1962: The Museum of the History of Medicine, brainchild of Dr Cyril Adler, was formally inaugurated at a public lecture held in the Great Hall of the University of the Witwatersrand in April. The inaugural address was delivered by Major-General AJ Orenstein. The Museum's role was to collect and preserve for posterity all material that would illustrate the history of medicine in general and of South Africa in particular
The Yale Peabody Museum's paleobotanical collection is world wide in scope with about 75% of the collection derived from North America and the other 25% from South America, China, West Indies, Israel, Lebanon, Pakistan, Central America, Australia, Antarctica, Europe and the Arctic. The approximate geological distribution of the collection is 30% Mesozoic, 32% Cenozoic, 33% Paleozoic and 5% Proterozoic. The taxonomic distribution is estimated as follows: 1% Cyanobacteria, 5% "Algae", 2% Bryophyta, 5% Lower Vascular Plants, 10% Progymnosperms, 10% Gymnosperms, and 67% Angiosperms.
The University of Oslo, Paleontological Museum contains the largest collection of fossils in Norway and functions as a National Museum. Dedicated work with organising a special type collection started in the 1920s and today specimens are housed in a special locked room and carefully arranged in a series of metal cupboards according to date of publication. At present there are well over 19.000 catalogued specimens of which almost 3.000 are type and figured specimens found in 960 publications dating from 1833 to the present. All relevant publications and specimens are recorded in the museum data base and will be available on the www in the near future. In English and Norwegian.
In 1864 thousands of Chinese in Kwantung Province were recruited by Central Pacific Railroad Co. to work on the western portion of transcontinental railroad. The roadbed was blasted out of the solid rock mountainside in the fall of 1865 by lowering Chinese workers (also known as "Celestials" after the "Celestial Kingdom" as these tireless workers referred to their homeland) on ropes down the sheer cliff face. These Chinese men drilled and packed black power charges in the rock, lit the fuses, and had the agility to scamper up the ropes before the explosions. Cape Horn, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California.
On May 10, 1869, in Promontory Summit, Utah, a rail line from Sacramento, California met with another line from Omaha, Nebraska. When the last spike was driven, the Central Pacific became the first transcontinental railroad. This site provides a vast collection of online materials documenting the history of the Central Pacific Railroad and rail travel in general, as well as material on the history of photography. The site boasts more than 2000 photographs and images, including stereographs by Alfred Hart and Eadweard Muybridge; engravings and illustrations from magazines, travel brochures, and journals; and more than 400 railroad and travel maps. Also included are more than 60 links to images and transcriptions of primary documents dealing with the construction and operation of the railroad, including government reports, travel accounts and diaries, magazine and journal articles, travel guides, and railroad schedules. A separate section documents the Chinese-American contribution to the transcontinental railroad, including four scholarly articles, two links to Harper's Weekly articles and illustrations about Chinese workers, a bibliography of 15 scholarly works, and links to more than 20 related websites. Timelines on the building of the transcontinental railroad from 1838 to 1869, the history of photography from 1826 to 1992, and the development of the railroad from 1630 to 1986 also help to contextualize the history of the railroad in America. The volume of information on the home pages make this site slow loading, unwieldy, and confusing to navigate, and there are no descriptive captions or other information on most of the images. The site is keyword searchable, and for those interested in the history of railroads, this site is certainly worth time spent.
xpatriate Englishman Eadweard Muybridge (1830–1904), a brilliant and eccentric photographer, gained worldwide fame photographing animal and human movement imperceptible to the human eye. Hired by railroad baron Leland Stanford in 1872, Muybridge used photography to prove that there was a moment in a horse’s gallop when all four hooves were off the ground at once. He spent much of his later career at the University of Pennsylvania, producing thousands of images that capture progressive movements within fractions of a second.
This companion site to a National Museum of American History exhibit explores the most famous work of English photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Muybridge's photographic studies of motion have been interpreted as scientific models, but the proofs included in the five exhibit sections suggest a more complex blending of art and science. "Capturing the Moment" tells the story of the commission by California Governor Leland Stanford to study the hooves on a galloping horse and Muybridge's resulting fame. "Muybridge in Motion" traces the University of Pennsylvania study of animal and human locomotion. "From Proof to Print" outlines the process and artistic nature of motion photography. "Sequences and Structures" describes the scientific principles of motion and sequential structure. "Epilogue" discusses Muybridge's influence on late-19th century visual culture and invites visitor comments. Each section offers a 750-word introductory essay and 10-12 images illustrating the scientific and artistic elements in Muybridge's work. The site also offers five links to related sites and a five-work bibliography. A disclaimer notifies parents and teachers that many subjects were photographed nude or semi-nude. This is an interesting site for those researching the place of photography in American science and culture.
Welcome to the Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company, a virtual museum of pioneer aviation. If this is your first visit, read About the Museum to get your bearings and consult our Museum Guide for help in navigating this web site. If you'd like to know more about our organization, read About Us. Our online exhibits are organized into several sections:
This virtual museum is dedicated to the Wright Brothers and their aeroplane company. Exhibits include a detailed history of the lives of the Wright brothers, a history of manned flight, other early aviators including Charlie Furnas and Gustave Whitehead, early airplanes, aircraft engineering and general information about the virtual museum. Essays, photographs, sketches and other materials accompany the exhibits though no audio or visual clips are featured here yet (the museum is under construction). There are, however, audio clips of period music such as Maple Leaf Rag. The site has a search engine, however, the engine often returns 404 errors and so is not particularly useful. Overall this is a useful site for beginning research into the Wright brothers and early aircraft.
The Sigmund Freud Foundation was formed in 2003 in order to provide the Sigmund Freud Museum with a secure financial basis and to expand and develop the institution as a research center. It is an independent scholarly foundation whose goal is to promote new and interdisciplinary studies in the human sciences centering on the works of Sigmund Freud, psychoanalysis and related issues from a contemporary perspective.
Vienna's Sigmund Freud Museum has created an attractive web site to compliment its bricks and mortar museum. The site includes information about lectures, conferences and exhibitions, the Sigmund Freud Society, funding for Freud-related research, a detailed chronology and a topography or physical geography of Freud. Online versions of the Museum's Newsletter and information about the library can also be found here. Essays about Freud's life, called "themes," include exhibits and articles about Freud's daughter Anna, his emigration from Austria, film and collecting antiquities. Notably the site also provides online video and audio clips of Sigmund Freud.
In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Doctors Trial, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum presents excerpts from the official trial record, with accompanying photographs:
Opening Statement (excerpts)
Indictment
Testimony (excerpts)
Sentences
Nuremberg Code
The Doctors Trial was the prosecution of twenty-three leading German physicians and administrators who performed unlawful medical experimentation on prisoners without their consent during WWII. This site offers documents from the trial such as opening remarks, the official charges, excerpts from the testimony of victims, and the judges' rulings. The site also offers a transcript of the Nuremburg Code which defined legal medical experimentation. The site is sponsored by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The Freud Museum, at 20 Maresfield Gardens in Hampstead, was the home of Sigmund Freud and his family when they escaped Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938. It remained the family home until Anna Freud, the youngest daughter, died in 1982. The centrepiece of the museum is Freud's library and study, preserved just as it was during his lifetime.
It contains Freud's remarkable collection of antiquities: Egyptian; Greek; Roman and Oriental. Almost two thousand items fill cabinets and are ranged on every surface. There are rows of ancient figures on the desk where Freud wrote until the early hours of the morning. The walls are lined with shelves containing Freud's large library of reference books.
The Freud Museum of London's central function is to celebrate the life and work of Sigmund and Anna Freud. The museum organizes research programs and publications, the details of which can be found on this site. It also has an education service that organizes seminars, conferences and special visits to the museum. The site provides information about the archives and other collections of the museum, the photograph library and a chronology. Essays and on line exhibits feature Anna Freud, Freud in England, the Interpretation of Dreams, and Ideas in Psychoanalysis. As the museum is privately funded and strapped for cash, the navigation and graphics for this site are fairly simple though useable.
