The Dartmouth Conference described below should be of interest to
those of you who are histoically-minded. I will probably be giving a
paper about "hidden collections" -- those collections at schools,
colleges and universities that are un-collected and un-curated.
See you there!
Tom Greenslade
Professor Emeritus of Physics
Kenyon College
Gambier, Ohio 43022
Scientific Instrument Collections in the University
An International Symposium at Dartmouth College
24-27 June 2004
Co-Sponsored by the Scientific Instrument Commission
The National Science Foundation
and
Dartmouth College
Second circular - June 2003
Call for Papers
Although hundreds of universities and colleges have preserved historic
scientific apparatus, many of these collections remain less than fully
accessible and may even be virtually unknown outside of (and within)
their home institutions. Yet these collections, taken individually,
provide unique windows into the history of scientific research,
pedagogy and popularization. Taken collectively, they represent a vast
resource for research and teaching that is not duplicated in large
national collections of historic scientific instruments.
The purpose of the Dartmouth Conference is to stimulate creative
thinking about potential futures for these university collections. In
particular, we hope:
1.To encourage the development of a network among these collections and
their caretakers.
2. To provide a forum to discuss practical problems that pertain to
such collections, including acquisition, cataloguing and documentation,
storage, access, exhibitions, preservation, environmental safety, and
security.
3. To explore ways to raise the profile of these collections on campus
and to enhance opportunities to use them for teaching and research.
4. To share scholarly information about scientific instruments at
universities, their histories and the collections in which they reside.
In addition to several invited panels and a keynote address, the
conference will feature contributed papers and posters. We invite
proposals for paper or posters on the following topics:
a. Practicalities of collection management, curatorial interpretation,
and the relationship of the holdings and their caretakers to other
university collections, departments, museums or administrative
entities.
b. Uses for university instrument collections, such as undergraduate or
graduate teaching, research, online or onsite exhibitions, and
celebration of local heritage.
c. Histories of particular collections, collectors, or site-specific
instruments; and histories of instruments or scientific practice as
informed by the holdings of university collections considered
collectively.
Please submit abstracts of not more than 250 words plus a brief
statement of your relationship to a university instrument collection to
SICU@mac.dartmouth.edu by 15 September 2003.
The preliminary conference program plus information concerning
registration, travel stipends, and excursions to nearby instrument
collections will be available in a Third Circular, to be distributed in
Autumn of 2003.
Please continue to consult our website for additional information.
www.dartmouth.edu/~sicu
The SICU Planning Committee
Francis Manasek (chair), Richard Kremer, David Pantalony, Sara
Schechner
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