Freshmen discover the wonders of Bancroft
Not too many freshmen get to fondle the gold nugget that started the Gold Rush, pore over Nobelist E.O. Lawrence’s private papers (including a file labeled “atom bomb”), and examine Egyptian papyri dating from 2,500 B.C. that describe antidotes for crocodile and asp bites.
But these are just a few of the items that the 14 students in “Engineering 24: Sources of Science, Engineering, and Technology” get to see first-hand in a freshman seminar co-sponsored by The Bancroft Library and the College of Engineering.
Moving force behind the seminar is James Casey, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and the College of Engineering’s Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary Studies. He got the idea at a meeting of Bancroft’s Committee for the History of Science, chaired by Peter Hanff, Deputy Director of Bancroft, who is coteaching the seminar.
Engineering then hired a professional historian of science—Glenn Bugos, who has a Ph.D. in the history of science, technology and business—to round out the teaching triumvirate. (Bugos has become familiar with Bancroft’s collections while working for such clients as Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, BART, and venture capital firms.)
Students have also benefited from guest lecturers, including Sally Hughes, Bancroft’s oral historian of science and medicine; Karen Lewis, Hewlett Packard’s archivist; and Steven Shackley, a research archaeologist at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology, where the class took advantage of his expertise on Native American culture.
Freshmen Lily Tsai and Mike Li examine an assayer’s scale from the 1850’s with Bancroft Deputy Director Peter Hanff. It holds one of the gold nuggets that started the Gold Rush. |
“This class is a sophisticated kind of ‘show and tell’ using Bancroft source materials,” says Bugos. “Students learn how and why scientists generate different types of paper over their careers to communicate with various audiences, why the papers are saved and indexed, and how to use them to generate history. We want students to learn about the spectrum of resources on campus and to understand the history of their new, temporary home—and to feel the excitement that comes from holding history in your hand and reading dead people’s mail.” |
Students have passed around the Audograph (precursor to the vinyl record) of Kroeber’s famous lecture on human sexuality; Otto von Guericke’s 1672 book on the vacuum, New Magdeburg Experiments; and M. Clairaut’s 1743 Theory of the Figure of the Earth. A written and oral presentation based on source materials is required of each student.
Freshman Michael Nguyen says: “I was surprised at how interactive the class is compared to other freshman classes. We actually get to speak to the instructors and participate in our own course. I enrolled to get an extra unit and out of general interest—I wanted to take at least one course to help me explore options for my major. Getting to see primary sources is cool.”
The freshman seminar, “Sources of Science, Engineering, and Technology,” meets in Bancroft’s elegant Jean and Irving Stone Seminar Room. |
“This was a chance to go right to freshmen while they’re still enthusiastic and young and have open minds,” says Casey. “It’s an opportunity to educate them about Bancroft’s marvelous holdings, and for Bancroft to reach out to them.”
Casey first used Bancroft in the ’70s while working towards his Ph.D. at Berkeley. He remembers tracking down an original copy of Galileo’s 1638 Two New Sciences, in Italian, about dynamics and strength of materials. “I was thrilled to see and touch the real thing,” he recalls.
When he returned to campus as a professor in 1990, Casey used Bancroft almost every day while researching an historical paper on Clairaut’s hydrostatics. Most recently he has used the library’s 19th-century science collections to write a paper on the great French engineer, Saint- Venant.
Engineering 24 is just the first in a series of source material seminars that Casey and Hanff are planning for freshmen. It will be repeated spring semester.
Julia Sommer is a Principal Editor with the
Public Affairs department at UC Berkeley
and editor of Bancroftiana.
Volume 112
Spring 1998
Table of Contents
DeFeo, Conner papers add to Bancroft’s Beat collection
From the Director: What does Bancroft collect?
The Digital Scriptorium
Towards a Renaissance in medieval manuscript studies
Robert Frost Collection includes photos inscribed by the poet
Bancroft Fellows research images of the American West, history of Mexico’s Cora Indians
Freshmen discover the wonders of Bancroft
Bancroft staffer in the spotlight
An Oral History of Jack Stauffacher From letterpress to computer-designed fine printing
Where is the last portrait of Mark Twain?
