Doctoral Dissertation Research in History and Philosophy of Science

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Hugh R. Slotten, Dissertation Student; Topic: "A History of the Coast Survey of the United States in the Nineteenth Century" Scholars have generally acknowledged that the Coast Survey of the US under the command of Alexander Dallas Bache from 1843 to 1867 was one of the most powerful institutions supporting science in the antebellum period. A comprehensive and analytic history of the Coast Survey, however, has not yet been written. The Coast Survey was first authorized in 1807 as a temporary agency of the federal government that would survey the country's coastlines in the interests of commerce and navigation. In the period preceding Bache's tenure as superintendent, the Coast Survey attained only minor significance; but under Bache's command, the Coast Survey grew to become the most influential scientific institution of the antebellum period. Because geographical (primarily geophysical) research fit best into the range of the Survey's mandate, this kind of science expanded under Coast Survey patronage. the Coast Survey also served a unique educational function in this period, training civilians and military officers in scientific methods. Above all, however, Bache's Coast Survey functioned as a vital center for the growth and professionalization of the emerging scientific community and set a precedent for future public policy towards the financing of scientific research.