E-newsletter: February 2018 Welcome to the first e-newsletter under our new name, the Science History Institute. We hope you enjoy our bimonthly dispatches on the innovations and discoveries that shape our lives.

New and Notable

Over 5,000 items from our collections now available online

Our new  Digital Collections website   offers exciting items from our library and museum to the world. You can access a growing collection of digitized items that includes books, photographs, museum objects, letters, advertisements, and archival collections. You can see culturally and intellectually significant items related to the history of science from the Roman Empire through the 21st century. Over 1,000 of these items are being released as public domain, which means they are free of copyright and may be used without requesting permission. We are joining a recent trend among other libraries, museums, and institutions embracing openness: open access, open data, free downloads, and open software code. Following the lead of such esteemed institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Public Library, and the Getty Museum, when rights permit, we are releasing content in the public domain and allowing users to copy, modify, or distribute the work without asking permission.

Science History Institute to host Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow The Institute is one of 25 partnering organizations chosen in 2018 that will place up to 25 recent PhDs from the humanities and humanistic social sciences in 2-year staff positions. The application deadline is  March 14, 2018  (9:00 p.m. EDT). For more information please visit the  Career and Fellowship Opportunities   section of our website and the  ACLS website .

Celebrating Achievement

We are proud to introduce our first two awardees of 2018.

Michael Morris Pittcon Heritage Award President of SpectrEcology and founder of Ocean Optics, Michael Morris has directed the development of over 2,000 new products, including spectrometers currently used on the Mars rover. Learn more about Morris and his role in advancing the instrumentation and laboratory supplies community.

Gary K. Adams Petrochemical Heritage Award Gary K. Adams is the former president, CEO, and chair of the board of Chemical Market Associates. A visible advocate for the petrochemical industry as a whole, Adams is known for his in-depth analysis and thought-provoking presentations of future industry dynamics to forums around the globe. Learn more about Adams and his contributions to the petrochemical profession.

From the Blog

The Distillations blog is the place for regular updates from the intersections of science, culture, and history.

Putting the Communication Back in Science Communication: An Interview with the Field Museum’s Emily Graslie What it means to be the chief curiosity correspondent at the Field Museum in Chicago.

What’s in a Logo? The Science History Institute tells the stories behind scientific developments, so it’s only fitting to tell the story of how the new logo was chosen.

Program Spotlight

Fellow in Focus Technology and Society: Engineering Cultures, Chemistry, and Social Order in the Second Industrial Revolution (1890 to 1930) On March 15, Noshir Mistry Senior Fellow Adelheid Voskuhl will present the Fellow in Focus lecture. Voskuhl’s lecture is concerned with the major surge of modernization and industrialization in the Western world around 1900 and contemporary debates among engineers—including chemical engineers—about the “consequences” of technology in society. Register to Attend

Arnold O. Beckman Legacy Project The Instrumental Chemist Film Screening and Talkback Join us March 20 for a screening of excerpts from a brand-new film about the life and legacy of chemist and entrepreneur Dr. Arnold O. Beckman. After the screening we’ll have a lively discussion with the researchers and filmmakers behind the project.

Register to Attend

Coming Up

The Institute Comes to Florida Science History Institute Meet and Greet: Tampa Thursday, March 1, 2018 | 5:30 p.m.

Museum Lecture Sweet and Savory: How We Preserve Our Food Saturday, March 3, 2018 | 1:00 p.m.

Saturday Speaker The Invisible Woman: Pop Culture and the Scientific Divide Saturday, March 10, 2018 | 11:00 a.m.

Fellow in Focus Adelheid Voskuhl Thursday, March 15, 2018 | 6:00 p.m.

Arnold O. Beckman Legacy Project The Instrumental Chemist Film Screening and Talkback Tuesday, March 20, 2018 | 6:00 p.m.

Symposium National Academy of Engineering Regional Meeting and Symposium Wednesday, March 21, 2018 | 11:30 a.m.

Museum Lecture The Sentimental Art of Victorian Hairwork Jewelry Saturday, March 24, 2018 | 6:00 p.m.

Saturday Speaker Resources and Red Tape: Doing Science in Communist China Saturday, April 14, 2018 | 11:00 a.m.

The Institute Comes to Houston T. T. Chao Symposium on Innovation Tuesday, May 1, 2018 | 5:00 p.m.

Museum Dance Off April 2018 Join us in our quest to become the 5th Annual Museum Dance Off Winner by voting for the Science History Institute using the hashtag #MDO5 . Voting begins April 16. The link will be posted on Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter every morning at 8:00 a.m. EDT.  Mark your calendars, stay tuned for the link, and get ready to vote!

Thanks for Reading!

The Science History Institute e-newsletter is published every other month. Comments, questions, or suggestions? Contact enews@sciencehistory.org.    If you received this email from a friend and would like to receive future issues directly, join our mailing list online.