Course Description

This hands-on course will introduce key episodes and issues in the history of American astronomy by close looking at rare early scientific instruments and tangible objects in Harvard collections. Starting with the story of Captain John Smith, Pocahontas, and a sundial, the course will move from colonial relations with Native Americans to the controversial placement of observatories on sacred mountaintops today. In between, we will discuss the roles of religion, politics, science, and culture in the promotion of astronomy in American society. Topics will include comets and extraterrestrials, observatories, westward expansion, time selling, and the role of women. Each unit will begin with anchoring objects, and students will work behind the scenes in the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments. There will also be opportunities to make and use your own instruments to engage with early methods of production and observation.

What You Can Expect to Learn in This Course

Students in this course will not only learn about the history of American astronomy, but also how to read objects.

While most courses rely on historical texts to frame and develop lines of analysis and interpretation, this course focuses on material culture--i.e., objects and tangible things. Examples of things to be discussed in this course include scientific instruments, rare books and manuscripts, star maps, photographic negatives on glass plates, observatory buildings, paintings, a tea service, socks, a life mask, and a melted chunk of Sputnik. Such objects deepen and widen our appreciation of historical events and times in ways that texts simply cannot do.

You will also learn how to handle museum objects and document them. No longer will you be afraid to touch something 400 years old or readied for launch into space. You will also learn what goes on behind the scenes of a research museum and what best practices are.

And last but not least, you will learn what a tea pot has to do with a computer, and what Curious George has to do with modern astronomy.

 

Class: 

Starstruck! The History, Culture, and Politics of American Astronomy