Most of us think history class consists of just reading pages of a textbook and memorizing events and people from long ago. So, when I enrolled in HS100: Introduction to the History of Science, I was not expecting to be able to read and handle dozens of original materials from up to 400 years ago, right here at Harvard and in the greater Boston area. 

Houghton Library: Early Scientific Writings

Our first “site visit” was just days into the semester. Unbeknownst to me, just feet away from (and underneath) Lamont Library, a popular study spot, is Harvard’s Houghton Library, which contains rare books and materials. My professor and a librarian led us into a reading room, where we were greeted by dozens of historic books in foam cradles lining the tables. We looked and listened as our professor explained that these were original writings and books from historical scientific figures, including Galileo, Copernicus, Avicenna, Leonhart Fuchs, and Robert Hooke. Some of these works, we learned, were created over 500 years ago. And after a brief introduction and instructions on handling the materials to avoid damage, we were permitted to spend hours analyzing, handling, and reading these books. I was thrilled and stunned; never before had I imagined that I would have the opportunity to touch and read a several-hundred-year-old book written by a scientific great such as Galileo! At the end of the visit, I was further surprised to learn that we could “check out” these materials at any time through a similar system as any other library; the only difference being that they obviously cannot be removed from Houghton. 

The Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments

We also visited Harvard's Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments (CHSI). Located just feet away from most classes in the Science Center, CHSI also has exhibits which are open to the public! Here, guided by our professor and a curator, we had the opportunity to hold, manipulate, and experiment with historic scientific instruments, ranging from early telescopes and microscopes to a mountain barometer. It was particularly exciting to get to use some of these instruments and see how they continue to function. 

The Harvard University Archives

During one of the final weeks of the course, we visited the Harvard University Archives, located in the mostly-underground Pusey Library. Harvard professors, students, and leaders were quite involved in the scientific development and ethical/policy debates regarding the atomic bomb during the Second World War through the Cold War and beyond. Many of these individuals later provided their writings, correspondence, and more to the University Archives, providing a unique, firsthand source of information about the atomic bomb, right here on campus. It was truly fascinating to see how the nuances of these debates and questions played out by reading through and discussing pages of historical correspondence as a class. 

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts

To understand how science and the arts interact, we also had the opportunity to take a trip to Boston's Museum of Fine Arts to see an exhibit on Rachel Ruysch. The trip, including transportation, was entirely paid for by Harvard, and we received a custom tour by the exhibit's curator, helping us understand how art and natural history interacted and influenced each other. 

Ultimately, through these field trips to various libraries and archives on campus and in the greater Boston area, HS100 truly exemplified how at Harvard, history is hands-on; not something you just read about in a book. I feel truly lucky to have had the opportunity to interact firsthand with so many historical materials--without traveling far from campus--in order to enhance my understanding of the history of science.