News

Historical Astronomy Division (HAD) Awards Dr. Sara Schechner the 2017 Doggett Prize.

May 15, 2017

The HAD Prize Committee is pleased to announce that Dr. Sara J. Schechner will be the recipient of the 2018 LeRoy E. Doggett Prize for Historical Astronomy. The Doggett Prize is awarded biennially to an individual who has significantly influenced the field through a career-long effort. This award recognizes both her scholastic achievements and her service to HAD and to the study of astronomical history worldwide.

CHSI to Participate in Collections Assessment for Preservation Program.

April 11, 2017

Administered by the Foundation of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artist Works, CAP assists museums in improving the care of their collections by providing support for a conservation assessment of the museum’s collections and buildings. A team of two preservation professionals will spend two days surveying the site and meeting with staff before preparing a comprehensive report that will identify preventive conservation priorities. The assessment report will help the museum prioritize its collections care efforts in the coming years. Full Press Release

The Pope Orrery Takes a Bow in New Harvard Art Museums Exhibition: The Philosophy Chamber

March 30, 2017

This spring, the Harvard Art Museums will present The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820, a special exhibition that brings together many long-forgotten icons of American culture. It will present new findings on this unique space—equal parts laboratory, picture gallery, and lecture hall—that stood at the center of artistic and intellectual life at Harvard and in New England for more than 50 years.

Portrait of John Winthrop Visits The Putnam Gallery

January 27, 2017

Harvard's John Singleton Copley portrait of John Winthrop is now on temporary view in The Putnam Gallery as an exchange loan with the Harvard Art Museums. The portrait will hang in place of The Pope Orrery (right), soon to be playing a starring role in the exhibition The Philosophy Chamber: Art and Science in Harvard’s Teaching Cabinet, 1766–1820, set to open this coming May.

Winthrop was the Hollis Professor of Mathematics and Natural

A Collecting Quandry

January 5, 2017

CHSI Curator Sara Schechner was among those scholars weighing in on the possible disposition of a cultural and industrial prize: a Singer sewing machine, ca. 1892. As reported in Harvard Magazine, 1/15/2017

Panel on the history of women in radio brings "Radio Contact" to life.

October 27, 2016

Participants in the International Women’s Day Radio Project, a radio festival which ran in Boston from 1978 to 1993, came together for their first reunion to recount memories of the initiative Tuesday evening in a panel hosted by the CHSI, and the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, in conjunction with the currently ongoing exhibit "Radio Contact: Tuning in to Politics, Technology, & Culture." The event was covered by

AHR Delivers Plaudits for "Tangible Things"

June 20, 2016

A review of Tangible Things: Making History Though Objects (By Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Ivan Gaskell, Sara Schechner, Sarah Anne Carter, Samantha van Gerbig, Oxford University Press, 2015) in the American Historical Review, June 2016, calls the book "...a refreshing analysis that reflects upon how objects create, shape, and sometimes challenge knowledge." Read more > Read more about AHR Delivers Plaudits for "Tangible Things"

CHSI Goes to Montréal

June 15, 2016

On Monday and Tuesday, 16-17 May 2016, graduate students from the History of Science Department travelled to Montréal, Québec as part of a three-year collaborative effort between the Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie (CIRST) at the Université du Québec à Montréal and the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments (CHSI) at Harvard. Read more about CHSI Goes to Montréal

Two Astronomers Royal Visit CHSI in May

May 27, 2016

Prof. John C. Brown, the 10th astronomer royal for Scotland, visited the Harvard Observatory during the Transit of Mercury on May 9. CHSI Curator Sara Schechner was on hand at the Observatory performing a live observation of the phenomenon, during which scores of students and staff took the

Tuning in: The Intersection of Art and Science Through Radio

April 21, 2016

What do a set of keys, a flattened sheet of brass and a pair of shoes have in common? They’re not, as you might think, the subject of some strange riddle but objects included in the exhibition ‘Radio Contact: Tuning in to Politics, Technology and Culture,’ which is curated by Harvard’s Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments (CHSI).