Recovery in progress

ALERT: Links to pages, resources, PDFs and images mostly do not work. The Lynx Open Ed drupal website became corrupted and is now in a process of recovery. I am converting it to a WordPress site called “kerrymagruder.com” — “lynx-open-ed.org” will redirect to “kerrymagruder.com” for a while but eventually go away. Lynx Open Ed textual content is being restored first, then links, images, and PDFs will be re-established. I’m gathering additional materials together here as well (see About). Check back at the end of the semester when the site will likely be operational.

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Love books! – with wisdom

Around 2000 B.C. an Egyptian priest counseled his son:

“Behold, nothing surpasses books. Would that I might make you love books more than your mother. Would that I might make their beauty enter before your face, for it is greater than any office. You are to set your heart on books.” (translation of a hieroglyphic papyrus in the British Museum)

But consider also the words of Qoheleth, the Teacher, from a millennium later:

“Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.” Ecclesiastes 12:12

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Hoot the Owl

A children’s book, The Story of How the Constellation ‘Hoot the Owl’ Began, was written and Illustrated by Anna Todd (2017), a 2nd grade student at Rose Witcher Elementary School, El Reno Public Schools, located in El Reno, Oklahoma. The book developed in collaboration with Stacey Stephenson and was inspired by the Galileo’s World exhibition (backstory).


DOWNLOAD

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Hoot the Owl – back story

1/25/2018

We believe that educational outreach is at the center of our exhibitions, so nothing could have excited us more than a letter we received last November when Stacey Stevenson told us the story of “Hoot the Owl.” A children’s book, The Story of How ‘Hoot the Owl’ Constellation Began, was written and illustrated this past Fall by Anna Todd, a 2nd grade student at Rose Witcher Elementary School, El Reno Public Schools, located in El Reno, Oklahoma. Hoot the Owl is not one of the 88 official constellations recognized by the International Astronomical Union, but it’s my new favorite constellation! You can read the book and learn the backstory below. As you will see, the story of Hoot the Owl is a specific, concrete example of how knowledge of the stars enhances our lives today.


Read the book at the Lynx Open Ed site: http://dev.lynx-open-ed.org/hoot
Anna Todd, The Story of How ‘Hoot the Owl’ Constellation Began (2017). Written and illustrated by Anna Todd, 2nd grade student at Rose Witcher Elementary School, El Reno Public Schools, El Reno, Oklahoma. CC-by-nc-sa.


Here’s the story behind the story:

Stacey has been participating in the NASA Oklahoma Space Grant Consortium (OSGC) Year-long Pre-service Educator Mentorship: Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) which is led by Dorinda Risenhoover, the NASA OSGC Education Coordinator.*

Dorinda Risenhoover demonstrating a Space Suit.
Dorinda Risenhoover demonstrating a Space Suit in the Exhibit Hall.

We so admire Dorinda’s leadership and vision for supporting educators in this state, and appreciate her decision to bring the participating educators to OU Libraries for an all-day workshop, which we held for them last September, to introduce them to open educational resources (OERs) developed for the Galileo’s World exhibit.

Stacey at the OU Libraries workshop last September.
Stacey (far right) at the September workshop.
Left to right: Sharon Scott, Rashid Troupe, Stacey Stevenson.

I wish for any future grandchildren I might have that they will have teachers like Stacey and the other educators in this mentorship! NASA OSGC’s Mission To Planet Earth and the Galileo’s World workshop begin the story of how Anna came to create “Hoot the Owl.” On Nov 7, 2017, Stacey wrote us to explain the rest of the story:


Dr. Magruder,

Good evening! I hope this email finds you well.

I would like to share a story of early inspiration with you. I have been tutoring a 2nd grader in reading for my Diagnostics in Reading course. We have read over 50 books since we started working together. From the beginning I told her to keep in mind, as we read, that she would be writing her very own book at the end of the semester. I told her to consider the subject matter of the books we read and the illustrations as well.

Early into the semester we read Fancy Nancy Sees the Stars. The book is a level 1 reader and it explains planetariums and constellations so early readers can understand. When we were finished, she was fascinated by the idea of constellations. That night I put together several of the materials that were given to me during the HOS [workshop on] Galileo’s World. I also bookmarked a few of the pages from your site as well. The next time we met I had checked out a few more children’s books on constellations, brought my HOS materials and my laptop. She was in awe, absolutely consumed by the idea of constellations. She was able to comprehend that the pictures were not actually in the sky but “imaginary, for my heart to see but not my eyes”, those are her words. We read the captions connected to the images on the materials you handed out and on the website. After a few meetings of reading only about constellations and stars, she decided to write her book about a constellation. She decided to make up and create a story as to how the constellation came to be. The story is absolutely fantastic and she has told her teacher, her family, and her classmates all about constellations and some of the stories she has been able to remember.

I really want to thank you. I was struggling to find a subject for her to really connect with, to give her the desire to read. To her, reading was boring. She had no heart for it and did not enjoy it. She enjoys reading now. She says, “The more I practice reading, the more I will be able to read about the sky when I am older and can understand the biggest words of all”.

I have mailed you a copy of her book. I hope you enjoy the newest constellation “Hoot the Owl”.

Thank you always,
Anastasia “Stacey” Stevenson
Thanks


What a story “Hoot the Owl” is! Such drama! What a plot, what a flow, how colorful! Anna wrote with amazing creativity! And to think Anna caught her love for reading from Stacey’s intervention — educators make such a huge difference in young students’ lives. Generations from now there will be ever-enduring effects from what an educator does with just one student this very semester. Maybe Anna, and her fellow students, will write many books… teach astronomy or literature or reading… or go to Mars.

As for now, in the 2nd grade, Anna wears beautiful bows, and looks great in pink!

Anna Todd with book
Anna Todd with her book

Anna Todd with sweater
Even Anna’s sweater expresses her love of the stars!

Anna Todd with Stacey Stevenson
Anna Todd with Stacey Stevenson

Congratulations to Anna and all of her fellow students at Rose Witcher Elementary School! We’re sure her principal, Mrs. Tiffany Patrick, and all the teachers are quite proud and super-excited about her new book.

An original, laminated copy of Hoot the Owl has been placed in the Marilyn B. Ogilvie Exploration Room. The Exploration Room is part of the OU Libraries’ Exhibit Hall on the 5th floor, where the Galileo’s World Reprise exhibit continues. Here, alongside other books in the Exploration Room, children who visit Galileo’s World can read Anna’s story, right where they might sit down to color their own constellation pages and imagine their own stories of the stars.

We are grateful to be able to share Hoot the Owl in both our on-site and off-site educational programs, and to share it in the Lynx Open Ed website. We think many other young children will be inspired by reading Hoot the Owl. We also think many educators will be encouraged by its example to encourage their students to write their own constellation stories. Hoot the Owl also has been placed in the ShareOK repository of the University to guarantee that it will remain available in perpetuity.

Stacey’s story of working with Anna encapsulates perfectly what I mean when I tell myself that without educational outreach, exhibits wouldn’t be worth doing. The story of Stacey and Anna is what makes the time and effort we pour into exhibits worthwhile. This story illustrates the kind of impact that can occur when libraries work with educators through exhibitions. Hoot the Owl is going to be one of my favorite constellation stories of all time! 🙂

We’re grateful to Anna Todd and her family, and to Stacey Stevenson, for giving us full permission to share Anna’s book, this story-behind-the-story, and these photographs with you. Anna’s book is published with a Creative Commons license to share-alike, for non-commercial purposes, with attribution (CC-by-sa-nc).


Read the book at the Lynx Open Ed site: http://dev.lynx-open-ed.org/hoot
Anna Todd, The Story of How ‘Hoot the Owl’ Constellation Began (2017). Written and Illustrated by Anna Todd, 2nd grade student at Rose Witcher Elementary School, El Reno Public Schools, El Reno, Oklahoma. CC-by-nc-sa.


 

* More on MTPE: The NASA OSGC Year-long Pre-service Educator Mentorship: Mission To Planet Earth is designed to empower pre-service educators from each of our eight affiliate universities (OU, OSU, SNU, ECU, Langston, Cameron, SWOSU, SEOSU) as STEM educators through a year of unique and hands-on STEM institutes, engagements, VIP NASA center tours, and more!  Participants network with NASA educators, researchers, scientists, museum curators, and other leading STEM-related experts while utilizing the latest iPad technology.  At the end of their year-long mentorship with NASA OSGC, the end goal is that each participant graduates the program with a passion and motivation to seek any and all opportunities in order to empower our next generation of STEM thinkers and doers through aerospace education as they begin to influence young minds in their own classrooms.

 

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Outline: Historic Star Atlas Stories

3/28/2018

VideoSlides (PDF, 160MB) • Image


Thomas Carlyle spoke for all of us when he lamented…

“Why did not somebody teach me the constellations,
and make me at home in the starry heavens,
which are always overhead,
and which I don’t half-know to this day?”

In this richly illustrated presentation, come hear stories of the constellations and the early star atlases that portrayed them.

Kerry Magruder and Brent Purkaple
Postcards from the Universe series
Sam Noble Museum Thursday, January 25, 2018; 7pm
Free admission


Description:

From the Renaissance to the dawn of the modern age, art and science fused together in the representation of the stars and constellations. Historic star atlases combined state- of-the-art scientific observation of the cosmos with appreciation for the aesthetic dimension of the sky. Galileo inscribed OU’s copy of his Starry Messenger to a poet. Art, music, literature and astronomy merge in humanity’s creative and ongoing exploration of the stars and constellations. We will examine images of the constellations from the star atlases of Bayer, Hevelius, Flamsteed, Bode and various other historical sources to discover how the wonder of the sky at night is common to science, literature and art. We will also show how to access these images for your own creative, educational, or research-related projects.

Constellation images appearing in this presentation are taken from the original rare books of the OU History of Science Collections. Many of these books were featured during 2015-2016 as part of Galileo’s World joint- exhibitions at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, the National Weather Center, and the Schusterman Library on the OU-Tulsa campus. After the presentation, a reprise of “The Sky at Night” portion of Galileo’s World will be available for viewing on the 5th floor of Bizzell Memorial Library until 10 pm.


OUTLINE

  1. Introduction
    1. Galileo and the Telescope
    2. Tennyson
    3. Galileo telescope replica
    4. Questar
    5. Shelley
    6. Byron
    7. OU Skywatch twitter:  #ouskywatch; @ouhosCollection
    8. Galileo’s World Reprise exhibit
      1. Exhibit Guide
      2. The Sky at Night Reprise gallery
  2. Featured Constellations
    1. Ursa Major the Big Bear
    2. Ursa Minor the Little Bear
      1. Nocturnal dial
    3. Orion the Hunter
      1. Messier
      2. Frost
    4. Leo the Lion
    5. Sagittarius the Archer
    6. Scorpius the Scorpion
    7. Lynx Open Ed
      1. “Collaborating in exhibit-based learning.
      2. Website: lynx-open-ed.org
      3. Twitter: @lynx_open_ed
      4. Urania’s Mirror
      5. Astronomy OERs (Open Educational Resources)
  3. Featured Star Atlases
    1. Before
      1. Hesiod
      2. Aratos
      3. Hyginus
      4. Ptolemy
    2. Four “Golden Era” celestial atlases (criteria:  scientific + artistic)
      1. Bayer
      2. Hevelius
        1. Star catalog
        2. Method
        3. Star atlas
      3. Flamsteed
        1. France
        2. Germany
      4. Bode
    3. After
      1. von Littrow
    4. Star Charts on Instruments
      1. Beijing observatory celestial globe
      2. Shickard astroscopium
      3. Coronelli book
      4. Coronelli gores
      5. Astrolabe replica
      6. Astrolabe book
    5. What possibilities!
      1. Galileo’s World digital library:  repository.ou.edu
      2. Sky Tonight:  skytonight.org
      3. Changes in a constellation over time (Orion)
        1. Piccolomini
        2. Gallucci
        3. Montanari
      4. Unexpected visual features
        1. Hyginus
      5. Star charts of the same event (Comets of 1618)
        1. Grassi
        2. Bainbridge
        3. Controversy over the Comets gallery
      6. Constellations nearby (southern skies)
      7. Orientations of star patterns and constellation figures
        1. Kepler and others
      8. Constellations from around the world
        1. Nobutake
        2. Williams
        3. Saulnier
    6. Two Dramatic Constellations
      1. Middle Earth astronomy
      2. Hoot the Owl:  Book | Backstory
    7. Conclusion
      1. What is the artistic and scientific heritage 
of the sky at night?
      2. What draws you to the stars?

     

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Interview with Marilyn B. Ogilvie

5/5/2018

Marilyn Ogilvie (portrait by Mike Wimmer)
Marilyn Ogilvie (portrait by Mike Wimmer)

Interview:  Marilyn B. Ogilvie, 2nd Curator of the OU History of Science Collections
Location:  Marilyn B. Ogilvie Exploration Room
Date:  January 26, 2017; prior to the public unveiling of Marilyn’s portrait in the Ogilvie Exploration Room.
Interviewer:  Kerry V. Magruder, 3rd Curator

(posted with Marilyn’s permission)


EARLY LIFE

KM:  The history of science is an unusual and somewhat obscure field.  Few people find their way to the history of science by a direct highway; rather, most travel through backroads and byways.  What were your early academic interests?

MBO:  I was going to be an astronomer.  When I was about 8 or 9, I was planning to go to the Moon or to Mars.  I won’t tell you about the Egishdeemen who lived on Mars, but I told my little friends all about them.

KM:  When and where did you obtain your undergraduate degrees?

MBO:  I went to Baker University [in Baldwin, KS], for a Bachelors in Biology.  Baker is a small liberal arts college.  At that point, I realized, in what I regarded as a great discovery on my part, that all knowledge seems to connect together.  Later, I earned a Masters in Zoology from KU.

KM:  What are some of the diverse life experiences that brought you to first consider the history of science as a profession?

MBO:  Chance is the biggest one.  We had been in east Africa for 2 years.  I was teaching biology and chemistry for TEA [Teachers for East Africa], in bush country outside Dar es Salaam, Tanganyika [formerly German East Africa, now Tanzania].  We were coming back to Norman because my husband Phil wanted to get his PhD in Zoology here.  While we were in Africa, we heard of Duane Roller from someone who knew him at Columbia and found out that he had some sort of collection of old books at OU.  So I wandered up, looked around, and eventually met him.  I thought the old books in history of science were so wonderful, and decided to take a reading course.  It was by Tom Smith on American science.  One course led to another.  When a seminar paper was raked over the coals, I wondered, Why am I doing this?  But I was really hooked.  I loved the old stuff.  We held class right among the old books, and used them all the time.  What was so great about being in this program is that we had it all, right at our fingertips.


STUDENT

KM:  Marilyn, you embody the spirit of the OU history of science program in many diverse roles, including student, teacher, mentor, scholar, professor and curator.  Let’s start with your experience as a student.  When did you begin your studies at OU, and what year did you graduate with your PhD in the History of Science?

MBO:  I started in 1963, and finished my PhD in 1973. It took so long because we had moved first to Minneapolis and then Portland, Oregon while I was working on my dissertation. When I finished, we were living at the Oklahoma City Zoo! [where Phil was director.]

KM:  Duane H.D. Roller was the first curator and professor of the History of Science at OU.   What are your memories of Dr. Roller from your student days?

MBO:  We won’t talk about the cigarettes and ash trays. Perhaps I shouldn’t say that!  He was the king.  I was scared to death of him.  He would go on trips to buy books, leaving his paperwork spread out on the big table in the reading room.  He would put all his bills on that table, which we couldn’t help but notice as we held our seminars there.  We shared the excitement as the books arrived.  His classes were absolutely inspiring, and made me realize that history of science was what I wanted to do.

KM:  Who were some of the other professors at that time, and people involved in the program?

MBO:  There were just four professors back then.  Tom Smith, history of technology.  Tom was acting curator when Duane went on trips.  David Kitts, history of geology.  I wrote my first good paper for him.  I still have it, with his encouraging comments.  And Roy Page.  Marcia Goodman was librarian, who would open the books as they arrived from Europe, with Duane’s letters telling about them.  We graduate students divided ourselves according to seniority:  the Golden Age, with Sister Suzanne Kelly, Jim Morris, Chuck St. Clair, Betty Ruth Estes and others.  Then the Silver Age.  I was in the Bronze Age.

KM:  What was it like to research in the History of Science Collections as a graduate student at that time?

MBO:  One had better be in there doing research!  Roller checked to see if we were there, and how many hours we spent.  We often stayed until almost midnight.  Roller chose who had the key to the door. The chosen few were known as the Key Club.  As long as the library was open, we needed to be there.  The Collections were on the third floor at this time.  The carrels were along each row, with the stacks in between, so we studied in the same room as the books.


TEACHER

KM:  You also served the history of science program as a member of the teaching faculty.  You are a professor emerita in the Department of the History of Science.  What attracted you to teaching?

MBO:  I’ve always loved teaching.  I taught secondary biology in Phoenix after receiving my Masters, and then in Africa.  Later, I taught at Portland State and at OBU before coming to OU.

KM:  You taught both undergraduate and graduate courses.  What are some memorable moments from your teaching experience?

MBO:  It’s so gratifying to receive emails from students even after all these years.  They give my Facebook name to their friends.  They remember books we read, like [Rachel Carson’s] Silent Spring.

KM:  Mentoring involves long-term relationships with students that grow out of the teaching experience.  You served on dozens of graduate student committees, including mine.  How were teaching and mentoring meaningful to your work at OU?

MBO:  Caring for the books is just a part of the job.  Relating to the students – and student employees – is just as important.  It’s not teaching facts, but teaching how to relate to people, how to bring books and the public together.  If you like people, and you like teaching, these are as much a part of being a curator as liking the books.  It’s a whole package.


SCHOLAR and PROFESSOR

KM:  OU is distinctive in having both a History of Science special collection in OU Libraries and a separate academic Department of the History of Science.  As a result, you were a faculty member in both OU Libraries and in the History of Science Department.  This special relationship between the History of Science Collections and the History of Science Department created a synergy between the two.   How did this special relationship work out in practice?

MBO:  Beautifully.  You might say there was always a blending between teaching and books.  That is what DeGolyer [the founding donor] expected, that the books were to be used, not merely decorative.  We take care of them in order that they might be used.  The reason we have the books is so we can read what’s inside the books, not to keep them on the shelf.  Many are now online, but that’s not the only way we use them.  It’s a historical feeling that you’re talking with people in the past to see where their ideas came from.  To me that conversation is what is fascinating. It’s a conversation between many different people, both past and present. We care for the books to keep that conversation going.  That’s why the faculty in the history of science department are such wonderful colleagues.

KM:  What does that special relationship mean for students, faculty and visiting researchers?

MBO:  One example is our Mellon Travel Fellowship Program.  It’s symbiosis. It happened only because of both, working together as partners.  People now come to use our books from all over the world, and our students gain a more cosmopolitan view.  To study history of science it’s not just about the books alone, or about formal teaching relationships.  We are a community of scholars.  We develop an enlarged circle of friendships.  It’s all about making a place where interesting conversations happen.

KM:  As a professional historian of science, you have given special attention to the history of women and science.  How did you begin your research on this subject?

MBO:  Just by accident, as usual.  I was teaching at Portland State, a survey class in the history of science.  Two girls wanted to write on women and science.  They could only find one woman, Marie Curie.  I couldn’t think of any either.  So I started to search.  The historian of science Marie Boas Hall came to Norman.  We met at a party, and I told her about my manuscript on women and science.  She said, “Why don’t I come over and look at it?  Maybe we can have breakfast tomorrow?”  So sitting around my kitchen table, she set me up to publish it.  MIT accepted it [Women in Science:  Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century (MIT Press, 1987)].  Then I was hooked.  Nobody was working on women in science then.  I was asked to do a two-volume encyclopedia.  I didn’t realize what I had gotten myself into, so I asked Joy Harvey to co-author it with me.  Although it was an edited work, we ended up writing most of the articles ourselves [The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science (Routledge, 2000)].

KM:  How would you answer a group of students if they were to ask which 2 or 3 of your books they should read or consult first?

MBO:  To consult, start with the Biographical Dictionary.  But I like my Boring book best [A Dame Full of Vim and Vigor: A Biography of Alice Middleton Boring, Biologist in China (Amsterdam, 1999)].  I will have a Boring book and a Nice book!  And I’m really going to like my Nice book best when I get it finished [For the Birds:  The Life and Work of American Ornithologist Margaret Morse Nice (forthcoming)]. It is really pronounced “Neece.”  The most popular one is Marie Curie [Marie Curie: A Biography (Greenwood Press, 2004)].

KM:  At the annual meeting of the History of Science Society in Atlanta this past November, a roundtable session was devoted to you in light of the significance of your work for promoting research on the history of women and science. As I recall, there were no empty seats in the room.  How has the study of women and science changed since you began your work?

MBO:  Totally different.  It could be expected, just as the history of science has changed.  History of science has become a multicultural study now.  Not just about European men and elite ideas.  Its scope has expanded.  We’re still discovering women involved in science.  But studying women and science is no longer focused upon that, upon locating and getting facts about them, but rather about interpreting their work in context.  “Women and science” is no longer a special field, but an inherent part of scientific culture and essential for capturing any intellectual milieu.

KM:  Do you have any advice or wisdom to offer someone starting out today?

MBO:  Get as broad a background as you possibly can, in as many fields as you possibly can.  Don’t try to specialize too quickly.


CURATOR

KM:  When and how did you became the second curator?

MBO:  They did a search, and I got one of those things in the mail indicating that you have been recommended as a possible candidate.  I filled it in and forgot about it.  I was teaching at OBU, but I was in Europe when they were trying to get a hold of me.  They tried to reach me at all my hotels, since we didn’t have cell phones.  I came back to interview with both the Dean of the Libraries and the History of Science Department.  I was thrilled to get the job, but I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do.

KM:  What were some of the most important goals and objectives you envisioned for the History of Science Collections as curator?

MBO:  I wanted to make it open to the whole campus, not just an ivory tower only for elites or a restricted group of scholars.  We want you to see the books and appreciate what we have here.  We gave as many tours as we could.  We tried to establish a connection with friends in Oklahoma City to increase our visibility.  That’s how we established the OU Lynx.

KM:  How did your collecting strategy change?

MBO:  I collected in new areas, including women in science, medicine, alchemy, astrology, and popular science.  But I still built on strengths.  We didn’t try to specify in advance what we might buy.  I never knew ahead of time what opportunity might arise.  We acquired both primary and secondary sources, everything a scholar or student would need together in one place.  Visiting scholars did not have time for inter-library loan, or to wait for books checked out to be returned. We didn’t want to lose books from obscure presses that went out of print after only a few months.

KM:  You’ve traveled widely, both before and after becoming Curator of the Collections.  Is travel important for a curator, and what has it meant for you?

MBO:  In those days it was important to travel in order to find books.  There was no internet.  I’ve set foot on every continent, including Antarctica, although I didn’t buy any books there!  In China, I did research on Alice Boring, an American geneticist who taught there.

KM:  What are some of the most memorable acquisitions you made as curator?

MBO:  Two books high on my want list were the Epitome of Ptolemy’s Almagest by Regiomontanus [1496], and the natural history of Mexico by Hernandez, published by the Academy of the Lynx [1651].  We were able to acquire both.  My favorite might be the book by Maria Merian [Erucarum ortus (1717), “The Caterpillar Garden”].  I wish I had written a book about her!

KM:  Did you acquire many books in unusual or particularly fortuitous ways?

MBO:  I loved going into little bookshops.  At that time you would find books where people didn’t realize their value for the history of science, particularly in the vernacular or for popular science.

KM:  You received an outstanding teacher award here at OU, as voted by students.  How did your teaching experience relate to your role as curator?  Were these two roles in competition, or did one role mutually enhance the other?

MBO:  Since curatorship involves dealing with people, it requires the same attributes as being a teacher.  I honestly do like people, and I’m so proud of the books that I want to show them off to people and help people come to understand them.  So teaching is important to being a curator.  I never stopped.

KM:  How did you manage the demands of professional life, and what advice would you offer for younger professionals in achieving a work-life balance?

MBO:  Love what you do.  My professional and personal lives overlapped quite a bit.  Not when my children were little; that’s different.  And very difficult.  But you have to do what you love.

KM:  You were curator of the History of Science Collections for the better part of two decades, from 1990 to 2009.  How did the role of curator change during your tenure?

MBO:  I was more interested in research.  It’s hard to balance scholarship with administration.  I didn’t like meetings.  But it didn’t seem like I was going to work each morning, because I enjoyed the work and the people I worked with so much.  It was a privilege and a joy.  I could choose what I thought was the most important thing at the time, and work on that, so it was meaningful.  I could have kept busy every weekend giving talks, but I had to limit that.  Outreach was extremely important to me.

KM:  What do you hope for, when you think about the History of Science Collections a hundred years from now?

MBO:  It’s hard to envision.  Not like it is now.  I don’t know.  I would hope that it would still be a repository but not just a repository.  It certainly will be a museum, but I want the books to be used and the context of them to be understood for their own culture and time.  Our human-ness is important to see in them.  I have the same feelings toward the books as toward museum artifacts.  But more than just objects on display, we need understanding of what they meant then and what they mean now for us and at any future time.


EXPLORATION ROOM

KM:  It takes an exceptional person to combine the many roles you have played at this university.  I feel very strongly that no monument could capture all that you have meant for OU, but this Exploration Room seems appropriate. Learning activities from every exhibit gallery are gathered together here, along with exhibit-related books for both kids and adults. Throughout your career, your students, colleagues and friends have described you as animated by a passion to bring the stories of science to everyone.  The Exploration Room is devoted to active public engagement, both on and off campus, to learners of any age, young and old alike.  How did you feel when you first heard about the Marilyn B. Ogilvie Exploration Room?

MBO:  We were having dinner with Dean Luce at the time.  I was overwhelmed with gratitude.  It’s exciting to think about how this room will be a place of learning for both young and old.  It shows that the books are for everyone to enjoy.  These books do become old friends, yet I will never cease to feel a thrill when I see them.  Through this room, many more people will come to understand.  The activities developed to use here will spread beyond to schools and homes, through the OU Academy of the Lynx.

KM:   The Exploration Room features a portrait painted by noted Oklahoma artist Mike Wimmer.  When you look at the portrait, one can see your books on the shelf in the background.  There are astronomical instruments, too.  What would you want people to notice?

MBO:  He placed my hand on my favorite book by Maria Merian.  When I think of her, I’m determined to preserve the literary culture of the past.  But more than that, we attempt to understand these people who were admirable in striving to understand and to create their world.  Looking back and understanding their efforts will help us to do the same in our world.  We can’t do that very well without help from them.  It’s never completed.


KM (postscript):  As for me, I like how Wimmer represents Marilyn’s smile.  But no painter could ever capture the fierce bright sparkle of her eyes!  Marilyn’s eyes are too bright and too lively to be believable unless you meet her in person.  Thank you, Marilyn, for consenting to this interview, and for remaining the spirit of OU history of science!

 

 

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Collaboration Strategies for Educators, Libraries and Museums

1/10/2019

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On October 13, Brent Purkaple and Kerry Magruder presented a talk articulating our efforts with Lynx Open Ed to the annual meeting of the Southwest Association for Science Teacher Education (SW-ASTE).  The meeting was hosted here at OU, by the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education, University of Oklahoma. The day before, we were privileged to host an open-house in our Exhibit Hall for early arrivers to the conference.  On Saturday the 13th, Brent and I were privileged to participate in the entire day of conference activities, and we enjoyed many constructive interactions with educators.


Title: Collaboration Strategies for Educators, Libraries and Museums

Abstract: “Museums and libraries value public engagement and outreach as vital, in the very core of their mission. This was the case for the Galileo’s World exhibition of the University of Oklahoma Libraries, which launched in 2015.  In this presentation, we will review various strategies adopted in our attempts to ‘collaborate with educators in exhibit-based learning’ (as our motto expresses it).  We will relay what we have learned and pose some questions about how best to move forward given the challenges identified.”

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Last chance to see amazing rare books in art and astronomy

2019

The current “Art and Astronomy” exhibit will close at 5 p.m. on Valentine’s Day.

Examples of treasures on display now, but going off exhibit, include: 

  • Four OU copies of Galileo first editions contain his own handwriting. They include Galileo’s Starry Messenger, the first publication of observations with a telescope and the book that made him a worldwide celebrity almost overnight. 
  • The four “golden era” star atlases, by Bayer, Hevelius, Flamsteed and Bode. Seeing these beautiful star atlases on display together in the same place is perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
  • Leonardo da Vinci’s first and only drawings published in print during his lifetime, along with related treatises on perspective drawing that formed a connection between art and astronomy.

Because very few people were able to see all of the exhibits of the original Galileo’s World exhibition, and no single location could display all of the rare books and artifacts at the same time, after the original exhibit concluded, the 5th floor Exhibit Hall in Bizzell Memorial Library has since featured a rotating selection of items. The current rotating exhibit is Art and Astronomy in Galileo’s World. Items in this rotation were originally on display at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, National Weather Center, and OU-Tulsa. 

The next rotating exhibit focuses instead on Life Sciences. Items to be displayed are coming from the exhibits originally held at the Sam Noble, the OU Health Sciences, and Headington Hall. It will open March 11. Almost every book currently on display will return to the vaults, so the Life Sciences exhibit will represent a nearly 100% rotation. The 5th floor Exhibit Hall will be closed Feb 15 through March 10 to change out the exhibit.

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The Sky at Night

Exhibit GuideGalileo’s World at a Glance
Gallery at the Exhibit Website
Location: History of Science Collections, Bizzell Memorial Library.

What is the artistic and scientific heritage of the sky at night?

When Galileo observed the belt and sword of Orion the Hunter, and the Pleiades star cluster on the back of Taurus the Bull, the background of night gave way before his eyes: His telescope resolved an astonishing number of unexpected stars never seen before. The wonder of the sky at night is common to science and to art. From the Renaissance to the dawn of the modern age, art and science fused together in the representation of the stars and constellations. These star maps combined state-of-the-art scientific observation of the cosmos with appreciation for the aesthetic dimension of the sky at night.


Section 1: The Sky at Night

  1. Galileo, Sidereus nuncius (Venice, 1610), photograph of starfields.
  2. Alessandro Piccolomini, De le Stelle Fisse (Venice, 1540), “On the Fixed Stars”
  3. Ptolemy, Opera (Basel, 1541), “Works”
  4. Nicolaus Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Basel, 1566), 2d ed., “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”
  5. Johann Bayer, Uranometria (Ulm, 1661), bound with Johann Bayer, Explicatio characterum (Ulm, 1697), “Measuring the Heavens”
  6. Johann Kepler, De stella nova in pede serpentarii (Prague, 1606), “On the New Star in the Foot of the Serpent Handler”
  7. Stanislaw Lubieniecki, Theatrum cometicum (Amsterdam, 1666-68), “Theater of Comets”
  8. Johann and Elisabeth Hevelius, Firmamentum Sobiescianum sive Uranographia (Gdansk, 1690), “The Firmament of King Sobiesci, or Map of the Heavens”
  9. Johann and Elisabeth Hevelius, Prodromus Astronomiae (Gdansk, 1690), bound with the Uranographia, “Preliminary Discourse for Astronomy”
  10. Johann and Elisabeth Hevelius, Catalogus stellarum fixarum (Gdansk, 1687), bound with the Uranographia, “Catalog of Fixed Stars”
  11. Vincenzo Coronelli, Celestial Globe Gores (Paris, 1693; reprint ca. 1800 using original plates), “Celestial Globe Gores”
  12. Heinrich Scherer, Typus totius orbis terraquei geographice (Munich, 1700), “A Geographical Map of the Terraqueous Globe”
  13. John Flamsteed, Atlas coelestis (London, 1729), “Celestial Atlas”
  14. Johann Bode, Uranographia (Berlin, 1801), “Map of the Heavens”
  15. Joseph J. von Littrow, Atlas des Gestirnten Himmels (Stuttgart, 1839), “Atlas of the Starry Heavens”
  16. Catherine Whitwell, An Astronomical Catechism (London, 1818)
Further reading:
  • William B. Ashworth, Jr., Out of This World: The Golden Age of the Celestial Atlas, An Exhibition of Rare Books from the Collection of the Linda Hall Library, with supplement Further Out (printed catalogs; online exhibit)
  • Nick Kanas, Star Maps: History, Artistry and Cartography, 2d ed (Springer, 2012)
  • Chet Raymo, 365 Starry Nights (Simon & Schuster, 1990)
Curators: Kerry Magruder and Brent Purkaple.

Works listed here are on display in Bizzell Memorial Library (Fall 2015, Summer-Spring 2016) and also at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art (Spring 2016). We thank Mark White, Director of the Fred Jones Museum, Francesca Giani (curator), Melissa Smith (educator) and all the Museum staff for incorporating many books described in “Galileo and the Telescope,” “The Moon and the Telescope,” “Galileo and Perspective Drawing,” and “The Sky at Night,” into their Spring 2016 exhibition, “An Artful Observation of the Cosmos.” Each of these galleries takes its point of departure from Galileo’s Sidereus nuncius (1610), which is listed as the first item for each of these galleries. Museum curator Francesca Giani took these themes to heart and illustrated them with art from the Museum. Her captions for that exhibit, relating the books to the art, were based in varying degrees upon the original captions provided beforehand in the Exhibit Guide and the Exhibit website. The melding of art and science by the Fred Jones Museum in their exhibit is a powerful example of the ability of Galileo’s World to throw light upon the world of OU today.

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The Scientific Revolution

Exhibit GuideGalileo’s World at a Glance
Gallery at the Exhibit Website
Location: Schusterman Library, University of Oklahoma, Tulsa.

What is nature? How is nature known?

When Galileo announced that “mathematics is the language of nature,” he was making a then-controversial claim about how nature is best known and understood. Mathematics encompassed rich traditions in art and perspective drawing, innovations in musical theory, as well as advances in engineering and mechanics. These discoveries depended upon a rich cultural context that drew science, art, literature and a spirit of creativity together in Renaissance Florence. The Galileo’s World exhibition invites us to participate in a similar Renaissance of discovery at the University of Oklahoma for our 125th anniversary.

Renaissance of Discovery

This exhibit samples a variety of works which represent the comprehensive scope of subject areas and modes of inquiry in the Scientific Revolution and at OU today. They illustrate the motto of Tycho Brahe: “Looking up, I look down.” By this phrase, Tycho referred to the interconnectedness of inquiries, as he himself sought to coordinate the study of astronomy with chemistry and medicine. In addition to those fields, the works sampled here show the connections of scientific inquiry with art, literature, law and political science, geology, biology, mathematics, meteorology, women and science, business and economics, and education.


Section 1: Renaissance of Discovery

  1. Tycho Brahe and Elias Morsing, Diarium astrologicum (Uraniborg, 1586), “Astronomical Journal”
  2. Giovanni Paolo Gallucci, Theatrum mundi (Venice, 1588), ”Theatre of the World”
  3. Bernardino Baldi, Cronica de Matematici (ca. 1596), ms., ”Chronicle of Mathematics”
  4. Giambattista della Porta, De furtivis literarum notis (Naples, 1563), “On Secret Writing”
  5. Adriaan Metius, De genuino usu utriusque globi tractatus (Franeker, 1624), “Treatise on the Genuine Use of the Globes”
  6. Fortunio Liceti, Litheosphorus, sive, De lapide Bononiensi lucem (Udine, 1640), “Phosphorescent Rock, or, On the Light of the Bolognese Stone”
  7. Niels Steno, Canis carchariae dissectum caput, appendix to Elementorum myologiae specimen (Florence, 1667), “Dissection of the Head of a Shark”
  8. Levinus Vincent, Wondertooneel der Nature (Amsterdam, 1706-1715), “Wonder Chambers of Nature”
  9. Maria Sybilla Merian, Erucarum ortus (Amsterdam, 1717), “The Caterpillar Garden”
  10. Leonardo da Vinci, Traite de la Peinture (Paris, 1716), 2d ed., “Treatise on Painting”
  11. Euclid, The Elements of Euclid (London, 1847), ed. Oliver Byrne, “The Elements of Euclid”
  12. John P. Finley, Tornadoes: What they are and how to observe them (New York, 1887)
Further reading:
  • Stillman Drake, Galileo: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford, 2001; originally printed 1983 in the Past Masters series), discussion guide.
  • Dava Sobel, Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love (Walker, 1999)
  • Maurice Finocchiaro, The Essential Galileo (Hackett, 2008)
Curators: Kerry Magruder and Brent Purkaple.
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The Academy of the Lynx

Exhibit GuideGalileo’s World at a Glance
Gallery at the Exhibit Website
Location: Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History (Fall 2015, Spring 2016).

“not only to acquire knowledge of things and wisdom, and living together justly and piously, but also peacefully to display them to men, orally and in writing, without any harm.”  
Federigo Cesi, Constitution of the Academia dei Lincei

A new phenomenon characterized science in the 17th century: the scientific society. One of the earliest and most important was the Academy of the Lynx (Accademia dei Lincei). Federigo Cesi, Duke of Aquasparta, founded the Lynx in 1603. Galileo soon became the best-known member. For the rest of his life, Cesi provided Galileo and other Lynx with crucial intellectual, financial, and moral support. The works of the Lynx spanned all fields of science, including the most important early natural history of America.

In founding the Lynx, Cesi was inspired by another society, the Academy of the Secrets of Nature (Accademia Secretorum Naturae), established by Giambattista della Porta in Naples. Della Porta in turn became an early member of the Lynx. Della Porta’s works and his relationship with Cesi throw light on the Lynx’s formative years.


Section 1: The Academy of the Lynx

  1. Giambattista della Porta, Phytognomonica (Naples, 1588), “Plant Anatomy”
  2. Giambattista della Porta, Natural Magick (London, 1658), “Natural Magic”
  3. Giambattista della Porta, De furtivis literarum notis (Naples, 1563), “On Secret Writing”
  4. Lettere di Galileo Galilei al Principe Federigo Cesi (1629?), “Letters from Galileo to Prince Federigo Cesi”
  5. Giambattista della Porta, Della Fisonomia di Tutto il Corpo Humano (Rome, 1637), “Human Anatomy”
  6. Francesco Stelluti and Federigo Cesi, Trattato del Legno Fossile Minerale (Rome, 1637), “Treatise on Fossil Mineral Wood”
  7. Giambattista della Porta, De aeris transmutationibus (Rome, 1610), “On the Transformations of the Atmosphere”
Further reading:
  • Federigo Cesi and Francesco Stelluti, Apiarium (Rome, 1625); trans. Clara Sue Kidwell, 1970
  • Dava Sobel, Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love (Walker, 1999)
  • David Freedberg, The Eye of the Lynx (Chicago, 2002)
  • Clara Pinto-Coreia, The Ovary of Eve: Egg and Sperm and Preformation (Stanford, 2002)
Curators: Kerry Magruder, James Burnes, Tom Luczycki, Katrina Menard, Brent Purkaple.

Timeline

Academy of the Lynx

Timeline

Member

1603

Federigo Cesi

Founding members

Francesco Stelluti,
Anastasio de Filiis,
Johann Heck

1610

Della Porta

1611

Galileo

 

Johann Schreck

 

Johann Faber

1612

Fabio Colonna

1630

Cesi died

1633

Galileo’s trial; Academy dissolved

1651

Hernandez published by Stelluti

 

Highlights

Cesi’s family was unhappy with the secrecy of the group and applied sufficient pressure to disperse the young Cesi’s friends. Six months after its founding in 1603, only one member remained in Rome.

In 1609, Cesi reconstituted the Lynx with Francesco Stelluti. In 1610, Cesi traveled to Naples, meeting with Fabio Colonna, Ferrante Imperato, and the 70-year-old della Porta, welcoming the latter as their first new member.

During Galileo’s visit to Rome in early 1611, Cesi met Galileo and invited him to join the Lynx. Galileo became the 6th member, the second non-founding member of the Academy of the Lynx after della Porta. Galileo proudly included the emblem of the Lynx and added the title “Linceo” after his name on the title pages and frontispieces of his subsequent books.

Johann Schreck and Johann Faber joined the Academy in 1611, the 7th and 8th members. The 9th, Fabio Colonna, was added early in 1612.

All of these members participated in the effort to publish Hernandez.

 

Historical overview

Inspired by della Porta, in the summer of 1603, prince Federigo Cesi and three friends founded the Academy of the Lynx as an organization devoted to learning, including collaborative and experimental investigations in the natural sciences.  

According to plan, in Cesi’s home in Rome, they began holding lectures three days a week, and conducting experiments on the other two days. Cesi established a library, purchased scientific instruments, and created a botanical garden.  In this original vision of the Academy, devotion to learning was to be absolute.  Members took vows of chastity and swore not to enter into any other religious order.  In later years, these principles would be strained, as one member (Heck) vainly sought permission from the others to marry, and at least two members became Jesuits.  

Each of the four initial members received a diploma and ring, and took a secret name, emblem, and motto. The Academy adopted a patron saint and devised its own emblematic seal. The early Lynx held ambitious ideals: they hoped to establish non-clerical monasteries as centers of scientific learning in various cities around the world. Each monastery would be equipped with a library, a museum, a botanical garden, laboratories, and a printing office to support scientific publications. By printed works and personal travel the various monasteries would be able quickly to communicate their discoveries to each other and to the world. This broad organization never developed, but a private scientific academy might indeed provide a valuable channel of communication outside established university and ecclesiastical circles.

Of more immediate concern, however, Cesi’s parents were not sympathetic.  Faced with increasing parental scrutiny and criticism, members began to write to each other in code.  On Christmas day, 1603, in a solemn ceremony, Cesi appeared in a purple robe as “principe” of the Academy, and gave his three friends matching pendants depicting a lynx. They adopted John the Baptist as the patron saint of the Academy.  Cesi’s family remained unhappy with the secrecy of the group and applied sufficient pressure to disperse the young Cesi’s friends. Cesi himself moved to the family home in Acquasparta. One year after its founding, none of the members remained in Rome. 

Despite their dispersal, members remained determined to maintain the Academy at long distance.  They continued to correspond, gathered occasionally together in various locations, including in Naples with della Porta.  Cesi commissioned Heck to spread word of the Lynx, establish channels of correspondence with leading scientists across Europe, and to buy books for the library. Heck traveled to Germany, France, England, Ireland and Scotland before returning to his native Holland. He then traveled to Prague, where he met Kepler and Tycho Brahe.

In 1610, Cesi traveled to Naples, meeting with Fabio Colonna, Ferrante Imperato, and the 70-year-old della Porta, welcoming the latter as their first new member.  Della Porta became the head of a chapter of the Lynx in Naples. During Galileo’s visit to Rome in early 1611, Cesi met Galileo and invited him to join the Lynx.  Galileo became the 6th member, the second non-founding member of the Academy of the Lynx after della Porta. Galileo proudly included the emblem of the Lynx and added the title “Linceo” after his name on the title pages and frontispieces of his subsequent books.  Johann Schreck and Johann Faber joined the Academy in 1611, the 7th and 8th members.  The 9th, Fabio Colonna, was added early in 1612.  Each of these members participated in the effort to publish Hernandez.  

At della Porta’s urging in 1611, Cesi acquired the royal manuscript of Hernandez.  Its publication remained one of Cesi’s chief motivations and a central objective of the Lynx. With support from Don Alfonso Turiano, the Spanish ambassador to Rome, Stelluti was able to publish the Lynx’s edition of Hernandez in 1651.  

Although the principles of devotion to learning, of collaborative and experimental investigation, and of international communication endured, later members were not required to submit to the same vows and ceremonial trappings as practiced in 1603.  For example, Cesi himself married in 1614 and, shortly a widower, again in 1617.  He continued to bestow emerald rings to new members until 1629.  

By 1616, there were at least 18 members, joined in common cause through correspondence rather than participation in regular meetings.  Additional members were inducted over the years, up through Cesi’s death in 1630.  Their interests spanned the areas of archaeology, poetry, philosophy, history, and Arabic and oriental languages, in addition to the natural sciences.  Of 35 total members, 23 were mainly interested in the natural sciences.  In addition to correspondence, members of the Lynx worked to publish books, financed by Cesi, including Hernandez, the Apiarium, and several of Galileo’s major works.

The Academy of the Lynx lost its founder, visionary and financial patron when Cesi died in 1630, and dissolved when Galileo was brought to trial in 1633.  An effort to reconstitute the Lynx succeeded in 1847 when Pope Pius IX founded the Pontifical Academy of the New Lynx.  Select foreign scientists were invited to join, and thus Charles Darwin joined Galileo among the most illustrious members of the Lynx.  In 1875 the sponsorship of the Lynx passed to the Italian government.

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