A generale mapp of the Isles of Great Brittaine, 1669

Over at the Philadelphia Area Center for the History of Science’s PACHSmörgåsbord blog, Haverford Professor Darin Hayton discusses his recent assignment utilizing maps from Special Collections in his course on the Introduction to the History of Science.  Each student picked a pre-1700 map from the collection (some were facsimiles of older maps) and visited several times to study their map.  They were to analyze the map both for what it actually presented as well as by delving into the context of its creation and use.  The end result was a short report on their findings, a Biography of a Map.  Please read on for Darin’s analysis of the assignment:

Biography of a Map—Further Experiments in Pedagogy

Marketing a Colony—William Penn’s Maps of Pennsylvania

Mapping Our Way Forward—More Experiments in Pedagogy

The semester is off to a bang in Special Collections.  Last week, history of science professor Darin Hayton, brought his class on “The Scientific Revolution” to visit and introduced them to a range of primary sources and the types of questions one should ask when confronted with such a text.  Texts discussed during the visit included Nicolaus Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium caelestium (1543), Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (1686), and Ralph Cudworth’s The true intellectual system of the universe (1678).  In an upcoming assignment, students will be asked to select, describe and analyze a text from our collection (or Bryn Mawr’s) that falls between 1500 and 1700, roughly the dates covered in the course.  In preparing for supporting this assignment bibliographers Ann Upton and Margaret Schaus have uncovered a rich trove of scientific literature within our rare book stacks.

Students in professor of art history Carol Solomon’s course on “Art, Politics, and Society in Nineteenth-Century Europe” have been spending quality time with editions of the works of William Blake.  This week students picked illustrations from such works as The Songs of Innocence and Experience, America, a Prophecy, The Book of Urizen, Vala or The Four Zoas, and The Book of Job, and presented on the works within the political, social and cultural contexts of the period.

Next week we’re expecting a visit by professor Kaye Edwards and her class on “Quaker Social Witness.”  They will be learning about our print, manuscript, and online resources on Quakerism from librarians Diana Peterson, Ann Upton and Anne Moore.  During the semester students will have several assignments that will make use of materials from the Quaker Collection.  Three research papers will include an exploration of a specific Quaker testimony and its relationship to social action; an examination of a historical figure from the Religious Society of Friends; and an analysis of a current Quaker project toward social justice.  Additionally, students in the course will be attending parts of the upcoming conference on Quakers and Slavery, co-hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College and Haverford College.

History of science professor Darin Hayton discusses (and includes photos of the Haverford copy of) Joseph Moxon’s A Tutor to Astronomy and Geography, Or an Easie and Speedy way to Know the Use of both the Globes, Coelestial and Terrestrial on the Philadelphia Area Center for the History of Science blog PACHSmörgåsbord.

Joseph Moxon’s efforts to popularize astronomy extended well beyond his astronomical playing cards (see Moxon’s Astronomical Playing Cards). He also wrote a number of English-language instruction manuals to help people learn astronomy and learn how to use the astronomical instruments Moxon himself made and sold. His efforts to bring astronomy to a broader audience were motivated, at least in part, by his instrument business, especially globes.

In 1654 he first published his A Tutor to Astronomy and Geography, Or an Easie and Speedy way to Know the Use of both the Globes, Coelestial and Terrestrial. This edition was, as the title makes clear, not his own composition but rather a translation of the first part of Gulielmus Bleau’s Institutio astronomica de usu globarum & sphaerarum caelestium ac terrestium. Moxon’s text must have sold reasonably well for he soon published a second, enlarged edition. He continued to expand his text until at least 1686, when he published the fourth edition.

Continue Reading Darin’s post at the PACHS blog…