Since the late nineteenth century, scientists have devised an ever-increasing number of tasks, tests, and trials to understand the body, the senses, the self, the mind, and the connections between them. Psychologists, physiologists, neuroscientists, and others have made the relation between functions of the brain and individual personalities as well as social behaviors a core aspect of their research.

Jonson Miller, Drexel University
2014 to 2015 Research Fellow

Congratulations to James Poskett (2013-2014 Research Fellow), who will be taking up the Adrian Research Fellowship in “Darwin and the Humanities” at Darwin College, UK starting on October 1st, 2015. Poskett’s article on the transatlantic publication and reception of Crania Americana (1839) was recently accepted for publication with History of Science.

The Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts (University of Pennsylvania) recently acquired 58 manuscript codices from the library of the Duke of Northumberland. The manuscripts were originally collected by General Charles Rainsford (1728-1809), an 18th century gentleman scientist, and cover subjects such as alchemy, astrology, Cabbala and Tarot. A portion of the collection is comprised of texts copied or acquired by Rainsford from the Jesuit College at Naples at its dissolution in the late 18th century.

Joseph Martin (2011-2012 Dissertation Writing Fellow) began a fixed-term Assistant Professorship at Lyman Briggs College, Michigan State University this year. His paper, "Is the Contingentist/Inevitabilist Debate a Matter of Degrees?" appeared in the December 2013 issue of Philosophy of Science. Three of his articles are slated to appear in 2015: "Evaluating Hidden Costs of Technological Change: Scaffolding, Agency, and Entrenchment" in Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology; "What's in a Name Change?

The Consortium invites applications for fellowships in the history of science, technology and medicine, broadly construed. Opportunities include:

  • short-term Research Fellowships for use of member institutions' collections
  • nine-month Dissertation Writing Fellowships
  • a nine-month NEH Postdoctoral Fellowship
  • Read more...

    The Consortium's newsletter has updates on the fellowship program, public and academic events, and the collections of consortium partners.

    We are delighted to announce the launch of the new Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Seven institutions have joined with the dozen members of the Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science to form the new Consortium. We are very excited by the greatly expanded opportunities and resources that these new partnerships will provide for promoting public and academic understanding of the history of science, technology and medicine.

    The Consortium comprises the following members:

    New acquisitions Daniel Bohn, MD, and Ralph Bohn, MD papers, circa 1905-1919 The Legacy Center, Drexel University .8 linear feet Papers of Daniel Bohn, M.D. (d. 1963, Hahnemann Medical College, 1894), who practiced in Altoona, PA, and his son Ralph W. Bohn, MD (Hahnemann Medical College, 1924), a psychiatrist practicing in New York (Gowanda State Homeopathic Hospital).

    Congratulations to Carin Berkowitz (2009-2010 Dissertation Writing Fellow), who has been elected to the History of Science Society governing Council for 2015-17.

    De re culinaria, Libri I-IX
    De re culinaria, Libri I-IX by Apicius. Image courtesy of the New York Academy of Medicine.