Exibition curated by Joe Harmon and Alan G. Gross.
The first scientific journal articles appeared in France and England in 1665, a key historical event in the fledgling enterprise of modern science. This new genre for communicating science permitted the relatively rapid transmittal of discoveries from one researcher to an international community of researchers, who could then accept, question, or extend the claims that were made. Containing more than one hundred objects and spanning four centuries, this exhibition draws upon a wide variety of communications pertinent to the origin and development of the scientific article. Among the historical treasures on display are the first scientific journals from England and the Continent, Newton's first published research article, an article by Thomas Jefferson, watercolor botanical illustrations, the first line graphs and periodic tables, the famous Darwin-Wallace articles presented at an 1858 meeting of the Linnean Society, and original reprints of Einstein's Relativitaetstheorie articles. Also included are first editions of key scientific books published both before and after the birth of the scientific article.