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On June 4 and 5, 2020, the APS Library & Museum will hold a symposium that explores the nature of evidence. The symposium is inspired by the Society's 2020 exhibition Dr. Franklin, Citizen Scientist and reflects Benjamin Franklin’s many different uses of information and data throughout his life. The APS Library & Museum invites innovative proposals from scholars who wish to explore the past, present, and future use of evidence and data.

Proposals are due December 13, 2019.

In May 2019, Associate Librarian and Curator of Manuscripts Charles Greifenstein visited Freeman Dyson (APS 1976) to collect his papers for the APS Library. Dyson's papers cover his wide variety of interests in areas such as quantum physics, technology, space travel and space science, nuclear energy, mathematics, philosophy, evolution, genetics, and climate change. Read more for some highlights from the collection.

Read the latest posts from APS staff and contributors.

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Recent APS Speaker David Silverman Featured in New Yorker

If you missed our November 14 talk with David Silverman on his new book This Land is Their Land, read more about it in this week's review from the New Yorker, "The Invention of Thanksgiving." The book offers a new look at Plymouth colony’s founding events, told for the first time with Wampanoag people at the heart of the story.

You can also stream the recording of his talk at the APS online.

Go Behind the Scenes on Mapping a Nation

Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellows Erin Holmes and Janine Boldt recently appeared on the Conversations at the Washington Library podcast to discuss the experience of curating the exhibition Mapping a Nation: Shaping the Early American Republic. Tune in to hear their conversation with Jim Ambuske from the Washington Library at Mount Vernon.

Wyck Collection Donation Featured in Philadelphia Inquirer

The Wyck Association Collection was amassed over 300 years and includes the letters, ledgers, journals, and more from nine generations of the Wyck family. The collection is a rich resource for scholars of American history topics c.1690–1970, including yellow fever, horticulture, brewing, meteorology, and natural sciences. The collection has been on deposit at the APS since 1987 and has now been formally transferred to the Society where many of the documents will be digitized. After the transfer was announced, the Philadelphia Inquirer visited to learn more about the collection. Read the story for more details.

If you are planning a trip to the APS before the end of 2019, please consult our holiday closing schedule before visiting.

The APS Museum gallery will be closed Thursday, December 26 and will be open for the final three days of Mapping a Nation, December 27–29. 

Read the latest posts from APS staff and contributors.

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As the exhibition Mapping a Nation: Shaping the Early American Republic draws to a close, Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow Erin Holmes reflects on her study of 18th-century surveying techniques and instruments. In a two-part blog series, read more about who became surveyors in the 18th century, how they trained, and how they used instruments like astronomical clocks, Gunter's chains, and theodolites.

If you are planning a trip to the APS before the end of 2019, please consult our holiday closing schedule before visiting. 

The APS Museum gallery will close at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, December 20. The gallery will be closed Thursday, December 26 and will reopen for the final three days of Mapping a Nation, December 27–29. 

2020 Grant and Fellowship Deadlines

A number of grant and fellowship deadlines for field work and residential research at the APS Library & Museum are approaching in the new year.

Read the latest posts from APS staff and contributors.

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Catch Up on Fall 2019 Public Lectures at the APS

If you missed any of the fall 2019 public lectures at the APS, most events are available to stream online.

September 12, Madison Park: A Place of Hope with Eric Motley

September 19, Launch of John Laurance: The Immigrant Founding Father America Never Knew with Keith Marshall Jones III

October 10, "Ona Judge Staines and Martha Washington: Mapping Inequality, Resistance, and Solutions in Early National Philadelphia" with Billy G. Smith

November 14, This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving with David Silverman

December 5, Susan O. Montgomery Lecture with Howard Gardner in Conversation with David Montgomery

Photograph of David Montgomery and Howard Gardner by Johanna Austin

2020 Grant and Fellowship Deadlines

A number of grant and fellowship deadlines for field work and residential research at the APS Library & Museum are approaching in the new year.

Fellows photograph by Johanna Austin

Read the latest posts from APS staff and contributors.

Grants | Library | Museum | Membership Meetings | Publications | Support

Inspired by its 2021 exhibition, Dr. Franklin, Citizen Scientist, the American Philosophical Society Library & Museum is hosting a week-long symposium, Evidence: The Use and Misuse of Data. This international symposium is deeply interdisciplinary and features papers that consider the ways evidence is used in the history of science, literary analysis, digital humanities, the social sciences, and more. 

The papers of William Shedrick Willis at the APS Library & Museum provide a valuable glimpse into the scholarship of a black intellectual working toward anti-racist goals in a deeply racist system. A student of Franz Boas (APS 1903) at Columbia University, Willis''s work on black history and culture was not accepted within the field of anthropology and he repeatedly faced employment discrimination. Later in his life, he relocated to Philadelphia and focused his research on the Boas Papers at the APS Library.

Read more about William Shedrick Willis on the APS blog.

Lawrence Bobo (APS 2008), dean of social science and the W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Social Sciences at Harvard University, spoke to the Harvard Gazette about police killings of black men and subsequent mobilization and civil protest. Bobo''s research focuses on the intersection of politics, social inequality, and race and in this interview he considers the ways the forces of political polarization, racism, and the American cultural landscape have influenced our current "complicated and contradictory moment."

Paul Moravec (APS 2010) composed the music to a large ensemble piece, "Light Shall Lift Us," featuring over 100 opera singers in support of the opera community. Moravec wrote the piece with librettist/lyricist Mark Campbell.

Read the latest posts from APS staff and contributors.

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Each autumn, the APS produces a print newsletter reviewing the previous year''s activities. This year''s issue shifts the focus from the typical recounting of in-person events, Member Meetings, field research by fellows, and Museum exhibitions to the ways that APS staff, fellows, and their collaborators have adapted to remote work while remaining true to the Society''s mission. The newsletter also pays particular attention to the theme of inequality, acknowledging past APS Members'' involvement in slavery and the eugenics movement as well as the Society''s delayed inclusion of women and Members of color.

Read the Autumn 2020 issue for more about virtual programming at the APS, how the upcoming exhibition Dr. Franklin, Citizen Scientist addresses racism, and more.

Roger Penrose (APS 2011) and Andrea Ghez (APS 2012) are winners of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics. One half of the prize was awarded to Penrose "for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity," and Ghez shares the other half with Reinhard Genzel "for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy."

Louise Glück (APS 2014) won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal.”

A new two-volume set from Thomas N. Bisson (APS 1975), The Chronography of Robert of Torigni (Oxford University Press, 2020), is the first complete English translation of the known chronicle of Robert of Torigni.

Warren Washington (APS 2003) will receive the 2021 National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) Lifetime Achievement Award for Science, Service, and Leadership. The award honors those who have made a significant impact to the NCSE community through research, education, diplomacy, and/or innovative technologies.

Tune in to these upcoming virtual events featuring APS Members:

Catch up on recent virtual talks by APS Members if you missed them live:

Please send announcements about upcoming virtual lectures to communications@amphilsoc.org.

APS archivists are also constantly processing new collections. The papers of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Val Fitch (APS 1995) have recently been processed and are now available to researchers.

Read the latest posts from APS staff and contributors.

Grants | Library | Museum | Membership Meetings | Publications | Support

While the pandemic has delayed the planned 2020 opening of the next APS exhibition, Dr. Franklin, Citizen Scientist, visitors can now virtually explore the scientific pursuits of Benjamin Franklin and his wide network of collaborators. Take the virtual tour, which includes tracks for adult and youth audiences.

On December 16, 2020, join curators Janine Yorimoto Boldt and Emily Margolis for a virtual event that will include behind-the-scenes stories about developing the exhibition and more about the objects on display. Register to attend.

Stanford University President Marc Tessier-Lavigne (APS 2017) has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada, one of that nation''s highest honors. The award recognizes Tessier-Lavigne “for his groundbreaking contributions to developmental neuroscience, and for his renowned academic leadership and strong advocacy of science.”

Paul Moravec (APS 2010) has been nominated for a Best Choral Performance Grammy for his composition of Sanctuary Road, an oratorio based on the writings of abolitionist William Still. Listen to an interview with Moravec about this piece.