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.
Book that accompanies the NMAH exhibition of the same title.
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.
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.
Research note describing records at the U.S. National Archives rich in information about the use of instruments during the mid 19th-century.
Describes the 19th-century phenomenon of very large clocks depicting scenes from American history, with special emphasis on one in NMAH’s collections.
Describes the use of the telegraph and development of special technologies for sending time signals for commercial, industrial and community purposes.
Outlines the interlocking interests of a Boston watch and clock firm with the Harvard College Observatory in the mid-19th century.
A history of society's changing perceptions, values, actions, and laws pertaining to wetland environments in the United States.
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.
A study of how engineering changed from a craft-oriented occupation to a professional occupation in the United States during the nineteenth century.
A compilation of books, articles, government reports, newspaper stories, and unpublished items that address the environmental implications of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ civil works and regulatory activities.
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.
A historical assessment of President Ronald Reagan’s environmental record.
A brief history of the world’s largest engineering organization and how its missions have evolved in accord with shifting public values.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A biographical sketch of the chemical engineer renowned for his contributions to the refining of gasoline and aviation
fuels.
A collection of essays that explore the reciprocal influences of technology and the environment during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
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.