City of Knowledge: Science, Place, Power

Join the Smithsonian Libraries & Archives and the American Philosophical Society for the final installment of City of Knowledge: Science, Place, Power. 

Over the past few months, these programs have explored Washington, D.C.’s rich scientific history, and its role as a capital city of science. This final event  will turn our attention back to the time of the American Revolution, to a second capital city of science. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Philadelphia anchored the nascent yet impressive scientific advancements in Early America. Why did so many ideas, resources, and people flow into Philadelphia, and how did the city’s scientific status give cultural and physical definition to the very first capital city of the United States? 

City of Knowledge is a four-part, cross-institutional program series that contemplates Washington, D.C. as a center of scientific power, specifically how geography, politics, and Federal institutions—including the Smithsonian, founded with a bequest from a scientist—shaped American scientific identity. The series examines how institutions shape public trust, policy, and civic engagement in American science, as well as how scholars, communities, and cultural stewards influence the creation and circulation of knowledge. The first program, held at the American Institute of Physics on February 26, explored the history of the physical sciences—from mid nineteenth-century weather observers at the Smithsonian to the Space Race during the Cold War. The second panel, held at the MLK Library on March 31, will take a look at the life sciences, and the third, held at the DC History Center on April 16, will focus more precisely on urban history—how has science shaped our built environments, and how has it contributed to, or hindered, the creation of a just and livable city?

This final panel takes us to a new city, but remains committed to two essential questions. How has science shared a history with our urban places? And why should the place of science matter when we write the history of science? 

This is a conversation designed to spark dialogue among panelists and with the audience and will include a Q&A as part of the program.

The event will take place as part of the APS's Lunch at the Library Series on Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. ET in Benjamin Franklin Hall and will also be livestreamed. This event is free to attend but registration is required.

This project received funding from the Smithsonian’s "Our Shared Future: 250," a Smithsonian-wide initiative supported by private philanthropy and created to commemorate the nation’s 250th anniversary and advance the Smithsonian vision for the next 250 years. It also complements the APS’s work on  “America’s Scientific Revolutionaries," a two-year initiative funded by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation highlighting the work of lesser-known scientists and physicians active during the Revolutionary era.

Susan Brandt is a lecturer in the history department at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. She received her PhD in History from Temple University and completed a fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania McNeil Center for Early American Studies. Brandt received an APS fellowship in 2011/12. Her dissertation on women healers was awarded the 2016 Lerner-Scott Prize for the best doctoral dissertation in U.S. Women's History by the Organization of American Historians. She has published an article in Early American Studies and a chapter in Barbara Oberg, ed., Women in the American Revolution: Gender, Politics, and the Domestic World. She revised a chapter on early Pennsylvania in the forthcoming second edition of Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth. Brandt’s book, Women Healers: Gender, Authority, and Medicine in Early Philadelphia (Penn Press, 2022) received Honorable Mention for the First Book Award, granted by the Library Company of Philadelphia. Prior to pursuing a career in history, Brandt worked as a nurse practitioner. 

Domenic Vitiello is Professor of City Planning and Urban Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. A historian and urban planner, his research has focused on urban and industrial history, migrant communities, and urban food systems. Domenic’s books include Engineering Philadelphia: The Sellers Family and the Industrial Metropolis, The Philadelphia Stock Exchange and the City It Made, and The Sanctuary City: Immigrant, Refugee, and Receiving Communities in Postindustrial Philadelphia.