, and semicolons are often deleted or misplaced. Superscripts, subscripts, and mathematics are either deleted or incorrectly represented.”

This edition rectifies these issues, creating a nearly word-for-word replica of the 1859 edition. As Goldstein states in his introduction: “The central principle informing the editorial practices used in production of the digital Origin is that the text be presented in a manner as close to its original rendering as possible….” Features which still differ from the original text (for example, the lack of running heads) are identified in the editor’s introduction.

Goldstein expresses the hope that this new source text will “provide a basis in machine-readable code for producing the text of the 1859 Origin in a range of designs, for instance, a large-type edition for the visually impaired, or an edition formatted for reading on a hand-held device.” In addition, the source text is structured to support machine analysis. Goldstein envisions the creation of an appropriate informatics tool that will enable scholars to analyze this source text of the Origin more powerfully than is possible through basic key word searching. Not only is this pdf the most accurate digital copy of the Origin to date, but Goldstein’s preparation of the structured source text underlying the pdf is an important step toward the application to the Darwin corpus of analytical techniques adapted from informatics.

This is the first version of this digital edition; revisions will be posted at the same link. At present, the AMNH site is the only authorized distribution point; refer users to the link above rather than distributing the file itself.

Notes about the edition:

• The editor’s introduction is an invaluable guide to the technical ins and outs of making an accurate digital edition and a sustainable encoded source text. It discusses the edition’s necessity and methodology.
• The pdf includes a hyperlinked table of contents and two hyperlinked indices, one that refers to the pagination of the edition in hand, the other to Darwin’s original Origin pagination. The latter is more accurate than the index in Ernst Mayr’s facsimile edition.

A copyright mark appears on every page of the pdf. Goldstein explains that the document is available under the terms set by the AMNH for use of material on the Darwin Manuscripts Project site. He intends eventually to release the source text under the GNU GPL, but that’s taking a little time to work out.

—–

The OU History of Science Collections is providing high resolution facsimile images of Darwin first editions to the Darwin Manuscripts Project of the American Museum of Natural History. For more about the OU Darwin collection, see Darwin First Editions and Darwin@theLibrary.

The astrolabe was the most important scientific instrument in the Middle Ages, and the treatise ascribed to Masha’allah (ca 800 C.E., but not actually by him) is the most important text on the subject. It was much copied and survives in all or in part in almost 200 manuscripts. Generally there are more than 100 copies of each part of the treatise.

The 1935 edition published by R. T. Gunther was based on only three or four local manuscripts, and as such is defective in many places. Missing phrases, or mis-copies or mis-read phrases at times makes that text unintelligible.

This edition is based on the collation of a significant number of manuscripts (over 80, and eventually, it is hoped, all manuscript copies). What is now being published here is the text of the Prologue and of the first six chapters. The edition is available in four PDF files:

• Part I: Introduction contains the preface and introductory material, including manuscript information;
• Part II: Critical Edition contains the Latin text and diagrams, the critical apparatus and a facing English translation;
• Part III: Latin Text contains the Latin text and diagrams, without the apparatus criticus, but maintaining the line numbers of the critical edition;
• Part IV: English Text contains the English text and diagrams, for those who are interested in consulting only the translation.

Over time these texts will be updated and expanded, when the remaining manuscript copies are collated, and when the editing of further sections has been completed. However, it is not expected that the present version will change – the rest of the manuscripts will expand the apparatus criticus but are unlikely to modify the text itself.

The proper citation of this work is: Pseudo-Masha’allah, On the Astrolabe, ed. Ron B. Thomson, version 1.0 (Toronto, 2012).

The editor is interested in receiving comments on the text and further insights into its interpretation from others. He is willing to incorporate such additions into future versions for the benefit of others who would consult this edition in the future. Comments can be sent to [email protected].

Permission is given for scholars to print out (and bind) any or all of these texts for non-commercial uses: research, study, criticism and citation. Commercial reproduction of all or part of the texts is not permitted without the prior consent of the copyright owner.

——————-
Note: We thank Prof. Thomson for this guest post, and for making this important edition available to scholars in electronic form as downloadable pdfs from ouhos.org. Bookmark this page to obtain future versions of Prof. Thomson’s edition. Should it become available elsewhere, this page will forward visitors to the most current location.

Two online guides for the History of Science, Technology & Medicine, prepared by Librarian JoAnn Palmeri, are now available on the OU library website:

• “History of Science, Technology and Medicine: Guide to Searching”
• “History of Science, Technology and Medicine: Guide to Resources”

About the Guides

The main purpose of these guides is to support research and teaching in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at OU. The content of each guide is summarized on its opening page.

The “Guide to Searching” provides basic instruction on how to use the OU library website to find materials useful for research and study in HSTM. It includes tips on using the online catalog, finding books and journals, and searching for primary and secondary sources in OU’s many databases.

The “Guide to Resources” provides catalog links to key resources in the field, including reference materials, introductory works, notable series, and primary sources. The different sections of this guide showcase the variety of materials available for research and study in the field. These materials serve as an introduction to the field for newcomers and a foundation for ongoing study for all levels of researchers. For the most part, items listed in the pages of this guide are books held in the History of Science Collections, Bizzell and other OU libraries, or books accessible through OU’s databases. A separate internet page illustrates the range of online sources available beyond OU.

Scope of the Guides
Beyond showcasing examples of core resources, important critical editions, and classic texts, these guides include tips on the use of particular types of resources (for example, reference works), and include strategies for searching for specific materials (for example, works by scientists).

Sections of the two guides are listed below to highlight features undergraduates may find useful:

Guide to Searching:

1. “Finding and Borrowing Books Beyond OU – Worldcat & ILL”

2. “Selecting Databases to find Articles (Secondary Sources)” and “Selecting Databases to find Historical Materials (Primary Sources)”

3. “Catalog Search tips – Limit Your Search by Location, Date, or Format”

4. “eJournals for HSTM Research – A Select List“

Guide to Resources:

5. “Researching with Reference Works”

6. “Bibliographies of the Secondary Literature”

7. “Primary Sources – Scientists’ Writings”

Sample pages from the “Guide to Resources” are listed below to illustrate the range of materials it includes.

1. Page featuring award-winning books

2. Page featuring notable and advanced series

3. Page featuring microform holdings related to HSTM

4. Page featuring primary source readers

5. Page featuring guides to finding primary sources

6. Page featuring information about HSTM and History disciplines, including links to the Isis Focus section and thematic readers.

7. OUhos.org page includes section with links to History of Science Collections blog and posts for items such as incunabula, manuscripts, and the online galleries.

Other OU Guides
Keep in mind that other guides are available on the Guides home page of the OU Libraries website. Links to many of these guides are included in the two History of Science Guides. The History and Related Areas guides created by Laurie Scrivener (History and Area Studies Librarian) are likely to be particularly useful to you.

Suggestions Welcome
Please contact JoAnn Palmeri: I welcome suggestions that would make theses guides more helpful in the support of research and teaching in HSTM at OU. In particular, your ideas and contributions to the creation of topical research guides and class-specific guides would be most welcome. Please see me to discuss this if you are interested in collaborating on such guides.

John van Wyhe, editor of the Darwin Online project, today announced the opening of the Wallace Online project, three years in the making.

Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913) is well-known as a co-discoverer, with Charles Darwin, of the theory of descent with modification from common ancestors by natural selection. Wallace was also of major importance for the development of ecology, particularly through his extensive explorations of southeast Asia and Malaysia (cf. Wyhe’s biographical essay).

The University of Oklahoma Libraries is glad to announce its partnership with the Wallace Online project. The History of Science Collections has contributed the following books:

• Wallace, A. R. 1875. On miracles and modern spiritualism. Three essays. London: James Burns.
• Wallace, A. R. 1907. Is Mars habitable? A critical examination of Professor Percival Lowell’s Book “Mars and its canals,” with an alternative explanation. London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. And New York: The Macmillan Co.
• Wallace, A. R. 1913. Social environment and moral progress. London, New York, Toronto & Melbourne: Cassell & Co., Ltd.

Also, the History of Science Collections is the leading external contributor to Darwin Online, contributing 40 titles to that project (see related post).