It was overcast and dark in the back rooms on the first day when we embarked on this exhilarating project at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The first specimens we contemplated seemed drab, their charms unforthcoming. Bob Peck knew that I preferred to photograph using natural light, so we spent the morning hunting for optimistic window sills and faint glimmers. I searched through stiff-drawered cabinets of ancient chalk nodules, looking for beauties and leaving paper scraps in my wake. At about 2:00 p.m. we went outside, taking along several fossil ammonites and a few of the chalks found by the eighteenth century paleontologist, Etheldred Benett. Collections manager Ned Gilmore carried the specimens and kept us company, and, as a cheerful team, we explored the best open-air studio that this--or any other--institution had to offer.
"John Cheng's highly readable book imaginatively shows the science fiction community's role in, and ways of, perceiving science. Cheng displays the ways in which readers incorporated science fiction into their lives, how this led them to think about science, and further still how some of them imagined aspects of that science into being. Displaying sure-handed use of challenging sources as well as deep knowledge of scientific as well as social theory, Astounding Wonder is cultural history at its best, and so much more."--Ian Gordon, author of Comic Strips and Consumer Culture
"A book to remember. . . . To wander through A Glorious Enterprise is to absorb the 19th century's passion for botany and zoology; the 20th century's mania for exploration of distant, difficult or desolate places; and present-day preoccupations. . . . All of these tales are fascinating, but the book's true fascination comes in its color photographs and illustrations, scores of them." —Cornelia Dean, New York Times
This first complete history of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia narrates signal moments, achievements, and the colorful characters associated with an institution that shaped the study of natural history in America. Stunning original photographs by Rosamond Purcell cast extraordinary specimens from Academy collections in a new light.
Watch Peck and Stroud discuss A Glorious Enterprise behind the scences at the Academy.
According to the report, in the 1930s, members of the Nazi party asked California eugenicists for advice on how to run their own sterilization program. "Germany used California's program as its chief example that this was a working, successful policy," Cogdell told CNN reporter Elizabeth Cohen. "They modeled their law on California's law."
Watch this two-part story on sterilization victims and their fight for compensation on the Anderson Cooper 360 web site.
Cheng talks about science fiction publishing pioneer Hugo Gernsback, Ming the Merciless, and a group of science fiction fans and rocket enthusiasts first known as the American Interplanetary Society. AIS spawned Reaction Motors, makers of the rocket engine that powered the Bell X-1.
This weekend, two new exhibits feature artwork connected to new and forthcoming Penn Press books.
A Singular View—The Art and Words of John Paton Davies, Jr. opens Saturday, March 3 at the Mansion at Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD. Davies, author of China Hand: An Autobiography, was a designer as well as a diplomat. This exhibit of his art coincides with the posthumous release of his book. The exhibit runs though April 14, 2012. Visit www.strathmore.org for details.
The Everything Under the Sun: New Photographs of Academy Specimens by Rosamond Purcell exhibit opens on Saturday, March 3 at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University here in Philadelphia, PA. Purcell's photographs are featured in A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science, written by Robert McCracken Peck and Patricia Tyson Stroud. The exhibit runs through May 20, 2012. Call 215-299-1000 or visit www.ansp.org for more information.
For a sample of Purcell's original photographs and other illustrations selected from the ANSP archives, check out the image gallery for A Glorious Enterprise.
At first glance, William M. Rohe, bone fide professor and author of The Research Triangle: From Tobacco Road to Global Prominence, doesn' t seem to have much in common with the ersatz Professor Harold Hill of "The Music Man" fame. But both professors have a talent for drumming up interest in civic issues.
Rohe's work is getting a lot of attention in North Carolina, especially from media personality D. G. Martin. Martin interviewed Rohe for the 1360 WCHL radio program Who's Talking? With D.G. Martin. The interview will air today at 6:15 p.m. Martin also praised The Research Triangle in his column which appeared in North Carolina newspapers such as the Herald-Sun.
"North Carolinians outside the Research Triangle region envy its economic success and cultural assets. But don’t get too jealous," wrote Martin in his article We got trouble right here in River City. "The very success of the Triangle brings challenges that, if unmet, will topple the Triangle’s place as North Carolina’s capstone example of successful economic development. The Triangle’s dilemmas are the focus of The Research Triangle: From Tobacco Road to Global Prominence, a new book by William Rohe, director of the Center for Urban & Regional Studies at UNC Chapel Hill. . . . Rohe enthusiastically catalogues the benefits the Park brought to the region, including the high-value businesses, the high-paying jobs, and the leveraged economic activity that results from them. However, Rohe’s most important message to North Carolinians is like that of Professor Hill in 'The Music Man,' who asserted to complacent townspeople, 'We got trouble right here in River City.' Much of the trouble in the Triangle is a result of the region’s success. The low-density, sprawling housing patterns and crowded traffic routes cannot sustain the projected population growth of the region."
The Jewish Enlightenment Shmuel Feiner. Translated by Chaya Naor 456 pages | 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 Cloth 2003 | ISBN 978-0-8122-3755-9 | $65.00 | £42.50 Paper 2011 | ISBN 978-0-8122-2172-5 | $26.50 | £17.50 A volume in the Jewish Culture and Contexts series
"A major contribution to the historiography of the European Enlightenment."--Times Literary Supplement
Unparalleled in scale and comprehensiveness, The Jewish Enlightenment reconstructs the intellectual and social revolution of the Haskalah as it gradually gathered momentum throughout the eighteenth century. Read more . . .
Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Saunders Robinson. Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here
Flora's Empire brings new light to the complex history of British imperialism in India and its post-Independence legacy. Aided by beautiful period illustrations, it focuses on three centuries of official, domestic, and botanical gardens, as well as on memorial gardens and restorations of Muslim and Hindu sites. Read more . . .
Book reviewers: to request a press copy, contact Saunders Robinson. Educators: to request an exam copy for course use consideration, click here
"This will be enjoyed by true crime fans as well as British history buffs. Engaging, atmospheric, and tantalizing."--Library Journal
Burke and Hare were the first serial killers to capture media attention, accused of killing sixteen people in order to sell their cadavers as "subjects" for dissection. The Anatomy Murders is the first book to situate their story against the social and cultural forces that were bringing early nineteenth-century England into modernity.
For a sample of Purcell's original photographs and other illustrations selected from the ANSP archives, check out the 
