Excerpt:
In 1976, the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology was established with a gift from the Burndy Library of Norwalk, Connecticut (created by Bern Dibner). The gift provided the Smithsonian Institution Libraries with its first rare book library, located in the National Museum of American History, Behring Center. Contained in this collection are many of the major works dating from the fifteenth to the early nineteenth centuries in the history of science and technology including engineering, transportation, chemistry, mathematics, physics, electricity, and astronom