Das D
Delightful, hand-colored woodcut initial D, Decorated with a Distant, Detailed Downtown. From a 16th century history of Saxony, Germany.
Othmeralia
September 21st is the International Day of Peace, so designated by the United Nations as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples. American chemist Linus Pauling (1901-1994), depicted in this caricature drawn at the 1931 American Chemical Society National Meeting, was also a peace activist and advocate for nuclear disarmament. For his scientific work and his activism, Pauling notably received both the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1954) and the Nobel Peace Prize (1962).
For more on Linus Pauling, visit our Digital Collections site.
The Kanaweola Bicycle Club by Erin Doane, Curator
In the 1890s, the bicycle craze swept the nation. There were some 9,000 bicycles in Elmira alone in 1898. With a population of around 35,000, that was roughly one bicycle for every four people. Bicycles were relatively inexpensive, easy to operate, and a lot of fun to ride. It’s no wonder that they became so widely popular. The Kanaweola Bicycle Club was formed as a social club for bicycling enthusiasts in Elmira. (READ MORE)
Hispanic Heritage Month (September)
Pictured here is a selection of lecture notes recorded by Swiss physician Jean-Baptiste-Alexandre Stroehlin (1813-1889) at a lecture by Spanish chemist and toxicologist Matthieu José Buenaventura Orfila (1787-1853) given in Paris in 1834. Considered the father of toxicology, Orfila was born in Mahon (Menorca) and studied in Valencia and Barcelona before coming to Paris, where he received his medical degree in 1811. Orfila’s first major work, Traité des poisons, was published in 1814 and he subsequently held the post of Dean of Paris Medical Faculty from 1831-1848. Over his long career, Orfila worked to make chemical analysis a routine part of forensic medicine and made studies of asphyxiation, exhumation, and the decomposition of bodies, while notably acting as a medical expert in widely publicized criminal cases.
You can explore these lecture notes in their entirety (all 48 pages!) on our Digital Collections site.
When we signed into Tumblr this morning, we were ecstatic to see that our September 4th post featuring an owl and book-themed bookplate had been selected as a Tumblr Staff Pick. Such wonderful news!
We wish a very warm welcome to all of our new followers! Thanks for joining the Othmeralia fun! And a special thanks to all of those who have been following us for quite some time!
Keeping the owl party going, here is another owl from our collections. The illustration comes from Das Buch der Natur, published in 1875.
Many mammals run and walk. Some hop, swim, and even glide from trees. But only one group of mammals can truly fly: bats! Bats live in a variety of habitats around the world, from deserts to mountaintops. The short-nosed fruit bat lives in tropical forests. These bats are only active at night. They fly fast and low, sometimes covering 62 miles (100 km) in one night in search of fruit. During the day, they roost in caves and palm trees.
Photo: P.O. Nameer
https://www.instagram.com/p/B1_a512g2Ps/?igshid=c4am5h423ys5
(Source: amnhnyc)
The dedication in Fundamentals of Inorganic, Organic, and Biological Chemistry (1954) reads, “To My Wife, the nurse whose ideas and experience made this book possible.”
The textbook was written by Joseph Isaac Routh, a professor of biochemistry at State University of Iowa (later, University of Iowa). Routh was born in Logansport, Indiana, on May 8, 1910. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at Purdue University, and his Ph.D. in biochemistry at the University of Michigan. He married Dorothy Frances Hayes in 1937. Dorothy died in 1973, and in 1976 Routh married again. He died on June 5, 2001, in Cherokee Village, Arkansas.
This #WestinghouseWednesday brings a group photograph of workers from the Westinghouse Electric Corporation’s forge shop at its South Philadelphia Works in Lester, Pennsylvania. The image was captured by company photographer Charles Yessel on April 3, 1919.
This photograph is from the Hagley Library’s From Westinghouse Electric Corporation Steam Division photographs (Accession 1969.170). To view more material from this collection online, visit its page in our Digital Archive by clicking here.
(Source: hagleyvault)