Smithsonian Libraries

Anniversary of First Zeppelin Flight

Portrait of Ferdinand, Graf von Zeppelin

On July 2, 1900, Count Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin flew the first airship, later dubbed zeppelin, near Lake Constance in Germany, with  five passengers on board. Zeppelins were used in World War I and II, and as the first commercial air transportation until the Hindenburg disaster of 1937, when their use and popularity declined.

Little-known zeppelin fact: the distinctive tower at the top of the Empire State Building in New York City was originally designed as a zeppelin port, but was only used once in that capacity.—Elizabeth Periale

This image can be found in Scientific Identity: Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, 2003.

The Great Kite Experiment

H. Wright Smith, "Benjamin Franklin."

June 15 is traditionally considered the date of Benjamin Franklin's experiment with a kite to prove that lightning was electrical in nature. The Libraries has recently published a very interesting piece about Franklin by Joyce E. Chaplin, Benjamin's Franklins Political Arithmetic: A Materialist View of Humanity. Excerpts can be read on this blog, the entire publication can be found on the Libraries website, or you can even request a copy from the Dibner Library.—Elizabeth Periale

Up, up and away

Today commemorates the first Hot Air Balloon Flight By the Montgolfier brothers in 1783. A truly golden age of ballooning...—Elizabeth Periale

Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond, Description des Expériences de la Machine Aérostatique de MM. De Montgolfier, et de Celles Auxelles Cette Découverte a Donné Lieu, 1783

Schrödinger Manuscript Collection

He haunts physics textbooks. His cat is featured on T-shirts. He won a Nobel Prize.
Who is he? A newly digitized manuscript collection can help us find out!

Although Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger (1887 – 1961) addressed topics from DNA to color theory, he is best known for his contributions to quantum mechanics, the study of matter and energy on an electron-size scale. Four letters, a galley proof, and an envelope in SIL’s Dibner Library provide insight into his daily life.

An English letter to autograph collector Howes Norris, Jr. describes Schrödinger’s conception of knowledge and the human mind, in addition to offering advice for students nervous about exams. Since the mind contains knowledge “virtually, not actually, in the same way as the flint contains the spark,” an examiner should “act on them [students] as the steel does on the flint to display their virtual knowledge.” Next time you start to sweat about finals, remember Schrödinger’s take on the situation!

In three letters to friend and fellow physicist Hans Thirring, Schrödinger discusses his work, his plans, his travels, and a student. Thirring (1888 – 1976) studied physics in Austria, in addition to advocating pacificism and participating in Parliament.

The galley proof (copy of a text headed for publication and corrected by an editor) was to become part of a book. Alternating texts and equations discuss the application of wave mechanics to specific heats, the amounts of energy needed to raise the temperature of an amount of various substances by one degree Celsius.

Manuscripts like these catapult scientific giants like Schrödinger out of textbooks and into real life.

(Curious about the cat? Along with the equation that earned him a Nobel Prize, Schrödinger’s cat is one of the ideas for which the physicist is best known. You can find a description of the feline here and the merchandise it inspired here and here.)

- Nicole Yunger Halpern, Dibner Library intern

First Morse Code Message Sent from Washington DC to Baltimore in 1844

Portrait of Samuel Finley Breese Morse

Samuel Morse sent the first telegraphic message 165 years ago today.

The Libraries has many portraits of Morse in its digital collection, Scientific Identity: Portraits from the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, 2003.—Elizabeth Periale

Heralds of Science

The Libraries would like to showcase a few images from its Heralds of Science collection today. Many of the titles can be found in this online show or by searching through Galaxy of Images.

Jan van der Straet, Nova reperta. Speculum diuersarum imaginum speculatiuarum., 1638

Stephen Hales, Vegetable Staticks: or, An Account of Some Statistical Experiments on the Sap in Vegetables, 1727

Libraries Accepting Resident Scholar Applications for 2010

The Libraries will award grants to Dibner Library Resident Scholars and Baird Society Resident Scholars in the 2010 academic year. These competitive short-term grants are offered for one to six months to historians, librarians and bibliographers, as well as predoctoral and postdoctoral students, with an approved research project.  The scholars will complete their residencies at one or more of the Smithsonian Libraries’ 20 branches for various lengths of time throughout the year.

Dibner Library Resident Scholars will do research in the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology in the National Museum of American History. The Dibner Library specializes in the physical sciences and technology, and holds over 25,000 rare books and 10,000 manuscripts covering a wide variety of subject areas and time periods, particularly in mathematics, astronomy, classical and Renaissance natural philosophy, theoretical physics, experimental physics, engineering and scientific apparatus and instruments. The collections range from early printed works of ancient Greek and medieval scholars through the Renaissance and Early Modern eras up through the nineteenth century. There are significant works by Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Galileo, Descartes, Newton and many others. This award is supported by The Dibner Fund.

Baird Society Resident Scholars will do research in other Libraries special collections located in Washington, DC and New York, NY. Included are nineteenth and early twentieth century World’s Fairs printed materials; manufacturers’ commercial trade catalogs, numbering over 300,000 pieces and representing 30,000 companies from the 1840s to the present; natural history rare books; the air and space history special collection for the study of ballooning, rocketry, and aviation from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries; James Smithson’s library; and the European and American decorative arts, architecture, and design special collection, which spans the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. This award is supported by the Smithsonian Libraries Spencer Baird Society.

The deadline for applications to the 2010 resident scholar programs is May 15, 2009.  For application materials and further information about special collections visit our website or e-mail the Libraries. —Liz O'Brien

Happy 302nd to Leonhard Euler!

Leonhard Euler, an eminent mathematician and physicist, was born this day, April 15, in 1707, in Basel, Switzerland.

According to Ronald S. Calinger, a Professor of History at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC who specializes in the history of mathematics, and Leonhard Euler in particular, Euler can be considered “the presiding mathematical genius of the Enlightenment.”

Dr. Calinger was a Dibner Library Resident Scholar in 2007, during which he made substantial use of the Dibner's rare materials by Euler and his contemporaries while working on a full scale scientific and biographical study of Euler, the first such work in English.

At the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Annual Meeting in February 2009, Calinger organized a symposium focusing on Euler and his achievements, From Enlightenment Lunar Theories to the Discovery of Extra Solar Planets. His presentation relied in part on research done during his term as a Dibner scholar.

Calinger and students from two of his Catholic University classes come to the Dibner today, Euler’s birthday – a coincidence! – to see in person some of the major scientific works from our collection (Euler among them, naturally) in their original editions, affording them a valuable glimpse of some significant primary source material.

The above portrait is one of several of Euler in the Dibner Library's collection of scientific portraits. —Kirsten van der Veen

Buon Compleanno Leonardo

Leonardo da Vinci was born today in Vinci, Florence in 1452. The Libraries has books throughout  its many locations featuring this unique artist and inventor's interests in art, science, architecture and anatomy - just to name a few of his passions:

Leonardo da Vinci : the artist, inventor, scientist in three-dimensional, movable pictures / / by A. & M. Provensen. Paper engineering by John Strejan.
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum Library, New York, New York (image above)

The curves of life : being an account of spiral formations and their application to growth in nature, to science, and to art : with special reference to the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci / / by Theodore Andrea Cook.
National Museum of Natural History Library, Washington, D.C.

Man with wings; the story of Leonardo de Vinci, / by Joseph Cottler.
National Air and Space Museum Library, Washington, D.C.

The inventions of Leonardo da Vinci / / Margaret Cooper.
National Museum of American History Library, Washington, D.C.

Leonardo da Vinci on plants and gardens / / William A. Emboden ; foreword by Carlo Pedretti.
Botany and Horticulture Library, Washington, D.C.

Visualized knowledge : an interpretation of Leonardo's Madrid Codices / / by Professor Ludwig H. Heydenreich ; A special address given to commemorate a preview of original folios from The Madrid manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci.
John Wesley Powell Library of Anthropology, Washington, D.C.

Mona Lisa : inside the painting.
Smithsonian American Art Museum/National Portrait Gallery Library, Washington, D.C.

Leonardo da Vinci, anatomical drawings from the Queen's Collection at Windsor Castle.
Museum Studies Reference Library, Washington, D.C.

I Leonardeschi ai raggi x / / Mostra a cura della Direzione civiche raccolte d'arte. Milano, Castello Sforzesco, 23 novembre-31 dicembre 1972.
Museum Support Center Library, Suitland, Maryland

Reonarudo da Vinchi no sekaizō / / Tanaka Hidemichi cho = Leonardo da Vinci's vision of the world / by Hidemichi Tanaka.
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Library, Washington, D.C.

Memorie storiche su la vita, gli studj, e le opere di Lionardo da Vinci / / scritte da Carlo Amoretti ...
Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology, Washington, D.C.

Leonardo's rules of painting : an unconventional approach to modern art / / James Beck.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Library, Washington, D.C.

L'architettura fortificata negli studi di Leonardo da Vinci : con il catalogo completo dei disegni / / Pietro C. Marani.
Research Annex, Landover, Maryland

—Elizabeth Periale

2010 Resident Scholar Programs

Johann Müller Regiomontanus, Epytoma Ioannis de Monte Regio in Almagestum Ptolemei, 31 Aug. 1496

The Smithsonian Institution Libraries awards stipends of $3,500/month up to six months for scholars doing research in its special collections. Historians, librarians, doctoral students, and postdoctoral fellows are all welcome to apply. The Libraries’ catalog is available. Scholars are expected to be in residence at the Smithsonian Libraries during their research within the award period, January to December 2010. The application deadline is May 15, 2009.

Scholars wanting to do research primarily in the history of science and technology in the Dibner Library can apply for the Dibner Library Resident Program. Scholars interested in working in the Libraries’ other special collections should consider the Baird Society Resident Scholar Program.

Download the application forms or email or mail a request for more information to Smithsonian Institution Libraries,  Resident Scholar Programs, PO Box 37012 NMAH 1041 MRC 672 Washington, DC 20013-7012

The BairdSociety Resident Scholar Program is supported by the Spencer Baird Society.
The Dibner Library Resident Scholar Program is supported by The Dibner Fund.

—Liz O'Brien