Abstracts of the History of Science Society 2004 Austin Meeting 18 ...

Marriott Motor Lodge in Washington, D.C. for a meeting billed as “The First International Symposium on Cetacean Research.” Funded
by the Office of Naval Research and organized by the American Institute of Biological Science, this event marked a major development
in the twentieth-century history of marine mammal biology. In addition to demonstrating a new level of federal funding available for
research on cetaceans, the meeting drew together a remarkably diverse group of investigators-whaling-industry-linked zoologists, marine
park trainers, naval experts in underwater acoustics trained in anti-submarine warfare, neurophysiologists and anthropologists-all of
whom had an interest in these anomalous and fugitive animals. Despite this heterogeneity, the published proceedings (Kenneth Norris,
ed., _Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises_ [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1966]) became a landmark reference work during a
pivotal decade in the history of human relationships with whales and dolphins-the decade from 1962-1972, which saw crisis in the
International Whaling Commission, the rise of the “save the whales” movement, and the emergence of a perception that cetaceans were
not resources to be exploited, but rather charged symbols of human environmental irresponsibility. In this paper I will use this meeting
as the point of departure for an effort to answer the following questions: Who in the world was studying whales and dolphins in
1963? Where? Why were they doing so? Answering these questions will demand a set of excursions-loops out and away from the conference
presentations themselves-that will follow the participants back to their laboratories and research environments, reconstruct their
training and disciplinary formation, and endeavor to contextualize their interest in cetaceans. This work will make it possible to examine
several significant misunderstandings and disagreements that emerged from the meeting, divergences which had enduring scientific
and cultural consequences.
James Steven Byrne, Princeton University (jbyrne@princeton.edu)
Friday, 19-Nov-04, 9:00 - 11:45 AM - Texas Ballroom VI
Regiomontanus’s Padua Oration in the University Context
In 1464, the German astronomer and mathematician Regiomontanus gave an oration on the dignity, utility, and history of the mathematical
sciences at the University of Padua. This oration has come to be seen as exemplary of the humanist revival of ancient mathematics
that took place in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I will discuss Regiomontanus’s oration in the context of his background
as a university student and master, illustrating the extent to which his histories of the mathematical arts rely on this tradition. I will also
comment on the ease with which university mathematics (in contrast to other scholastic disciplines) could be presented as humanist.
David Cahan, University of Nebraska (dcahan@unlnotes.unl.edu)
Saturday, 20-Nov-04, 1:30 - 3:10 PM -Texas Ballroom III
The Scientific Tourist: Helmholtz in Gilded Age America
In 1893, Hermann von Helmholtz journeyed to America as the official head of Germany’s delegation to the International Electrical
Congress, which met in late August as part of the Columbia World’s Exhibition in Chicago. To that official sojourn to settle international
electrical standards and to represent German science and culture at large, Helmholtz added unofficial visits to see scientists and
universities in several other cities: New York, Cambridge and Boston, Baltimore, and Washington. During the course of his seven-week
stay in America Helmholtz met numerous leading scientists and university administrators, and was received as scientific royalty by them,
by the press, and by the American government. In analyzing Helmholtz’s tour of scientific America, including the many people he met
and the institutions he visited, this presentation simultaneously addresses several larger thematic issues in American scientific life, including:
the public portrayal of a close relationship of science and technology, the emergence of new or the reform of older scientific institutions,
the general sense of growth and vitality of several local scientific communities, and the heroic and iconic treatment of
Helmholtz by Americans in search of national recognition and ties to European culture.
Victoria Cain, Columbia University, (vec5@columbia.edu)
Saturday, 20-Nov-4, 9:00 - 11:45 AM -Texas Ballroom VII
“SELLING” ANIMALS: Consumption and Conservation in American Natural History Museums, 1900-1930
At the beginning of the twentieth century, American natural history museums assumed an increasingly aggressive stance in favor of conservation,
and sought to educate their visitors accordingly. Museum directors and curators gave lectures, wrote articles, and participated
in political campaigns in order to heighten public awareness of the rapid destruction and possible extinction of American wildlife. They
also began to create exhibits designed to inspire awe and sympathy for the natural world. By presenting lifelike American fauna in spectacular
natural settings, museum officials hoped to convince visitors that such animals and environments were worth saving. To make
their exhibits more persuasive, curators borrowed techniques from the window and display design of the department stores so influential
in this period. Museum exhibits increasingly used the techniques commercial establishments employed to make goods more desirable
to consumers. These strategies of enticement proved wildly effective, and museum officials throughout the United States congratulated
themselves on their use of commercial means to accomplish educational and conservationist ends. And yet, the success of this
kind of display also unnerved many curators. They worried these displays were too visually compelling, and that museum visitors left
coveting the displayed animals, rather than hoping to preserve them. Some curators, aware of the influence of the spectacle they presented,
refused to display endangered or particularly beautiful animals in habitat dioramas, fearing the desire evoked by such exhibitions
would result in more harm than help for the animals depicted. Despite these protests, American natural history museums continued
“selling” nature to a receptive public. Inserted into elaborate displays, animals were commodified into interchangeable goods. This short
paper will examine the alternately complementary and contradictory relationship between consumption and conservation at the begin-