Highlights booklet containing photos and descriptions of twenty of the most interesting clocks in the collections of the Smithsonian.
Publications
The list of selected staff publications may be searched by keyword or author and can be sorted by year.
American Clocks
with Otto Mayr. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American History, 1990.
On Time: How America Has Learned to Live by the Clock.
Boston: The Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown, 2002.
Book that accompanies the NMAH exhibition of the same title.
“Revolution on Your Wrist,”
with Maggie Dennis and Amanda Dillon. Increase and Diffusion Web site. 1997.
Web site article exploring the shift from pocket watches to wristwatches in the early 20th century, and the subsequent shift to electronic timekeeping in the 1970s.
"Astronomy as Public Utility: the Bond Years at the Harvard College Observatory."
Journal of the History of Astronomy 21(1990): 21-36. Reprinted in Owen Gingerich and Michael Hoskins, Two Astronomical Anniversaries: HCO & SAO (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 1990), pp. 21–36.
Article about the period between 1839 and 1865, when the observatory provided the U.S. federal government with observations for determining basic latitudes and longitudes and offered the local community a time service.
"The U.S. Topographical Engineers and Their Scientific Instruments: A Research Opportunity."
Rittenhouse 4 (February 1990): 61–63.
Research note describing records at the U.S. National Archives rich in information about the use of instruments during the mid 19th-century.
"Clockwork History: Monumental Clocks and the Depiction of the American Past, 1875–1900"
with O'Malley, Michael. Bulletin of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors 32 (February 1990): 3–15.
Describes the 19th-century phenomenon of very large clocks depicting scenes from American history, with special emphasis on one in NMAH’s collections.
"The Impact of the Telegraph on Public Time in the United States, 1844–1893.”
IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 8 (March 1989): 4–10.
Describes the use of the telegraph and development of special technologies for sending time signals for commercial, industrial and community purposes.
"Partners in Time: William Bond & Son of Boston and the Harvard College Observatory."
Harvard Library Bulletin 35 (Fall 1987): 351–384.
Outlines the interlocking interests of a Boston watch and clock firm with the Harvard College Observatory in the mid-19th century.
America's Forested Wetlands: From Wasteland to Valued Resource.
Durham, N.C.: Forest History Society, 2008.
A history of society's changing perceptions, values, actions, and laws pertaining to wetland environments in the United States.
Living in the Anthropocene: Earth in the Age of Humans.
With W. John Kress, eds. Washington: Smithsonian Books, 2017.
“Public History and the Environment.”
In The Oxford Handbook of Public History, edited by James B. Gardner and Paula Hamilton, 190–206. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
“At the Intersection of Histories: Technology and the Environment”
with Joel A. Tarr. Technology and Culture 39 (October 1998): 601–640.
A survey of publishing trends in the history of technology and environmental history that focuses on the growing number of works that have addressed the interplay of technology and the environment. It also suggests a range of opportunities for future research.
"Professionalism vs. Special Interest: The Debate over Engineering Education in Nineteenth Century America."
Potomac Review 26–27 (1984–1985): 72–94.
A study of how engineering changed from a craft-oriented occupation to a professional occupation in the United States during the nineteenth century.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Issues in the Twentieth Century: A Bibliography.
with Michael C. Robinson, eds. Environmental History Series. Washington: GPO, 1984.
A compilation of books, articles, government reports, newspaper stories, and unpublished items that address the environmental implications of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ civil works and regulatory activities.
"Regulating Wetlands in the 1970s: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Organizations."
Journal of Forest History 27 (April 1983): 60–75.
A history of how the federal government came to regulate the destruction of wetlands in the United States and the unsuccessful efforts of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to restrict the new police responsibilities entrusted to it. Recipient of the Forest History Society’s 1984 Frederick K. Weyerhaeuser Award.
“Natural Resources and Environmental Policy.”
In The Reagan Presidency: Pragmatic Conservatism and Its Legacies, edited by W. Elliot Brownlee and Hugh Davis Graham, 233–56. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003.
A historical assessment of President Ronald Reagan’s environmental record.
"United States Army Corps of Engineers."
In Government Agencies, Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Institutions, edited by Donald R. Whitnah, 513–16. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1983.
A brief history of the world’s largest engineering organization and how its missions have evolved in accord with shifting public values.
"Russell G. Cone."
In Dictionary of American Biography, supplement 7, 135–36. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1981.
A biographical sketch of the civil engineer involved in the design and construction of several major suspension bridges in the United States, including San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
“Me, Myself and Infrastructure: Private Lives and Public Works in America, at the National Building Museum, Washington, D. C.”
Technology and Culture 44 (October 2003): 778–85.
An evaluation of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ sesquicentennial exhibition, which explores the profound—and frequently unappreciated—contributions of public works to the functioning of modern society.
Nelson P. Lewis and the City Efficient: The Municipal Engineer in City Planning during the Progressive Era.
Essays in Public Works History, no. 11. Chicago: Public Works Historical Society, 1981.
A biography of the New York City engineer who championed the contributions of engineers to city planning during the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Twenty Years of Science in the Public Interest: A History of the Congressional Science and Engineering Fellowship Program.
Washington: American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1994.
Examines the combined efforts of the nation’s leading scientific and engineering societies to provide technically trained staff to the U.S. Congress and its support agencies.
“Placing Environmental History on Display.”
Environmental History 7 (October 2002): 566–88.
Discusses how and why environmental history should be integrated into exhibitions developed at both cultural and scientific institutions. The essay is a revised version of the author’s presidential address before the American Society for Environmental History.
"Eugene J. Houdry."
In Dictionary of American Biography, supplement 7, 367–69. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1981.
A biographical sketch of the chemical engineer renowned for his contributions to the refining of gasoline and aviation
fuels.
"Technology, Pollution, and the Environment."
with Joel A. Tarr, eds. A special theme issue of Environmental History Review 18 (Spring 1994).
A collection of essays that explore the reciprocal influences of technology and the environment during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
“The Green House.”
Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy 15 (Fall 2000): 113–14.
A review essay of Dennis L. Soden’s edited book, The Environmental Presidency, which deals with the changing attitudes and actions toward natural resources among America’s chief executives.
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