Harvard Gazette: High-tech for the 1700s
Exhibit showcases tools that powered Revolutionary America
Electrical conductors. Surveying tools. Mathematical instruments.
Harvard College, founded in 1636, was a pioneer in teaching the applied sciences. Over the centuries, the institution amassed thousands of tools used for lessons in physics, trigonometry, and more. Some of these items even helped propel the Continental Army to victory in the Revolutionary War.
A new exhibit on view through 2026 at the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments spotlights the 18th-century tech that powered early America. “Revolutionary Technology,” curated by postdoctoral fellow Emma Mendoza Broder, Ph.D. ’25, was made possible by support from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation and Revolution250.
“This was a really interesting era,” said Joyce Chaplin, James Duncan Phillips Professor of Early American History, during a recent gallery event. “Technological inventions were part of this improvement or enlightenment project that the war, if anything, slowed down.”