By james art Join us with colleagues from the Department of History for a Master Class on Using Photographs in Historical Research by Professor Ron Doel (Florida State University). All are welcome and you are invited to bring along a photograph that you use or that relates to your current research to contribute to the discussion. Doel’s expertise is in the history of science and images of scientists, but the discussion will be wider – anyone with an interest is welcome to attend!
Science Through the Lens: Historic Photographs, Unexpected Narratives, and the Reframing of American Science
Historical photographs of scientists and scientific activities are rarely used by historians of science to interpret the past. When they are, they often serve as potted plants illustrating arguments drawn from traditional written sources—although photographic evidence sometimes challenges such historical narratives. Historians of photography have also left historical photographs of scholarly work unexplored, even though many of them offer important clues to social, political, and cultural issues and dynamics. Yvette Andrews created a different photographic narrative about hunting for dinosaur fossils in the Gobi Desert (sponsored by the American Museum of Natural History in New York) than her more famous husband, the paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews (revealing ways in which his photographs supported narratives of exciting heroic explorers of museum donors). Over one hundred images of science labs, classrooms, and scientific activities were taken by Roy Stryker’s renowned team of photographers as their focus shifted from Farm Security Administration documentation to creating images for the Office of War Information (OWI) in the midst of World War II world war. During the early Cold War, pictures of scientists were deliberately promoted by US news agency officials to support positive narratives about American culture. For us now they tell additional, unexpected stories.
Fresh insights emerge when we explore the history of American science through photographs. Science appears to be more democratic and inclusive than current written accounts suggest. More women were active in fieldwork in the early twentieth century: Mary Waugh Wolcott, wife of Smithsonian Institution Secretary Charles Wolcott, was revealed as a full participant in his extensive paleontological expeditions; and female students helped excavate dinosaur bones in Wyoming (1912). Shutterbug photographers—professional scientists with an amateur passion for photography—used fine product images to fund solar eclipse expeditions and grow private entrepreneurial ventures. Arthur Rothstein’s 1942 photo of a black chemistry student at Atlanta University—featured prominently in OWI’s widely distributed pamphlet, “The Negro and the War”—infuriated Southern politicians and sparked a firestorm that nearly shut down the OWI while providing fresh insights into the vitality of graduate scholar training among the military South.
With fellow historian of science Pamela M. Henson (now Historian Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution), I am writing a book that expands our understanding of American science, drawing on our reviews of dozens of photographic archival collections. A closely related question: which historical photographs were circulated at the time they were taken, and which have remained largely unknown until now? Publishers, editors, and news services paid special attention to available photographs and (as gatekeepers) shaped public perceptions of science from the late nineteenth century onward. This talk looks at the emerging histories and interpretations – and touches on the challenge of the materials likely to be available for writing the history of science in the 21st century.
All welcome.
We look forward to having you join us on October 23rd!
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