Elena Canadelli; Marco Beretta; Laura Ronzon (Editors). Behind the Exhibit: Displaying Science and Technology at World’s Fairs and Museums in the Twentieth Century. (Artefacts: Studies in the History of Science and Technology, 12.) xv + 263 pp., figs., index. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2019. Free (paper). E-book available.

Isis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 112 (2) ◽  
pp. 435-435
Author(s):  
Steven Lubar
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Smithsonian Institution ◽  
World's Fairs ◽  
Free Paper ◽  
History Of ◽  
World’S Fairs

American Memory, Culture Wars, and the Challenge of Presenting Science and Technology in a National Museum

2007 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
ROGER D. LAUNIUS
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Smithsonian Institution ◽  
Culture Wars ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Historic Sites ◽  
The Past ◽  
Memory Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Memory

Abstract There is no question that the American public has an unabashed appetite for history. This is demonstrated in numerous ways from bestsellers by popular historians to tourism at historic sites and museums to the popularity of films and other media depicting versions of the past. Although historians might think that the discourse presented in most of these forums is simplistic and stilted, little doubt exists that it is passionate. This discussion explores a few of the issues affecting the public's deep fascination with the past, especially in the context of the history of science and technology, and the presentation of these issues in the Smithsonian Institution. These thoughts are tentative and speculative, but, I hope, stimulating and worthy of further consideration.

Welcome and introduction

1989 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-96
Keyword(s):  
Advisory Committee ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Imperial College ◽  
Joint Meeting ◽  
Emeritus Professor ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many ◽  
The University

It is my pleasant duty to welcome you all most warmly to this meeting, which is one of the many events stimulated by the advisory committee of the William and Mary Trust on Science and Technology and Medicine, under the Chairmanship of Sir Arnold Burgen, the immediate past Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society. This is a joint meeting of the Royal Society and the British Academy, whose President, Sir Randolph Quirk, will be Chairman this afternoon, and it covers Science and Civilization under William and Mary, presumably with the intention that the Society would cover Science if the Academy would cover Civilization. The meeting has been organized by Professor Rupert Hall, a Fellow of the Academy and also well known to the Society, who is now Emeritus Professor of the History of Science and Technology at Imperial College in the University of London; and Mr Norman Robinson, who retired in 1988 as Librarian to the Royal Society after 40 years service to the Society.

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