Posts tagged ‘american philosophical society’
To Do Justice to Him and Myself: Evert Wendell’s Account Book of the Fur Trade with Indians in Albany, New York, 1695-1726 (includes cd-rom with original Dutch text) (ISBN: 1606189123)
To Do Justice to Him and Myself:
Evert Wendell’s Account Book of the Fur Trade with Indians in Albany, New York, 1695-1726
by Kees-Jan Waterman (American Philosophical Society, ISBN: 1606189123)
(Paperback, 310 pages and CD-ROM with original Dutch text, 2008, $50.00)
This translated Dutch account book of the fur trade with Indians yields essential data for understanding workings of intercultural fur trade in colonial North America.
It contains accounts of hundreds of Indians, many listed with their own names, who purchased merchandise on credit from Evert Wendell (1681-1750) and his relatives in Albany, NY. Over 2,000 credit transactions and payments are recorded. This book has been praised as a major addition to the literature on the fur trade which challenges many widely held interpretations.
Illustrations. Tables. The book also includes a CD-ROM with transcription of the Dutch manuscript (searchable).
“The introductory essay and the tables put together from Waterman’s detailed reading of the account suggest an active trade between the Evert family and a wide range of Indians from many different tribal groupings,” writes Ann M. Carlos in the Journal of Economic History (70:2). “One has to be particularly impressed with the level of detail extracted from the accounts after looking at the photographs of the original documents.
“Waterman argues that these accounts with about 300 different individuals give us an unprecedented glimpse into intercultural exchanges in the upper Hudson River valley. He points to the role played by women in this trade; to the nature of the goods exchanges; to the range of different tribal groupings; to the mention of “white” and “black” individuals and to the descriptions of naming practices and tattoos or lack of same.
“Not too many family account books from the early eighteenth century exist. This one documents commercial exchanges between an important Dutch trading family and native traders. Waterman provides an incredible level of detail about the people in these transactions [in this] interesting primary source.”
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Copepodologist’s Cabinet: A Biographical and Bibliographical History (American Philosophical Society Memoir 240, ISBN: 0871692406)
Copepodologist’s Cabinet:
A Biographical and Bibliographical History
(American Philosophical Society Memoir 240, ISBN: 0871692406)
by David M. Damkaer (Hardcover, 300 pages, 2002)
List Price: $60.00, OUR PRICE: $40.00
Copepod crustaceans are the most numerous multicellular animals on earth. They occur in every free-living and parasitic aquatic niche. Copepods have been known since the time of Aristotle, yet there has never been a history of the study of copepods.
Read the 
of this book before you purchase it.
This volume, the first in a planned three-volume series, reviews the discoveries of copepods to 1832, the year that the two distinct branches, the free-living copepods (long-known as insects) and the parasitic copepods (thought to be molluscs or worms) were finally acknowledged as members of the same Class Crustacea.
The narrative includes the biographies of 90 early copepodologists and recounts their most important contributions to science. Portraits are included for two-thirds of the subjects, with considerable new material as well as information and illustrations from obscure sources.
Milestones include the first description of copepods (ca. 350 B.C.), the first illustration (1554), the first free-living freshwater copepod (1688), the first explanation of a free-living copepod’s metamorphosis (1756), the first permanently named copepod (1758), the first free-living marine copepod (1770), and the first description of a parasitic copepod’s metamorphosis (1819).
The work ends with a transition to the mid-19th century, previewing numerous personal connections that pointed toward copepodology’s Golden Age in the 1890s, to be covered in Volume 2. A final volume will take the history of the study of copepods to ca. 1950.
“Although the author himself points out that ‘no single book could encompass the whole biographical and bibliographical history of the study of copepods,’ ‘The Copepodologist’s Cabinet’ is unquestionably the most thorough and scholarly history of early contributions to copepodology,” writes Rony Huys in the journal Archives of Natural History.
“The book is a riveting read, elegantly produced, and abounds with fascinating stories and snippets. The numerous facsimiles of title pages and frontispieces, the invaluable historic illustrations of copepods and the portraits of authorities who examined them are all beautifully reproduced on high quality paper. The comprehensive bibliography is interspersed with signatures of eminent and less renowned copepod workers.
“In conclusion, this book will no doubt be treasured by anyone who is interested in the history of carcinological research in general and copepodology in particular.”
Polar Hayes: The Life and Contributions of Isaac Israel Hayes, M.D. (American Philosophical Society Memoir 262, ISBN: 9780871692627)
Polar Hayes: The Life and Contributions of Isaac Israel Hayes, M.D.
(American Philosophical Society Memoir, ISBN: 9780871692627)
by Douglas W. Wamsley (Hardcover, 547 pages, 2009, $75.00)
In the mid-19th century as an ambitious young country expanded its horizons westward, Dr. Isaac Israel Hayes, a young physician from an Orthodox Quaker family in the rural farmland of Pennsylvania, turned his eyes to the North.
As a member of the harrowing American arctic expedition under the command of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane in search of the lost British explorer Sir John Franklin, Hayes became obsessed with making his own mark in the far northern polar regions.
He organized his own privately funded voyage to the Arctic in 1860, during which he claimed to have reached a ‘farthest north’ and to have stood on the edge of the fabled “Open Polar Sea,” a mythical ice-free zone in the high northern latitudes.
Through his own hard fought experiences, combined with the knowledge learned from native Greenlanders or Polar Eskimos, he successfully influenced the course of Arctic discovery, causing perceptive explorers to follow his guidance and lead. Directing the same ambition to humanitarian and social causes, during the devastating U.S. Civil War and as an elected politician in New York State during its Gilded Age, Hayes served the ‘public good’ for a decade, with accomplishments as far reaching as his Arctic service, but little recognized even during his lifetime.
In this book, which draws upon Hayes family papers, the little viewed diaries from Hayes’s own expeditions, as well as other unpublished primary sources, the story emerges of a remarkable but forgotten explorer, writer, politician, and humanitarian who epitomized the rugged and restless spirit of adventure and individualism of 19th-century America. Illustrations.
“Polar Hayes” has been nominated for the 2010 William Mills Prize [PDF], which honors the best Arctic or Antarctic nonfiction books published throughout the world, according to the Polar Libraries Bulletin.
“All aspects of Hayes’ life are packaged in a marvelously researched book that effectively uses valuable primary source material, some of it newly discovered,” writes Hal Vogel in Arctic Magazine (December 2009) [PDF]. “Wamsley’s thorough knowledge of his subject and environment can often be seen when he refers to collateral polar events and personalities that were influenced by Hayes.
“His descriptions of the Kane expedition from the perspective of Dr. Hayes are especially noteworthy. They alone make a worthwhile read. Dr. I.I. Hayes lacked a biography, but deserved one. Now he has one that deserves its place among our best polar biographical literature.”
“Lawyer and independent scholar Wamsley has written and lectured extensively on 19th-century Arctic exploration and explorers,” writes Book News in a review. “Here he narrates how Hayes (1832-81), a Quaker physician from rural Pennsylvania, got a taste of Arctic exploration early then became a leading advocate of it as a means of advancing science and geography. Overcoming public apathy, he organized and led the first privately funded American expedition to find the North Pole, thus initiating the modern pole race.”
Tintype in America, 1856-1880 (American Philosophical Society Transaction 97-2, ISBN: 0871699729)
Read more about our selection of books on 19th century photography. >>
Tintype in America, 1856-1880
(American Philosophical Society Transaction 97-2, ISBN: 0871699729)
by Janice G. Schimmelman (Paperback, 270 pages, 2007, $29.00)
A history of the ferrotype or tintype in American photography, from its origin in the 1850s until 1880.
Schimmelman, Professor of Art History, presents a history of the technological development of the tintype and its manufacture, and touches upon a number of issues relating to the cultural and social aspects of the tintype. She lays an interesting groundwork for thinking about the class dimensions of Victorian aesthetics and about the political economy of taste.
The heart of the book is the extended accounts of the improvements in the presentation of the images and of the inventors and businessmen who made the improvements and advanced their careers in the business. Raises important issues in art history and the history of photography. Includes over 200 reproductions of actual tintypes.
[A]n excellent resource for collectors, researchers, and nineteenth-century photography enthusiasts,” writes Dennis O. Williams in The Daguerreian Society Newsletter (20:2, May-July 2008) [PDF].
“Schimmelman guides the reader through the book in a chronological fashion that the reader can easily follow. Through the writing of this text, her passion for the photographic history of the tintype has indeed been preserved. The organization of the book is splendid. Along with the wealth of written history to complement the story, Schimmelman includes examples of patent drawings and photographic advertisements. Exemplifying the depth of research that went into this book, a reference section concludes each chapter. ”
People posing for tintypes.
Tintype in America, 1856-1880, p.48.
The journal Early Popular Visual Culture (8:2, May 2010) adds: “This is not the only book on the tintype photograph, but it is probably the most comprehensive, being based on years of collecting and research by the author, with information culled from books, photographic journals and newspapers.”
“As the author puts it, these images offer ‘small windows into American life.’ The book is good on the themes of these photographs, and Chapter 9 is arranged thematically, dealing with such subjects as death and remembrance, Americans at play and work, and beloved children.
“Elsewhere in the book the author covers the invention and development of the process, various kinds of studios and albums, and double exposures, as well as techniques for retouching and colouring tintypes.”
Purchase this book for $29.00:
Read more about our selection of books on 19th century photography. >>
The Long Route to the Invention of the Telescope (American Philosophical Society Transaction 98-5, ISBN: 9781606189856)
The Long Route to the Invention of the Telescope
(American Philosophical Society Transaction 98-5, ISBN: 9781606189856)
by Rolf Willach (Paperback, 116 pages, 2008, $35.00)
After the telescope became known in 1608-1609, a number of people in widely separate locations claimed that they had such a device long before the announcement came from The Hague.
In the summer of 1608, no one had a telescope, in the summer of 1609, everyone had one. How was this possible?
Author Rolf Willach has quietly tested early spectacle lenses in museums and private collections, and now he reports on this study, which gives an entirely new explanation of the invention of the telescope and solves the conundrum mentioned above.
Willach is an optical engineer and independent scholar who worked for several years in the Department of Physics at the Institute of Astronomy in Bern. He has written extensively on the history of the development of optics and the telescope. Illustrations.
“[Willach] has developed the most exciting thesis on the development of the telescope to appear in decades, and he deserves much credit for his bold and carefully proposed and illustrated conjectures,” writes Dr. Marvin Bolt, of Chicago’s Adler Planetarium, in the Journal for the History of Astronomy (February 2010).
“His resulting account is also an excellent example of how to use easily understood and compelling visual evidence without resorting to technological overkill and unnecessary detail.
“With this assemblage and sequence of a wide range of evidence over many centuries, Willach’s volume will inform any serious early telescope scholarship for the foreseeable future, and should be read by anyone interested in the origins of the telescope.”
Peter Collinson and the Eighteenth-Century Natural History Exchange (American Philosophical Society Memoir 264, ISBN: 9780871692641)
Peter Collinson and the Eighteenth-Century Natural History Exchange
(American Philosophical Society Memoir 264, ISBN: 9780871692641)
by Jean O’Neill and Elizabeth P. McLean
(Paperback, 216 pages, 2008, $75.00)
Collinson’s life is a microcosm of 18th-century natural history. A gardener and naturalist by avocation, he was what we would now call a facilitator in natural science, disseminating botanical and horticultural knowledge during the Enlightenment.
He influenced the Comte de Buffon and Linnaeus. He found clients for the Philadelphia naturalist John Bartram. American plants populated great estates like those of the Dukes of Richmond, Norfolk, and Bedford, as well as the Chelsea Physic Garden, and the nurseries of James Gordon and Robert Furber. Botanic painters such as Mark Catesby and Georg Dionysius Ehret painted American plants in Collinson’s garden.
He had an unprecedented effect on the exchange of scientific information on both sides of the Atlantic, being credited for introducing more than 150 plans to horticulture. Illustrations.
“One man can make a difference,” co-author Elizabeth McLean tells Green Scene [PDF] in the September/October 2009 issue. “[Collinson] did it for love. He was self-educated, yet he made enormous contributions to natural history in the eighteenth century.”
This book has been indexed by H.W. Wilson in their “Essay and General Literature Index” for June 2009.
H.W. Wilson writes: “These essays describe the life and achievements of the Quaker Peter Collinson, an 18th century London draper and naturalist whose interest in horticulture led him to establish contact with the Philadelphia Quaker farmer and naturalist John Bartram and to import Bartram’s American plants to England.
“The consequent popularity of American plants in English gardens, reflected even in the botanic paintings of the period, have earned Collinson a place in the history of botany as a facilitator between English and American horticulture.”
Playing With Fire: Histories of the Lightning Rod (American Philosophical Society Transaction 99-5, ISBN: 9781606189955)
Playing With Fire: Histories of the Lightning Rod
(American Philosophical Society Transaction 99-5, ISBN: 9781606189955)
by Peter Heering, Oliver Hochadel and David J. Rhees
(Paperback, 290 pages, 2009, $35.00)
This collection of historical and scientific studies shows the impressive significance of the invention, development, and use of the lightning rod in the past 250 years.
The rod was a device long taken to be a symbol of enlightenment and utility, judged by some commentators the very first practical application of the experimental physical sciences to truly practical ends; opposition to its introduction was similarly taken to be a sign of obscurantism and superstition.
These essays move beyond the lightning rods’ storied revolutionary symbolism to skillfully explore the range of techniques, experiments, and publics that fashioned conductors and their varied meanings across time and space.
The superbly illustrated studies demonstrate just how contested, puzzling and dangerous these devices often proved among early experimenters and their audiences. An intriguing and entertaining secret history of one of modernity’s most cherished technoscientific objects. Illustrations.
“This interesting collection of essays examines the scientific and cultural significance of the lightning rod over the past 250 years,” writes Book News in a review. “Far from being a mere practical device, the lightning rod from its beginning took on great importance as a symbol of rationalism and the advance of science.
“Essays look at the experiences of early experimenters with lightning rods, and at the growth of what could be called the “lightning protection” industry. Especially interesting is the final essay in the book, in which the authors assert that Benjamin Franklin’s archetypal lightning rod was in reality not very effective. Including many illustrations, this book will greatly appeal to readers interested in the history of science and technology.
