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Alejandra Bronfman (2012), University of British Columbia
Alejandra Bronfman used the George Clark Collection of Radioana and the Western
Union Telegraph Company Records for her forthcoming book project, Talking Machines: Assembled
Media and Publics in the Caribbean. Bronfman examines the history of the implementation of
telecommunications technologies in the Caribbean and the unwritten histories of radio and related sonic
technologies.
Wendy Chun (2005), Brown
University
Chun used a variety of computer-related archival collections
for research on her book Programmed Visions: Software,
DNA, Race. In her book, Chun argues that race and software
precipitate both a frenzy of visual literacy and a decline
in visual knowledge.
Laura Claridge (2007), independent writer
Claridge examined the Earl Tupper Papers for a forthcoming
book on inventor Earl Tupper.
Carlotta Daro (2010), McGill University
Daro examined the Western Union Telegraph Records, the Anglo American Telegraph Company Records, and the George H. Clark Collection of Radioana for her work “Networked Cities: The Impact of Telecommunications Technologies on Urban Theories, 1880-1939.” Daro examined the infrastructures of telecommunications such as the electricity pole, the cable, the antenna, and the transmission tower as universal icons that crisscross the earth’s surface. These physical markers helped structure fundamental changes in everyday life: first, by creating networks for instant communication on a global scale, thereby collapsing perceptions of distance and speed; and second, as equipment around which cities would be rebuilt, thus giving rise to new ways of imagining and conditioning space in the metropolis.
Carrie Eisert (2009), Princeton University
Carrie Eisert from Princeton University examined the Wagner Collection in the Division of Medicine and
Science and the Syntex Collection in the Archives Center for her research on the psychological conceptions
of oral contraceptive patients in the United States in the 1960s. Eisert focused on David Wagner’s
process of conceptualizing, designing, and patenting his design for the Dialpak, the first pill package
designed specifically to help patients remember to take their pills correctly. Additionally,
Eisert delved into how conceptions of the patient presented in the psychiatry research relate to the
way patients were presented in Dialpak rhetoric and advertising.
Jane Farrell-Beck (2002), Iowa State University
Author of the book Uplift: the Bra in America, Farrell-Beck continued her research on the manufacturer’s
role in the marketing of brassieres and girdles to adolescent
girls. She used primarily the Maidenform Collection, Seventeen,
and Cover Girl Collections.
Marti Frank (2006), Harvard University
Frank explored the adoption of one of the century’s
most important technologies by one of its most important
industries: the steam engine and New England textile mills.
Frank made use of the trade literature collection in the
National Museum of American History library, the Archives
Center, and the Division of Work & Industry.
Dana Freiburger (2000), University of Wisconsin, Madison
Exploring the early tracking devices used for wildlife
research and their related technologies, Freiburger examined
the George H. Clark “Radioana” Collection for
initial work done in radio locating. Specifically, he sought
details related to the invention of the first transistor
radios since early practical wildlife radio equipment used
this device.
Cheryl Ganz (2000), University of Illinois, Chicago
Ganz explored the role of inventions at the 1933 Chicago
World’s Fair for her dissertation. She traced the
relationship of inventions to the fair organizers’
and exhibitors’ idea of progress from the first stages
of the development of an exhibit all the way to its installation
by corporate sponsors. She examined the S.C. Gilfillan papers
and Warshaw Collection located at the Archives Center, and
other archival and library materials at the National Air
and Space Museum and the Archives of American Art.
Evan Glasson (2008), The New School
Glasson examined the Western Union Telegraph Company Records
in order to analyze telegrams from the perspective of poetry.
Glasson analyzed the messages’ diction, syntax, punctuation,
brevity, urgency, whimsicality, and often deeply-felt emotional
content. Glasson found evidence to support his hypothesis
that the telegraph allowed people to send messages that,
like the best poems, needed to communicate, and the economical
language that was born out of the invention presents a dichotomy
of clarity and mystery essential to poetry.
Graeme Gooday (2006), Leeds University
Gooday examined the William J. Hammer Collection to compare
and contrast one individual’s creative experience
of electrification in the United States, France, Germany,
and Britain from 1880 to 1900. This research will contribute
to his monograph Domesticating Electricity: Risk, Gender
and Expertise in Late Nineteenth Century Culture.
Aimi Hamraie, Emory University (2012)
Hamraie used a variety of collections related to universal design
(Ronald Mace Collection, Milton K.Wirtz, D.D.S., Artificial Eye Collection,
Safko International, Inc., Records, Accessible Snowboard Collection, and
Harriett Green Kopp Papers) for her project “What Can Universal Design Know?
Scientific Research About Bodies in Disability-Accessible Design, 1968-Present.”
Hamraie looked at the role of scientific knowledge production in accessible
design and in the invention of assistive technologies through the movement Universal Design (UD).
David Hanlon (2010), St. Louis Community College
Hanlon studied components of the Draper Family Collection in the Archives Center and
early photographic examples in the Photographic History Collection for his work
“Recording Light on Paper.” He concentrated upon the writings and images created by
John William Draper (1811-1882), with special attention given to his use of
light-sensitive material within his experiments.
Laurie Kahn-Leavitt (1999), independent filmmaker
Why plastic? Laurie Kahn-Leavitt asked this question and
more when she researched the Leo Baekeland and Earl Tupper
Papers, the Celluloid Corporation Records, the J. Harry
DuBois Collection of the History of Plastics, the Plastics
Pioneer Association interviews, and the Warshaw Collection
for a one-hour documentary film Plastics: A Cultural
History. Kahn-Leavitt’s documentary evolved into
Tupperware and was broadcast on PBS as part of
the American Experience in 2004. Her film won a Peabody
Award.
Ivan Katchanovski (2007), University of Toronto
Katchanovski examined the Computer Oral History Collection
for a book-length project on the “Puzzle in the Invention
and Patenting of the Electronic Computer in the United States.”
Shaul Katzir (2004), Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The notebooks in the Walter G. Cady papers were the
subject of Shaul Katzir’s research. Cady’s notebooks
contain information relating to the early application of
piezoelectricity and his invention of the piezoelectric
resonator. Katzir looked at the shift of piezoelectricity
from pure to applied science.
Pagan Kennedy (2002), author and freelance journalist
Kennedy made use of the extensive computer history archives
to research a general nonfiction book titled The Computer
Wore Pearls. Using the Grace Murray Hopper papers,
Kennedy hoped to show how the female mind helped shape the
most important technological leap of the 20th century.
Cynthia Liu (2006, 2007), independent filmmaker
Liu, an independent writer-filmmaker with Tears in Rain
Productions, conducted research for a feature-length documentary
about the Filipino American roots of the yo-yo. Liu made
use of the Duncan Family Yo-Yo Collection.
Bernadette Longo (2003), University of Minnesota,
Twin Cities
Edmund Berkley, an early computer popularizer and founder
of the Association for Computing Machinery was the focus
of Longo’s research. She used a wide variety of computer-related
collections for her biography of Berkley.
Allison Marsh (2011), University of South Carolina
Marsh used a variety of collections in the Archives Center (N W Ayer Advertising Agency Records, Underwood &
Underwood Glass Stereograph Collection, and Warshaw Collection of Business Americana) and the Smithsonian
Libraries, as well as artifacts from the Division of Work and Industry for her forthcoming exhibit, The Ultimate
Vacation: Watching Other People Work. The exhibit explores the history of factory tours in America, focusing on
three main industries (food, mail order and automotive). The exhibit shows the widespread popularity of industrial
tourism from the 1890s to the present day and seeks to show how innovative ideas of industrious leaders transform
consumer society.
David Nofre Mateo (2010), University of Amsterdam
Nofre Mateo examined the early attempts to promote
the exchange of computer programs by bringing to a halt the
proliferation of programming languages. Specifically, his
project takes the programming language ALGOL (for algorithmic
language) as a lens to explore the first decade of programming
language development. Nofre Mateo consulted The Computer
Standards Collection, SHARE Records, Paul Armer Collection,
SHARE Numerical Analysis Project Records, John Clifford Shaw
Papers as well as materials held in the Division of Information,
Technology, and Communication for his project, “Learning to live
with Babel: rethinking the early history of programming languages, 1958-1968.”
Alexis McCrossen (2002), Harvard University
McCrossen used her travel award to support research
for her book Marking Modern Times, which deals
with the ownership and distribution of mechanical timepieces
between the Civil War and World War I. She made use of the
E. Howard Clock Collection and the James Arthur Collection
of watch and clock repair manuals, and she surveyed the
Division of History of Technology’s pocket watches
and tower and clock movements.
John McVeigh (2003), Montserrat College of Art
McVeigh studied the ways in which telegraph code
books were conceived and organized; how they were used;
how they affected telegraphic expression; their relationship
to other linguistic, literary, and even philosophical developments
of their time; and the semantic nature of user-side data
compression in the age of telegraphy. McVeigh made use of
code books and telegrams from the Western Union Telegraph
Company Records.
Ben Miller (2009), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Miller used the Ralph Baer and Semi Joseph Begun Papers
for his current research War Engineers Peace which
examines communication technologies. Specifically, Miller
looked at Baer's work in electrical engineering and munitions
training, and the relationship forged therein between martial
and information technologies while his use of the Begun
papers explored how magnetic recording as a technology advanced
from a wire-based curiosity to the indispensable medium
of contemporary recording today.
Nicholaas Mink (2010), University of Wisconsin, Madison
Mink’s research focused on better understanding the
maturation of the restaurant franchise system from the 1920s
to the present and understanding it as an integral part of
American business, cultural, technological and food history.
Mink consulted the Carvel Ice Cream Records, Coon Chicken Inn
Scrapbooks, Horn and Hardart Company Records, Krispy Kreme Doughnut
Corporation Records, A. Bernie Wood Papers, and the library’s trade
literature collection for his dissertation, "A Technological,
Cultural, and Culinary Analysis of the Development of Restaurant Franchising."
Eric Nystrom (2013), Rochester Institute of Technology
Nystrom explored the invention of coal mining machinery in America before World War Two, and the re-construction of that history of innovation through efforts to document and collect it for the Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History) in the early 1960s. Nystrom consulted documents and artifacts pertaining to the invention of coal mining machinery that were collected for the museum by retired coal machinery manufacturing executive J.D.A. Morrow from 1959-1963. Nystrom consulted the Charles O. Houston curatorial files, which are part of the records of the Division of Work and Industry, National Museum of American History, as well as the Smithsonian Libraries Trade Literature Collection containing coal mining machinery catalogs.
Jeff Opt (2001), National Cash Register Archives
Opt, an archivist for the National Cash Register (NCR)
archives at the Montgomery County Historical Society of
Dayton, Ohio, conducted research in the Computer Oral History
Collection. Opt used specific oral histories that discussed
NCR in preparation for an oral history project.
Rachel Plotnick (2011), Northwestern University
Plotnick conducted research in the N W Ayer Advertising Agency Records, J. Harry Dubois Collection on the History
of Plastics, Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, and the William J. Hammer Collection for her dissertation,
Media’s Middlemen: A History of Navigation from Tuning to Touch. Plotnick’s research explores three
technologies—the radio, television and the computer—platforms that provide content and various modes of navigation
to access that content. Plotnick aims to answer questions related to the historical relationship between touch and technology, issues surrounding consumer access to and control over media content, and evolving forms of navigation on material, social, and cultural levels.
Tara Rodgers (2009), McGill University
Exploring the history of sound media, Rodgers used the Analogue
Music Synthesizer Oral History Project to for her dissertation
research on Synthesis: A Feminist History of Synthesized
Sound, 1945-1980.
Alexander Russo (2001), Brown University
Using primarily the George H. Clark “Radioana”
Collection, Russo conducted research for his dissertation
on the transition from network radio to network television,
focusing on ways in which each medium affected the development
of the other. Russo also used the Warshaw Collection, N.W.
Ayer Advertising Collection, and the Kraft Foods Advertising
Collection.
Kara Schlichting (2012), Rutgers University
Schlichting’s research examines innovations in suburban design and leisure spaces as part of the modernization of metropolitan planning from 1870 to 1940 in greater New York, the Bronx, and Queens, and bordering Westchester, Nassau, and Fairfield counties. Specifically, Schlichting’s research is a new interpretation of the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair as an exhibition of design and planning efforts that claimed to soothe concerns about urban environment with planning, architecture, and technological innovations designed for suburban living. Important implications for the histories of metropolitan growth and city and regional planning emerge from an analysis of the Fair and its exhibits as part of the story of twentieth-century innovations and invention. The Fair’s exhibits showcased ideas of modernity in the fields of science, technology, economics, architecture, and industrial and urban design. In imparting a sense of newness and innovation through its design and exhibits, the Fair presented the future as a time of newness, invention, and unlimited American potential for growth and accumulation. Schlichting consulted the Larry Zim World’s Fair Collection; the New York World’s Fair Collection, 1939; Division of Community Life World’s Fair Collection, 1876-1993; and the Edward J. Orth Memorial Archives of the World’s Fair, 1939-1940.
Peter Scott (2012), University of Reading
Scott used the George H. Clark Radioana Collection to study the innovation, productivity, and industrial structure in the United States radio equipment industry from 1920 to 1941.
Marsha Siefert (2006), Central European University
Siefert used the Western Union Telegraph Company Records
for her current book project, a comparative history of telegraph
systems in large land-based multicultural empires of Europe
and Asia.
Anthony Silva (1999), independent researcher
Silva, a former Western Union employee, examined the
history of labor management relations in the telegraph industry.
Silva used the Western Union Telegraph Co. Records for research
that resulted in an article titled “Dots, Dashes,
and Tyranny,” published in Labors Heritage,
vol. 11, no. 3, Spring/Summer 2001.
Ovidiu Tichindeleanu (2004), State University of New
York, Binghamton
Tichindeleanu’s research focused on the historical
and philosophical inquiry into meaning, symbols, and the
mechanical transcription of sound in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries. His work contributes to the
understanding of historical dimensions of sensorial perception
and affectivity in the aftermath of the development of mechanical
means of sensory transcription and reproduction. Tichindeleanu
examined the William K. Applebaugh papers and the Charles
Sumner Tainter Papers.
Shaun VanCour (2005), University of Wisconsin, Madison
VanCour conducted research in the George H. Clark “Radioana”
Collection. His dissertation, "The Sounds of ‘Radio’:
Technologies, Programming, and Production Practices of 1920s
American Broadcasting," delineates the aesthetic
parameters of early American broadcasting: the emergence
of new technologies of sound reproduction, their use within
the production practices of a new class of radio professionals,
the programming forms and presentation styles that characterized
the cultural output of this new field of broadcast radio,
and the corresponding forms of cultural experience offered
to radio’s growing audience of broadcast listeners.
Jennifer Way (2009), University of North Texas
Way examined the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT)
Records for further understanding of the post-1945 relationships
of writing about technology and visual culture by researching the
reception and use of the English-language version of Walter Benjamin's
essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Additionally,
Way studied the Janese Swanson Innovative Lives Presentation video footage to
advance a multimedia project "Women Art Technology."
Logan Williams (2011), Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute
Williams used the Patricia Bath Innovative Lives Presentation and Interview for her dissertation Moving Science
from Below—NGOs Fighting Avoidable Blindness in South Asia and the United States. Williams research examines the
circulation of innovation globally, in particular innovative surgical technologies, ophthalmic technologies and
hospital operations management techniques that have been created to fight avoidable blindness around the world.
Paige Welch, Duke University (2012)
Welch examined records related to the 1997 exhibit, “Oil from the Arctic” for her work on the
Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the 1970s frontier. Welch focused on the intersection of environmentalism and
pipeline engineering and the significance of technology to national identity.
Josh Wolff (2005), Columbia University
Exploring the Western Union Telegraph Company Records,
Wolff examined the company’s status as the first private
national monopoly in the U.S., highlighting the internal
and external debates about the balance between property
and civic responsibility and the power of the federal government
to regulate innovation and industrial capital in the Gilded
Age.
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