On December 10, 1827, American landscape photographer Benjamin West Kilburn was born. He was the younger brother who eventually took over the family’s business of commercial landscape photography. One of the latest entertainment crazes in Europe, the stereoscope, had arrived in North America. The…
On December 4, 1906, Doctor Robert Wallace Wilkins was born in Tennessee. He was a clinical investigator of cardiovascular function and disease. Wilkins began his career at Johns Hopkins University as a circulation research associate and instructor in medicine. He became professor, then, Chief…
On November 30, 1900, medical philanthropist Mary Woodward Lasker was born in Wisconsin. Several formative influences helped shape her future direction. Her father was a banker; her mother, a community activist. Lasker suffered childhood ear infections that prompted her growing interests in medical research.…
On November 26, 1837, English analytic chemist John Newlands was born. During his working life, the Chemical and Physical Sciences were abuzz with researchers and experimenters trying to get a handle on the atomic structure of molecules and whatever else that might be discovered…
On November 6, 1771, German writer and lithographer Alois Senefelder was born. As a playwright and sometimes actor, he tried to support himself as a printer with a small printing press. In his day, illustrations were engraved on copperplate. Senefelder could not afford an…
On August 21, 1960, American professional engineer and bridge designer David Barnard Steinman died. Since childhood, he had loved bridges and the colossal integrated parts that support them. Steinman pursued the studies in mathematics related to bridge building with a doctoral thesis that became…
On July 30, 1920, Marie Tharp was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan. A pioneering oceanographic cartographer, she mapped the ocean floor and co-discovered the Mid-Oceanic Ridges, along with her colleague Bruce Heezen, Columbia University’s team leader of ocean ridge mapping. As they worked down the…
On July 24, 1843, chemist, photographer, and astronomer Sir William de Wiveleslie Abney was born. Raised in a family and circle of friends all interested in photography, Abney, like many members of photographic clubs and societies, experimented with film and its chemistry. In at…
On June 26, 1824, British mathematician, physicist, and inventor Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, was born. A student-researcher of many natural phenomena, Thomson spent his life learning and applying his knowledge and expertise to them all and, often, simultaneously. Lauded as a giant of…
On June 12, 1944, Big Bend National Park became a reality in Texas. An area of markedly contrasting elevations – from Rio Grande shoreline at 550 m (1800 ft) to Emory Peak at 12600 m (7,832 ft) – is home to many varied microclimates…