Science and religion

Forthcoming
Schechner, Sara J.Conquest and Contemplation: Astronomy in New England.” In Scientific Instruments as Cultural Artifacts, edited by Paula Bertucci and Alexi Baker. New Haven: Yale University Press, Forthcoming.
2020
Sundials
Schechner, Sara J., Meredith Stepien, and Pedro Raposo. “Sundials.” Adler Astronomy Live. Adler Planetarium, Chicago, 2020. Publisher's VersionAbstract

cite as: Sara J. Schechner, "Sundials," interview with Meredith Stepien and Pedro Raposo, Adler Astronomy Live, streamed live on October 8, 2020, YouTube video, 55:50, https://youtu.be/Xfo9ifTixIg.

Hello stargazers! Welcome to Adler Astronomy Live: Sundials! ☀️

The Adler Planetarium has the best and most comprehensive collection of sundials in North America. Sundials played a central role in shaping people’s sense of time, and show how the latter has been influenced by their culture, politics, religion, labor, society, and geography throughout the ages. ⏰ Join us for a conversation with Dr. Sara J. Schechner, author of Time of Our Lives: Sundials of the Adler Planetarium, on some of the most spectacular sundials in the Adler’s collections and their stories.

Watch the YouTube video here.

2019
Time of Our Lives: Sundials of the Adler Planetarium.
Schechner, Sara J. Time of Our Lives: Sundials of the Adler Planetarium.. Chicago: Adler Planetarium, 2019. Publisher's VersionAbstract

 

Time of Our Lives

Sundials of the Adler Planetarium

Sara J. Schechner

 

Published by the Adler Planetarium, with the support of the North American Sundial Society

 

The Adler Planetarium of Chicago has the best and most comprehensive collection of sundials and time-finding instruments in North America. Now many of these objects can be yours to explore. This volume encompasses a dazzling array of sundials, 268 in all, that date from the 15th to 20th centuries.

What makes this catalogue special is that it is written to engage non-specialists approaching sundials for the first time. Although the organizational logic is astronomical and mathematical, the primary Interpretive essays set the sundials into cultural and social context.

The catalogue divides sundials into classes according to the element of the Sun’s apparent motion that they track (e.g. hour-angle, altitude, azimuth, or a combination) and the orientation of the surfaces on which the hour lines are mathematically drawn. Within each chapter, the instruments are organized chronologically and by workshop, thereby giving readers insight into that type’s development over time and differences among makers. Technical object descriptions are supplemented by tables of divisions, gazetteers, saints’ days, weather forecasts, and in the case of polyhedral dials, the dial types, orientations, and hour systems drawn on every face. The tables offer a snapshot of the precision to which the maker aimed and the sundial’s complexity. Color photographs of each sundial show its overall appearance and details.

Chapter introductions go beyond mathematical descriptions of how each type works. Drawing upon research findings presented here for the first time, the essays offer insights into early production techniques, fads and fashions, social hierarchy among users, the impact of church and civil authorities, and the history of the sundial classes.

Throughout the ages, people’s sense of time has been influenced by their culture, politics, religion, labor, society, and geography. This catalogue offers concrete evidence, for every sundial in it embodies the time-related needs and values of its maker and users.

The catalogue includes a taxonomy of compass needles, glossary, bibliography, and index. It is hardcover, 488 pages, 9.75” x 11”.

 

2017
Schechner, Sara J.These Are Not Your Mother’s Sundials: Or, Time and Astronomy’s Authority.” In The Science of Time 2016: Time in Astronomy & Society, Past, Present and Future, edited by Pavol Gabor Catherine Hohenkerk Kenneth Seidelmann and Elisa Arias, Ludwig Combrinck, 49-73. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing, 2017. schechner_978-3-319-59909-0_8.pdf
2011
Schechner, Sara J.Materialna kultura astronomii w życiu codziennym: Zegary słoneczne, nauka i przemiany społeczne.” GNOMONIKA.pl: Zegary słoneczne, czyli słoneczniki, 2011. Publisher's Version OnlineAbstract

"The Material Culture of Astronomy in Daily Life: Sundials, Science, and Social Change," Journal for the History of Astronomy 32 (2001): 189-222. Translated into Polish by Darek Oczki, and posted with color illustrations in three parts on the Polish sundial website, http://gnomonika.pl at these addresses:

  1. Zegary słoneczne, nauka i przemiany społeczne (cz. 1): http://gnomonika.pl/news.php?id=54
  2. Zegary słoneczne, nauka i przemiany społeczne (cz. 2): http://gnomonika.pl/news.php?id=59
  3. Zegary słoneczne, nauka i przemiany społeczne (cz. 3): http://gnomonika.pl/news.php?id=62
Zegary sloneczne czyli sloneczniki (PDF)
2007
Waywiser
Schechner, Sara J., Jean-Francois Gauvin, and others. “Waywiser.” Online database of the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, 2007. Link to Waywiser Abstract
Waywiser, is the online database of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University. It was first developed by Jean-François Gauvin and Sara J. Schechner in 2007--2008, and has since been updated in format by Juan Andres Leon and other museum staff. As curator of the Collection, Schechner is the contributor of thousands of object entries and biographies, particularly in the areas of astronomy, microscopy, optics, time finding, horology, surveying, navigation, psychology, and radio. Work on the database is ongoing. The database is named after an ancient instrument for measuring distance, also called a hodometer.
Surveyor using a waywiser
2001
Schechner, Sara J.The Material Culture of Astronomy in Daily Life: Sundials, Science, and Social Change.” Journal for the History of Astronomy 32 (2001): 189-222. Read at SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)
1998
Genuth, Sara Schechner. “Astrolabes: A Cross-Cultural and Social Perspective.” In Western Astrolabes, 2-25. Chicago: Adler Planetarium, 1998. astrolabes_cross-cultural_1998_schechner.pdf
1997
Comets, Popular Culture, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology
Schechner, Sara J. Comets, Popular Culture, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. Princeton
1977
Schechner, Sara J. “Science in the Context of Tradition: Solomon Maimon and Samson Raphael Hirsch.” Synthesis 4, no. 2 (1977): 28-43.