Library/Archive

The Community Missions Office is the focal point for bringing the cumulative expertise and experience of STScI to other missions. CMO serves as the conduit between mission teams and STScI personnel to tune relevant support for mission science operations, data archiving, grants administration, peer review and education/outreach.
Our philosophy is to integrate the scientific perspective into all aspects of missions to maximize the scientific return through cost effective application of our products, services and operations abilities.

The Institution was founded in 1824 with the aim of furthering "the advancement of literature, science and art". It received its Royal Charter in 1837 and rapidly acquired a prestigious reputation, particularly in scientific circles.
The Institution had amongst its members pioneers who amassed collections of international importance. Geology, natural history and ethnology are particularly well represented.

There are many collections of private papers of botanists including material from former Directors not forming part of their working documentation plus amongst many famous scientists: John Ray (1627-1705), Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), Charles Darwin (1809-1882), Richard Spruce (1817-1893), Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), Henry Nicholas Ridley (1855-1956), Isaac Henry Burkill (1870-1965), and Richard Eric Holttum (1895-1990).

The Milestones of Science" is a collection of first editions by world famous early scientists that form a veritable history of science, acquired in the late 1930s by the Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York, and now housed by the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library.
The relevance of science can hardly be overstated; it dominates the world in which we live. The discoveries made by the early modern astronomers Nicolaus Copernicus, Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei and Sir Isaac Newton helped us to understand the universe in which we live. The early studies of the first modern physicians Andreas Vesalius, William Harvey, Edward Jenner, Joseph Lister and Louis Pasteur made it possible for us to live longer and healthier lives than ever before. The current era owes a profound debt to the dozens of early scientists in fields as various as geology, biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics, whose works are represented in the Milestones Collection. Without their pioneering efforts, it is doubtful if the new Age of the Computer would have been possible.

The project goal is to build a web-based collaborative system and digital library for the history of five contemporary technical fields. To that end, we are adapting and integrating the ArsDigita Collaborative System (specifically, its cousin openACS), and the Perseus digital library system. We gratefully acknowledge ArsDigita and Perseus, as well as the larger open source community, for making their software available to projects like ours.

The Darwin Correspondence Project exists to publish the definitive edition of letters to and from Charles Darwin, the most influential naturalist of the 19th century: when complete the series will comprise approximately 30 volumes.

The "Department Archive for History of Science" consists of five collections:
1. The administration archive. ( to collect and to document the history of the NHMW )
2. The collection of letters and bequests (Letters and part bequests)
3. The picture collection
4. The photograph - und glass plate negative collection ( photos und glass plates)
5. The collection of busts, small dioramas, object sources, as far as they don’t belong
to collection 1. or 2., e.g. early microscopic slides by emperor Ferdinand I.

The Owen H. Wangensteen Historical Library of Biology and Medicine is a collection of approximately 60,000 rare and out-of-print books, manuscripts, and journals dating from the early 1400s to 1920. Subject concentrations include medicine, both broad and specific, biology, and natural history. The collection had its origins in the early years of the University when medical faculty purchased landmark works to expand the research materials for medical students. Dr.Wangensteen, who was a teacher, researcher, historian, and chief of surgery at the University of Minnesota, was instrumental in the development of endowments which support the continued growth of the collections. Because of these generous donors, works continue to be acquired in areas such as surgery, ophthalmology, cardiology, mycology, tuberculosis, nursing, radiology, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology.

Were it only for his role as prince, viceroy, and martyr, few scholars would know of Ulugh Beg. But his memory lives on because he was an observatory builder, patron of astronomy, and astronomer in his own right. He was certainly the most important observational astronomer of the 15th century. He was one of the first to advocate and build permanently mounted astronomical instruments. His catalogue of 1018 stars (some sources count 1022) was the only such undertaking carried out between the times of Claudius Ptolemy (ca. 170 A.D.) and Tycho Brahe (ca. 1600). And, as we shall briefly discuss here, his attitude towards scientific endeavors was surprisingly modern. The administration of Transoxiana was the responsibility of Ulugh Beg's father for most of Ulugh Beg's life. The prince had the opportunity (and the inclination) to pursue scholarly matters. His interest in astronomy dates from an early age, when he visited the remains of the Maragha Observatory, made famous by the astronomer Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-74). The principal accomplishment at Maragha was the Zij-i ilkhani, or Ilkhanic Tables.[2]

Epact is an electronic catalogue of medieval and renaissance scientific instruments from four European museums: the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, the Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence , the British Museum, London, and the Museum Boerhaave, Leiden. Together, these museums house the finest collections of early scientific instruments in the world.