Science & Mathematics - Overview
The Museum's collections hold thousands of objects related to chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy, and other sciences. Instruments range from early American telescopes to lasers. Rare glassware and other artifacts from the laboratory of Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, are among the scientific treasures here. A Gilbert chemistry set of about 1937 and other objects testify to the pleasures of amateur science. Artifacts also help illuminate the social and political history of biology and the roles of women and minorities in science.
The mathematics collection holds artifacts from slide rules and flash cards to code-breaking equipment. More than 1,000 models demonstrate some of the problems and principles of mathematics, and 80 abstract paintings by illustrator and cartoonist Crockett Johnson show his visual interpretations of mathematical theorems.
"Science & Mathematics - Overview" showing 5 items.
Engraved woodblock of hand signs for the letters 'S' through 'Y'
- Description
- This engraved woodblock shows hand signs for the letters "S" through "Y." The illustration was used in a publication relating to the gesture-signs and signals of the North American Indians by Garrick Mallery; it was prepared and printed by the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C. for the Bureau of American Ethnology in about 1880.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1880
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Mallery, Garrick
- block maker
- Grottenthaler, V.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1368
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1368
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of a "Canoe burial"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of a “Canoe Burial” was prepared by Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 23 on page 171 in an article by H.C. Yarrow (1871-1876) entitled “Mortuary Customs of North American Indians” in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1879-80.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- author
- Yarrow, Harry Crecy
- block maker
- Grottenthaler, V.
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1510
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1510
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of the "Signal for 'buffalo discovered'"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of “Signal for ‘buffalo discovered’” was prepared by Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the image was published as Figure 337 on page 532 in an article by Garrick Mallery (1831-1894) entitled “Sign Language Among the North American Indians” in the First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1879-80.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1881
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- maker
- Nichols, H. H.
- author
- Mallery, Garrick
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.1523
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.1523
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Engraved woodblock of an "Indian mask from the northwest coast of America"
- Description
- This engraved woodblock of an “Indian mask from the northwest coast of America” was prepared by Henry Hobart Nichols (1838-1887) and the Government Printing Office in Washington, D.C.; the print was published in 1884 as Plate XIII.20 (p.171) in an article by William Healey Dall (1845-1927) entitled “On Masks, Labrets, and Certain Aboriginal Customs with an Inquiry into the Bearing of Their Geographical Distribution” in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian, 1881-82.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1884
- publisher
- Bureau of American Ethnology
- printer
- Government Printing Office
- author
- Dall, William H.
- graphic artist
- Nichols, H. H.
- block maker
- N. J. Wemmer
- ID Number
- 1980.0219.0165
- catalog number
- 1980.0219.0165
- accession number
- 1980.0219
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Lithograph of "Indian Antiquities" pottery artifacts
- Description
- P.S. Duval and Company (c.1840s–1858) of Philadelphia printed this lithograph of “Indian Antiquities,” depicting South American woodenware, from an original sketch by John M. Stanley (1814–1872) of Detroit (1834–1840, 1864–1872) and Washington, D.C. (1850-1860). The illustration was published in 1855 by A.O.P. Nicholson in Washington, D.C. as Plate X in the “Indian remains” section of volume II of The United States Naval Astronomical Survey to the Southern Hemisphere, written by Thomas Ewbank (1792–1870).
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1855
- original artist
- Wallis, O. J.
- Dreser, William
- Herbst, Francis
- graphic artist
- Sinclair, Thomas
- Dougal, William H.
- Duval, Peter S.
- printer
- Nicholson, A. O. P.
- publisher
- United States Navy
- original artist
- Richard, John H.
- Stanley, John Mix
- Siebert, Selmar
- author
- Cassin, John
- Ewbank, Thomas
- Baird, Spencer Fullerton
- Gilliss, James Melville
- ID Number
- 2007.0204.01
- accession number
- 2007.0204
- catalog number
- 2007.0204.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center