Recording the Cosmos

Religion and science intermingle in the kept records of many communities across time and space. 

Farmer-mathematician-astronomer Benjamin Banneker journaled celestial observations side by side with notes on religion, including vivid accounts of his spiritual dreams. Keepers among the Lakota of the Northern Plains recorded the history of their extended family groups in arrays of pictographs known as winter counts. With each image representing a single year, winter counts maintained memories of remarkable occurrences, often recounted in ceremonies at the center of community life. 

Benjamin Banneker, an African American man who lived in freedom while slavery was still common, 1795

Benjamin Banneker, an African American man who lived in freedom while slavery was still common, 1795

Courtesy of Maryland Center for History and Culture

Lakota winter count, covering 1786 to 1876, including “the year stars fell from the sky,” the 1833 Leonoid meteor shower 

Lakota winter count, covering 1786 to 1876, including “the year stars fell from the sky,” the 1833 Leonoid meteor shower
 

Courtesy of National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution