Books by Joshua Nall
Routledge, 2022
A primary source volume with a general introduction, plus introductory headnotes accompany each s... more A primary source volume with a general introduction, plus introductory headnotes accompany each selected text.
Cambridge University Press, 2019
In this book the diverse objects of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science's internationall... more In this book the diverse objects of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science's internationally renowned collection are brought into sharp relief by a number of highly regarded historians of science in fourteen essays. Each chapter focuses on a specific instrument or group of objects, ranging from an English medieval astrolabe to a modern agricultural 'seed source indicator' to a curious collection of plaster chicken heads. The contributors employ a range of historiographical and methodological approaches to demonstrate the various ways in which the material culture of science can be researched and understood. The essays show how the study of scientific objects - including instruments and models - offers a window into cultures of scientific practice not afforded by textual sources alone. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.
University of Pittsburgh Press, 2019
Mass media in the late nineteenth century was full of news from Mars. In the wake of Giovanni Sch... more Mass media in the late nineteenth century was full of news from Mars. In the wake of Giovanni Schiaparelli’s 1877 discovery of enigmatic dark, straight lines on the red planet, astronomers and the public at large vigorously debated the possibility that it might be inhabited. As rivalling scientific practitioners looked to marshal allies and sway public opinion—through newspapers, periodicals, popular books, exhibitions, and encyclopaedias—they exposed disagreements over how the discipline of astronomy should be organized and how it should establish acceptable conventions of discourse.
News from Mars provides a new account of this extraordinary episode in the history of astronomy, revealing how major transformations in astronomical practice across Britain and America were inextricably tied up with popular scientific culture and a transatlantic news economy that enabled knowledge to travel. As Joshua Nall argues, astronomers were journalists, too, eliding practice with communication in consequential ways. As writers and editors, they played a pivotal role in the emergence of a “new astronomy” dedicated to the study of the physical constitution and life history of celestial objects, blurring harsh distinctions between those who produced esoteric knowledge and those who disseminated it.
Papers by Joshua Nall
Centaurus, 2023
This paper explores the use of new scientific techniques to examine collections of historic scien... more This paper explores the use of new scientific techniques to examine collections of historic scientific apparatus and other technological artefacts. One project under discussion uses interferometry to examine the history of lens development, while another uses X-ray fluorescence to discover the kinds of materials used to make early mathematical and astronomical instruments. These methods lead to surprising findings: instruments turn out to be fake, and lens makers turn out to have been adept at solving the riddle of aperture. Although exciting, in some ways this is neither novel nor particularly unusual. After all, lab techniques have been used in art and archaeological collections for a very long time. In fact, scientific instruments themselves have been examined in this way since at least the 1950s. What, then, is special about the use of new instruments to examine old instruments? We argue that the answer has less to do with measuring historical innovation or establishing priority, and more to do with networks of craft know-how that, typically, have left no other historical traces than those embodied in surviving instruments themselves. We show, in particular, how collections of objects can be mobilised within wider histories of knowledge, placing instruments within a dynamic interplay of craft knowledge, expertise, labour, commerce, and material exchange, over the longue durée. Finally, we suggest that these kinds of lab analyses can be given an extra dimension through the use of computational modelling, and we introduce the “Tools of Knowledge” project, which is designed to bring together XRF with techniques from the digital humanities, in order to tell a new story about the development of scientific instruments from the 16th to the 20th century.
Bulletin of the British Sundial Society, 2022
In the summer of 2019, the Cambridge Archaeological Unit recovered a sundial (RCS19 <1191> [035] ... more In the summer of 2019, the Cambridge Archaeological Unit recovered a sundial (RCS19 <1191> [035] sf.126) from a dig site adjacent to Round Church Street, Cambridge, during excavation in preparation for the construction of a new block of student accommodation. Preliminary details of this find are given, suggesting a French 17th-century origin for the dial.
Dominik Kimmel and Stefan Brüggerhoff (eds.), Museen – Orte des Authentischen? Museums – Places of Authenticity? (Mainz: Verlag des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums), 2020
In 1956, historian of science Derek J. Price made the first published announcement that antique s... more In 1956, historian of science Derek J. Price made the first published announcement that antique scientific instruments were being faked, based on work at the University of Cambridge’s Whipple Museum of the History of Science. Price found that five fake instruments in the Whipple could be linked to similar suspect objects in a range of important collections across Europe and the United States, all traceable to a single source: the dealership Frederik Muller & Co., under the direction of Anton Mensing. This chapter describes recent work at the Whipple Museum that seeks to expand on Price’s identification of the »Mensing fakes«. It argues that if provenances beyond Mensing are considered then it becomes clear that the problem of fake antique scientific instruments may be more widespread than previously thought. New forgeries are identified and their links with a suspect London dealer are explored. This work, it is argued, remains crucial in helping us better understand the history of major instrument collections and the problem of authenticity.
Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, 2018
Isis, 2017
This essay presents a new explanation for the emergence after 1877 of public and expert fascinati... more This essay presents a new explanation for the emergence after 1877 of public and expert fascination with a single observed feature of the planet Mars: its network of “canals.” Both the nature of these canals and their widespread notoriety emerged, it is argued, from a novel partnership between two practices then in their ascendancy: astrophysics and the global telegraphic distribution of news. New technologies of global media are shown to have become fundamentally embedded within the working practices of remote astrophysical sites, entangling professional spaces of observation with popular forms of journalism. These collaborations gave rise to a new type of “event astronomy,” as exemplified by the close working relationship forged between the enterprising Harvard astronomer William Henry Pickering and the New York Herald. Pickering’s telegrams to the Herald, sent from his remote mountain outstation in Arequipa, Peru, are shown to be at the heart of the “great Mars boom” of August 1892, with significant consequences for emerging and contested accounts of the red planet. By tracing the particular transmission effects typical to this new kind of astronomical work, the essay shows how the material, temporal, and linguistic constraints imposed by telegraphic news distribution shaped and bounded what could be said about, and therefore what could be known about, Mars. [Message me if you want a copy]
Bernard Lightman (ed.), A Companion to the History of Science (Chichester: Wiley Blackwell), 2016
Three-dimensional (3-D) models have been used to help understand and explain natural phenomena si... more Three-dimensional (3-D) models have been used to help understand and explain natural phenomena since antiquity. This chapter discusses the variety of 3-D scientific and mathematical models that have been developed and used for a range of purposes, including research, teaching, demonstration, and entertainment, particularly post 1700. The term ‘model’ is used by historians and philosophers of science in a number of ways; here we focus specifically on 3-D models as sources for history of science. We consider them in research environments, as representational objects mediated to various audiences, as devices mass-produced for teaching, and as modeling nature. Models remain an understudied historical resource, and this chapter has benefited, in particular, from access to a great variety of 3-D models used, preserved and studied at the University of Cambridge. [Message me if you want a copy.]
A.D. Morrison-Low, Sara J. Schechner and Paolo Brenni (eds.), How Scientific Instruments Have Changed Hands (Leiden: Brill), 2016
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Reviews by Joshua Nall
Physics in Perspective, 2020
Journal for the History of Astronomy, 2016
British Journal for the History of Science, 2015
British Journal for the History of Science, 2012
be of interest to anyone who deals with academic institutions and their place in the world. For i... more be of interest to anyone who deals with academic institutions and their place in the world. For instance, American Egyptologist provides a useful account of the early history of the University of Chicago. It details the institutional policies that led to the employment of a scholar like Breasted, and to the place of his Oriental Institute within institutional strategy and development. It also details how funding for these policies was negotiated and obtained, whether through local, Midwestern sources or otherwise. Indeed, the volume provides an account of the University of Chicago that sheds new light on its meaning, especially considering how widespread and international Breasted's work for the institution was. It is, then, of relevance to a wide range of scholars, from historians of America to historians of the colonial world.
Outreach Articles and Press (non-peer-reviewed) by Joshua Nall
Materials for the History of Science: A Whipple Museum Festschrift to Celebrate the Directorship of Professor Liba Taub, 2022
Mini-essay about an object in the collection of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in C... more Mini-essay about an object in the collection of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge, England, published as part of a 2022 festschrift in honor of Professor Liba Taub, longtime curator of the Whipple Museum and my mentor for a project on this Japanese globe when I was an Phil student at Cambridge. For my mini-essay, see pp.30-31; otherwise, enjoy the other essays and beautiful images about objects collected by the Whipple Museum under Liba's leadership!
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Books by Joshua Nall
News from Mars provides a new account of this extraordinary episode in the history of astronomy, revealing how major transformations in astronomical practice across Britain and America were inextricably tied up with popular scientific culture and a transatlantic news economy that enabled knowledge to travel. As Joshua Nall argues, astronomers were journalists, too, eliding practice with communication in consequential ways. As writers and editors, they played a pivotal role in the emergence of a “new astronomy” dedicated to the study of the physical constitution and life history of celestial objects, blurring harsh distinctions between those who produced esoteric knowledge and those who disseminated it.
Papers by Joshua Nall
Reviews by Joshua Nall
Outreach Articles and Press (non-peer-reviewed) by Joshua Nall
News from Mars provides a new account of this extraordinary episode in the history of astronomy, revealing how major transformations in astronomical practice across Britain and America were inextricably tied up with popular scientific culture and a transatlantic news economy that enabled knowledge to travel. As Joshua Nall argues, astronomers were journalists, too, eliding practice with communication in consequential ways. As writers and editors, they played a pivotal role in the emergence of a “new astronomy” dedicated to the study of the physical constitution and life history of celestial objects, blurring harsh distinctions between those who produced esoteric knowledge and those who disseminated it.