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History of Science

Featured Items

Detail of a printed book shows full-page illustrations of plants. Text in Latin also visible.

Aromatum, et simplicium aliquot medicamentorum apud Indos

Garcia de Orta

1567

Detail of a printed book shows a title page with text in Latin.

Disputatio inauguralis medica

Justus Vesti

1704

Detail of a printed book shows text in English reading "Appendix" at the top of the page.

Medical Inquiries and Observations

Benjamin Rush

1789

Detail from a printed text shows questions and follow-up answers about astronomy.

An astronomical and geographical catechism. For the use of children.

Caleb Bingham

1795

Detail of a printed book shows a full-page map and text at the of the page reading "America."

Historia Mundi: or Mercator’s Atlas...

Gerhard Mercator

1635

Instructio[n], y memoria, de las relaciones que se han de hazer, para la descripcion de las Indias

Juan López de Velasco

1577

Detail from a printed book shows text in Spanish including "Ensayo" at the top of the page.

Seminario del Nuevo Reyno de Granada

Francisco Jose de Caldas

1808

Detail of gold JCB stamp on black binding.

Principall navigations, voiages, and discoveries of the English nation

Edward Wright

1598

Frontispiece from Museum Wormianum. Seu, Historia rerum rariorum, 1655.

Natural History Collecting in Late Colonial New Spain: Highlights from the JCB Collection

Wednesday, September 29 at 1:00pm

Image of an artificial flower clock, with two hands emerging from clouds on either side holding a numbered circle, and a thorn stemming from the flower's circle pointing at the time.

Fellow's Talk

Earthquakes and Timekeeping Practices in New England, 1600-1800

Wednesday, August 25 at 1:00pm

Fellow's Talk

Studying Absence: Archival Fragments and Interdisciplinary Methods in the History of Medicine in the Atlantic Slave Trade

Wednesday, June 16 at 1:00pm

Air America

April - June, 2016

A map showing the Americas and a constellation over them

Constellations: Reimagining Celestial Histories in the Early Americas

November 2020 - August 2021

map of the world with continents upside down

Exhibition opening

Constellations exhibition launch and guided tour with Historian of Science Simon Schaffer

Friday, October 30 at 3:00pm

illustration of sixteenth-century technological developments

Drugs from the Colonies: The New American Medicine Chest

Fall - Winter 2011

Voyage to the Islands: Hans Sloane, Slavery, and Scientific Travel in the Caribbean

Spring - Summer 2012