Constructing Scientific Eminence in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Sponsored by The Manuscript Society

The Library of Congress holds more than 12,000 manuscript collections documenting a broad range of American history and culture, among them around 1,000 collections in the history of science and technology. Acquired as part of a broader collecting program targeting “nationally eminent Americans,” the Library’s science and technology acquisitions have been deeply shaped by evolving standards for scientific prestige.

In this talk Dr. Levy will discuss the history of science and technology manuscript collecting at the Library of Congress, and will suggest that science and technology-collecting repositories can benefit from deeper investigations into how notions of professional eminence have shaped their collections. He will review some of the Library’s efforts to document the nation’s science and technology history, explore collecting gaps left as scientific labor became increasingly professionalized, well-resourced, and politically powerful, and describe staff efforts to fill those gaps.

Date: Monday, February 9, 8PM EST
Guest Presenter: Josh Levy, Historian of Science and Technology, Manuscript Division, The Library of Congress
Host: Gerald “Jay” Gaidmore

Presenter

Josh Levy serves as historian of science and technology at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress. There he oversees collections that include the papers of Samuel F.B. Morse, Matthew Fontaine Maury, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright Brothers, Sigmund and Anna Freud, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Carl Sagan, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, and Gladys West. He has published on topics ranging from agricultural history and the history of nutrition to Native Pacific history and the history of mathematics. He has taught history and indigenous studies courses at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of South Florida, and College of Micronesia-FSM. He holds a Ph.D. in modern U.S. history from the University of Illinois and a Master of Theological Studies degree from Harvard Divinity School.

Registration

Register for the next Manuscript Monday.  https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pO0T610uQ0GYxlqDSAtebw