International Conference on University Collections of Historic Scientific Instruments

历史科学仪器的研究是科学史上发展最快的领域之一。研究人员越来越多地转向实验室的物质文化，作为研究科学实践的一种方式;公众被历史文物所吸引，作为与我们的科学遗产联系的一种有形的、具体的方式。直到最近，学者和公众可以接触到的许多历史仪器只能在大型国家收藏馆中找到，例如华盛顿，华盛顿特区的史密森尼博物馆，慕尼黑的德意志博物馆，或者伦敦的科学博物馆。然而，在地球仪上的几十所大学和学院里，可以找到规模较小但同样有价值的历史科学仪器收藏品，它们通常位于实验室空间和最初使用它们的档案文件附近。这项建议寻求支持举办一次国际会议，以发现和加强这些大学收藏，并使学者和当地公众更容易看到这些收藏。“地下世界：大学中的科学仪器收藏”将于2004年6月24日至27日在新罕布什尔州汉诺威的达特茅斯学院举行。会议将汇集大约100人-馆长、科学家、历史学家、图书管理员和档案管理员-他们目前以各种不同的方式关心大学收藏的历史科学仪器。这次会议由达特茅斯学院和国际科学史和科学哲学联合会科学仪器委员会共同主办，将讨论四个问题。首先，小组将讨论收集管理的实际问题，创建收集任务，组织和编目的集合，存储和处理设备等第二，收集，个人仪器，制造商和实验室实践的学术论文将被提交。第三，我们将讨论如何使收藏更容易为教学和研究，无论是本地和超越。最后，会议将向收藏管理人员介绍科学仪器委员会目前正在开发的历史科学仪器国际登记册（www.isin.org）。同时展出的达特茅斯收藏的乐器将说明其中的许多问题。 大学仪器收藏提供了丰富的，但未充分利用的资源，增加和传播有关我们的科学过去的知识。达特茅斯会议将是一个开拓性的努力，通过加强这些收藏品之间的国内和国际联系来加强这一基础设施。

The study of historic scientific instruments is one of the fastest growing areas in the history of science. Researchers increasingly are turning to the material culture of the laboratory as a way of investigating the practice of science; the general public is drawn to historic artifacts as a tangible, concrete way of connecting to our scientific heritage. Until recently, much of the historic apparatus accessible to scholars and the public could be found only in large national collections, such as the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., the Deutsches Museum in Munich, or the Science Museum in London. Yet in literally dozens of universities and colleges across the globe, smaller but equally valuable collections of historic scientific instruments can be found, often located near the laboratory spaces and archival documents where they originally had been used. This proposal seeks support for an international conference to uncover and strengthen these university collections, and to make them more visible to both scholars and local public audiences. "Mundi Subterranei: Scientific Instrument Collections in the University" will be held at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, from 24-27 June 2004. The conference will bring together about 100 persons--curators, scientists, historians, librarians and archivists--who in widely varying ways are currently caring for university collections of historic scientific apparatus. Co-sponsored by Dartmouth College and the Scientific Instrument Commission of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science, the conference will address four issues. First, panels will discuss practical problems of collection management, creating collection mandates, organizing and cataloguing collections, storing and handling apparatus, etc. Second, scholarly papers on collections, individual instruments, makers, and laboratory practices will be presented. Third, we will discuss ways to make collections more accessible for teaching and research, both locally and beyond. Finally, the conference will introduce collection managers to an international registry of historic scientific instruments now being developed by the Scientific Instrument Commission (www.isin.org). A concurrent exhibit of instruments from the Dartmouth Collection will illustrate many of these issues. University instrument collections offer rich, yet underused resources for increasing and diffusing knowledge about our scientific past. The Dartmouth conference will be a pioneering effort to strengthen this infrastructure by enhancing links, both nationally and internationally, among these collections.