International Workshop on Historical Scientific Instruments in Universities; June 21-24, 2007; Oxford, MS

摘要：关于大学历史科学仪器收藏的国际研讨会这项建议寻求对国际研讨会的部分支持，该研讨会旨在将大学和学院的工作科学家与科学历史学家、博物馆馆长和档案管理员聚集在一起。该讲习班是2004年6月在达特茅斯学院举行的大学科学仪器收藏国际会议的后续活动。SICU是这个新生社区雄心勃勃的第一次尝试，目的是寻找隐藏的乐器收藏，并召集广泛的有共同兴趣的人来正式确定大学收藏。作为第一步，SICU成功地公布了一些重要的收藏品，并组织了一个由80多名国际学者组成的感兴趣的小组。然而，要有效地促进这些学者与参与大学收藏品的科学家和馆长之间的互动，还有很多工作要做。拟议中的研讨会的目的是在让科学家和科学史学家在基于历史科学工具的研究和教育方面进行交流和合作的过程中采取下一步步骤。具体地说，确定了感兴趣的从业人员密集聚集的三个主要需求：获取、安全和利用藏品。科学界需要更多地参与这项工作，因为他们对创建这些收藏的许多目的是为了教授科学概念的背景和理解。还有更多不同日期的收藏品尚未向学术界开放，而且通常只有大学科学家知道这些收藏品。藏品的安全包括发展对其价值的理解和为其适当照料建立实用的资源基础。要有效地将这些工具用于学术、科学教育和公共宣传，需要作出广泛努力，提高认识，并为其预期目的提供一份便于查阅的参考指南。满足这三个需求是这个工作室的首要目标。这个项目的智力价值来自于学术资源基础的扩展，专注于科学的物质文化，而不是多年来使用和记录的主要博物馆收藏品。研讨会将揭示历史上具有重大意义的科学设备的财富，这些设备可能仍然存在于1950年S之前建立的大多数主要学院和大学。此外，还将建立一个研究人员网络，共同努力确定在新获得的收藏品中发现的任何未知仪器的背景和背景，这些仪器是由历史学家、策展人和科学家贡献的。这个项目的更广泛的影响来自于这样一个事实，即参与者将合作开发一个社区范围的在线科学仪器收藏纲要，以满足科学家、科学历史学家、博物馆馆长和科学教育工作者的需求。正如设想的那样，纲要将包括仪器的重要方面：科学、历史、发明家、仪器制造商、参考文献、视频和演示上下文。它还将作为这些收藏的管理人员的实用资源指南。这样一个简编将需要跨学科的参与和科学、历史、教育和策展界之间的合作；讲习班形式将被用来为这一资源的开发制定指导方针。这份纲要将通过增加对这些重要大学资源的了解、获取和利用，对科学史、科学教育和公众宣传产生深远的影响。研讨会将在密西西比大学举行，该大学是19世纪自然哲学演示仪器米灵顿-巴纳收藏的所在地。这件500件的收藏品于1852-1860年被该大学收购，并在内战期间幸免于难。来自美国、法国、德国和英国的顶级仪器制造商的作品被用于物理和天文学教学已有150多年，现在在大学博物馆展出。。预计将有大约100人参加密西西比大学以外的研讨会。

Summary: International Workshop on Historic Scientific Instrument Collections in UniversitiesThis proposal seeks partial support for an international workshop to bring together working scientistsin universities and colleges with historians of science, museum curators, and archivists. The workshop isa follow-on to the international conference on Scientific Instrument Collections in Universities (SICU)held at Dartmouth College in June 2004. SICU was an ambitious first attempt by this nascent communityto find hidden instrument collections and to assemble a wide spectrum of people with common interestsin formalizing university collections. As a first step, SICU was successful in bringing to light someimportant collections and in organizing an interested group of more than 80 international scholars.However, much remains to be done to effectively promote interactions between these scholars andscientists and curators involved with university collections.The aim of the proposed workshop is to take the next steps in the process of getting scientists andhistorians of science to communicate and collaborate on conducting research and education based onhistorical scientific instruments. Specifically, three main needs for an intensive gathering of interestedpractitioners have been identified: access, security, and utilization of collections. The scientificcommunity needs to be more involved in the effort, as they have the background and understanding of thescience concepts that many of these collections were created to teach. There are many more collectionsof varying dates that have not yet become accessible to the scholarly community, and often, onlyuniversity scientists know about these collections. Security of collections involves developing anunderstanding of their value and a practical resource base for their proper care. Effective utilization ofthese instruments for scholarship, science education, and public outreach requires a broad effort ofawareness and an accessible reference guide to their intended purposes. Meeting these three needs is theoverarching goal of this workshop.The intellectual merit of this project comes through the extension of the resource base for scholarsfocusing on the material culture of science beyond the major museum collections that have been used anddocumented for many years. The workshop will divulge the wealth of historically significant scientificequipment that may still exist in most major colleges and universities founded prior to the 1950's. Inaddition, a network of researchers will be developed that would jointly work to establish a context andbackground for any unknown instruments found in newly accessed collections and contributed byhistorians, curators, and scientists. Solutions and descriptions to these mysteries would be published inthe open literature.The broader impact of this project derives from the fact that participants will work cooperatively todevelop a community-wide compendium of scientific instrument collections online that would meet theneeds of scientists, historians of science, museum curators, and science educators. As conceived, thecompendium would include significant aspects of the instrument: science, history, inventor, instrumentmaker, references, videos, and demonstration contexts. It will also serve as a practical resource guide forstewards of these collections. Such a compendium will require interdisciplinary involvement andcollaboration between the science, history, education, and curatorial communities; the workshop formatwill be used to establish guidelines for the development of this resource. This compendium will have farreaching impacts for the history of science, science education, and public outreach through the increasedknowledge of, access to, and utilization of these significant university resources.The workshop will be held at the University of Mississippi, home to the Millington-BarnardCollection of 19th Century Natural Philosophy Demonstration Apparatus. This 500-piece collectionwas acquired by the University in 1852-1860 and narrowly escaped destruction during the Civil War.Pieces from the top instrument makers in the U.S., France, Germany, and England were used forinstruction in Physics and Astronomy for more than 150 years and are now exhibited in the UniversityMuseum. . Approximately 100 participants are anticipated at the workshop from outside the University of Mississippi.