
Scientific Instruments and Illustrated Books from the David Eugene Smith Collection, Butler Library, Columbia University
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Presented By
Presented by the History & Philosophy of Science Section
Speakers: Jennifer Lee, Librarian, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Butler Library
George Saliba, Professor of Arabic and Islamic Science, Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures
Sara Schechner, Curator, Harvard University Scientific Instruments Collection
Bruce Chandler, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, The College of Staten Island, City University of New York.
In this meeting of the Academy's Section for History and Philosophy of Science, in conjunction with the Science, Technology, and Society Seminar at Columbia University, historians and librarians will present and discuss the scientific instruments, artifacts and books in the rare book collection of Butler Library.
Butler Library at Columbia University holds an important collection of scientific instruments, including one of the most important mathematical artifacts in the world, Plimpton 322, a clay tablet that gives pre-Pythagorean evidence of the Pythagorean theorem.