Russell W. Peterson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195309454
- eISBN:
- 9780199871261
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195309454.003.0002
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology, Biodiversity / Conservation Biology
This chapter discusses the excesses of the Industrial Revolution and the explosion of the human population as the issues that showed us the devastating impact that human activities could have on the ...
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This chapter discusses the excesses of the Industrial Revolution and the explosion of the human population as the issues that showed us the devastating impact that human activities could have on the earth. It traces the environmental movement through the 20th century, noting that it gained an ethic and a mission with two important mid-century publications: Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac in 1949 and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. It reviews the life and accomplishments of Lee Talbot, a key player in the development of US environmental policy and practice.Less
This chapter discusses the excesses of the Industrial Revolution and the explosion of the human population as the issues that showed us the devastating impact that human activities could have on the earth. It traces the environmental movement through the 20th century, noting that it gained an ethic and a mission with two important mid-century publications: Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac in 1949 and Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. It reviews the life and accomplishments of Lee Talbot, a key player in the development of US environmental policy and practice.
Maureen Perkins
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121787
- eISBN:
- 9780191671302
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121787.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, 18th-century Literature
Historians have long puzzled over the ‘death’ of astrology at the end of the seventeenth century. This book demonstrates that astrology was alive and well for much of the nineteenth century, finding ...
More
Historians have long puzzled over the ‘death’ of astrology at the end of the seventeenth century. This book demonstrates that astrology was alive and well for much of the nineteenth century, finding expression in one of the best-selling items of popular literature, the almanac. It examines the contents of the most notorious almanacs, such as Moore's and Poor Robin, publications which provide a colourful entry into popular culture and which suggest that a belief in the possibility of seeing the future was widespread. The book goes on to discuss why all claims to predict the future, including those of astrology, became categorized as ‘superstition’. It argues that this development was linked to two major cultural changes: the rise of statistical discourse and the dominance of Newtonian time. Statistical forecasting achieved the status of a ‘science’ at the same time as ‘visions’ of the future were being marginalized. Examining the historical context of the substitution of one type of knowledge for another makes a contribution to current discussion about interaction between the different levels of culture.Less
Historians have long puzzled over the ‘death’ of astrology at the end of the seventeenth century. This book demonstrates that astrology was alive and well for much of the nineteenth century, finding expression in one of the best-selling items of popular literature, the almanac. It examines the contents of the most notorious almanacs, such as Moore's and Poor Robin, publications which provide a colourful entry into popular culture and which suggest that a belief in the possibility of seeing the future was widespread. The book goes on to discuss why all claims to predict the future, including those of astrology, became categorized as ‘superstition’. It argues that this development was linked to two major cultural changes: the rise of statistical discourse and the dominance of Newtonian time. Statistical forecasting achieved the status of a ‘science’ at the same time as ‘visions’ of the future were being marginalized. Examining the historical context of the substitution of one type of knowledge for another makes a contribution to current discussion about interaction between the different levels of culture.
Maureen Perkins
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121787
- eISBN:
- 9780191671302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121787.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, 18th-century Literature
The eighteenth century was a period of stagnation for English almanacs. The dates which set the parameters of this book mark the processes by which a long-established almanac tradition was ...
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The eighteenth century was a period of stagnation for English almanacs. The dates which set the parameters of this book mark the processes by which a long-established almanac tradition was transformed and the company was shaken out of its complacency to face competition from a very different concept in almanac literature. The beginning of the story is 1775, when Thomas Carnan successfully challenged the monopoly. This shock preceded the political and cultural changes of the late 1780s which had an enormous influence on popular literature. It ends in 1870, shortly after the first appearance of Whitaker's, the definitive statistical almanac, a publication which could be seen as a symbol of the final defeat of the astrological almanacs which had for so long dominated the popular market.Less
The eighteenth century was a period of stagnation for English almanacs. The dates which set the parameters of this book mark the processes by which a long-established almanac tradition was transformed and the company was shaken out of its complacency to face competition from a very different concept in almanac literature. The beginning of the story is 1775, when Thomas Carnan successfully challenged the monopoly. This shock preceded the political and cultural changes of the late 1780s which had an enormous influence on popular literature. It ends in 1870, shortly after the first appearance of Whitaker's, the definitive statistical almanac, a publication which could be seen as a symbol of the final defeat of the astrological almanacs which had for so long dominated the popular market.
Maureen Perkins
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121787
- eISBN:
- 9780191671302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121787.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, 18th-century Literature
Although the members of the Stationers' Company had seemed impervious to Charles Knight's criticism of association with superstitious rubbish earlier in the century, by the 1860s, the march of ...
More
Although the members of the Stationers' Company had seemed impervious to Charles Knight's criticism of association with superstitious rubbish earlier in the century, by the 1860s, the march of respectability was making itself felt. This may be the reason why detailed almanac records stopped in 1869. After a surge in profits in the early 1880s, the figures fell away steadily for the rest of the century. In 1896, the publishing firm of Letts took over the remaining company almanacs in return for an annual payment of 6 per cent of the total profits. The remaining five titles were Moore's, Goldsmith's, Stationers', the Clergyman and the British. In 1907 Letts negotiated the handover of its almanac agreement with the company to the firm of Cassell. After the First World War, Cassell reduced the number of almanacs to only two, Moore's as a book, and the Stationers' as a sheet.Less
Although the members of the Stationers' Company had seemed impervious to Charles Knight's criticism of association with superstitious rubbish earlier in the century, by the 1860s, the march of respectability was making itself felt. This may be the reason why detailed almanac records stopped in 1869. After a surge in profits in the early 1880s, the figures fell away steadily for the rest of the century. In 1896, the publishing firm of Letts took over the remaining company almanacs in return for an annual payment of 6 per cent of the total profits. The remaining five titles were Moore's, Goldsmith's, Stationers', the Clergyman and the British. In 1907 Letts negotiated the handover of its almanac agreement with the company to the firm of Cassell. After the First World War, Cassell reduced the number of almanacs to only two, Moore's as a book, and the Stationers' as a sheet.
Maureen Perkins
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121787
- eISBN:
- 9780191671302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121787.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, 18th-century Literature
Among comments from those who were concerned to reform popular literature in this period, one title was mentioned almost as frequently as Moore's. This was Poor Robin, for almost 200 years the only ...
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Among comments from those who were concerned to reform popular literature in this period, one title was mentioned almost as frequently as Moore's. This was Poor Robin, for almost 200 years the only comic almanac in official circulation. Close examination of its contents illustrates that the purpose of Poor Robin was above all to make its readers laugh. However, laughter was an aspect of popular culture that became subject to attempts at reform. Such reform could only succeed through the appropriation of humorous literature rather than its suppression, and in appropriating the form of the comic almanac. Middle-class writers failed to reproduce Poor Robin's central motif, that of the simple man who knew better than those richer or higher on the social scale. The theme of simple folks' wisdom did not disappear from popular literature, but was taken up in the 1840s by the dialect almanacs of the north-east.Less
Among comments from those who were concerned to reform popular literature in this period, one title was mentioned almost as frequently as Moore's. This was Poor Robin, for almost 200 years the only comic almanac in official circulation. Close examination of its contents illustrates that the purpose of Poor Robin was above all to make its readers laugh. However, laughter was an aspect of popular culture that became subject to attempts at reform. Such reform could only succeed through the appropriation of humorous literature rather than its suppression, and in appropriating the form of the comic almanac. Middle-class writers failed to reproduce Poor Robin's central motif, that of the simple man who knew better than those richer or higher on the social scale. The theme of simple folks' wisdom did not disappear from popular literature, but was taken up in the 1840s by the dialect almanacs of the north-east.
Maureen Perkins
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121787
- eISBN:
- 9780191671302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121787.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter discusses the content and readership of colonial Australian almanacs, at first to illustrate what can be gleaned about popular culture from their pages, and then to demonstrate that the ...
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This chapter discusses the content and readership of colonial Australian almanacs, at first to illustrate what can be gleaned about popular culture from their pages, and then to demonstrate that the colonial margins were actually much more influential on cultural developments in London than has hitherto been suspected. A close reading of English and Australian almanacs of the nineteenth century reveals that compilers were aware of each other's work. The colonial scene was a frequent source of material for English almanacs. The success of Australian almanacs under the most trying of publishing conditions was applauded in England, a recognition that may have been unique in the early colonial experience. With their informative articles about the colonial environment, as well as their lists of the civil and military administration, early Australian almanacs were works of reference used by some in England long before Whitaker's dominated the market.Less
This chapter discusses the content and readership of colonial Australian almanacs, at first to illustrate what can be gleaned about popular culture from their pages, and then to demonstrate that the colonial margins were actually much more influential on cultural developments in London than has hitherto been suspected. A close reading of English and Australian almanacs of the nineteenth century reveals that compilers were aware of each other's work. The colonial scene was a frequent source of material for English almanacs. The success of Australian almanacs under the most trying of publishing conditions was applauded in England, a recognition that may have been unique in the early colonial experience. With their informative articles about the colonial environment, as well as their lists of the civil and military administration, early Australian almanacs were works of reference used by some in England long before Whitaker's dominated the market.
George A. Wilkins
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198508410
- eISBN:
- 9780191708831
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198508410.003.0012
- Subject:
- Mathematics, History of Mathematics
This chapter traces the history of the preparation of nautical almanacs. Topics covered include early procedures for preparing the Nautical Almanac; the computational work of the Nautical Almanac ...
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This chapter traces the history of the preparation of nautical almanacs. Topics covered include early procedures for preparing the Nautical Almanac; the computational work of the Nautical Almanac Office (1831–1925); 20th-century procedures for computation; presentation of astronomical and mathematical tables; copy preparation, proofreading, and printing procedures; and publication and distribution media.Less
This chapter traces the history of the preparation of nautical almanacs. Topics covered include early procedures for preparing the Nautical Almanac; the computational work of the Nautical Almanac Office (1831–1925); 20th-century procedures for computation; presentation of astronomical and mathematical tables; copy preparation, proofreading, and printing procedures; and publication and distribution media.
Kevin E. O’Donnell (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780813178790
- eISBN:
- 9780813178806
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Kentucky
- DOI:
- 10.5810/kentucky/9780813178790.003.0701
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Social Groups
The texts collected here describe late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century Appalachia as a geographical and political frontier and include Cherokee narratives, works by pioneers and frontiersmen ...
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The texts collected here describe late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century Appalachia as a geographical and political frontier and include Cherokee narratives, works by pioneers and frontiersmen and Native Americans who assimilated into European culture, revealing how this borderland became a cultural, rhetorical, and mythical frontier. The selections also include Enlightenment, Euro-American views of Appalachia from men such as Thomas Jefferson and William Bartram.Less
The texts collected here describe late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century Appalachia as a geographical and political frontier and include Cherokee narratives, works by pioneers and frontiersmen and Native Americans who assimilated into European culture, revealing how this borderland became a cultural, rhetorical, and mythical frontier. The selections also include Enlightenment, Euro-American views of Appalachia from men such as Thomas Jefferson and William Bartram.
Catriona Kelly
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198159643
- eISBN:
- 9780191673665
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198159643.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
Russian women's writing is now attracting enormous interest both in the West and in Russia itself. Written from a feminist perspective, this book combines a broad historical survey with close textual ...
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Russian women's writing is now attracting enormous interest both in the West and in Russia itself. Written from a feminist perspective, this book combines a broad historical survey with close textual analysis. Sections on women's writing in the periods 1820–80, 1881–1917, 1917–54, and 1953–92 are followed by chapters on individual writers. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including rare literary journals and almanacs, the book shows familiar figures such as Akhmatova, Tsevtaeva, and Tolstaya in a new context and brings to light a colourful gallery of fascinating but neglected writers including Elena Gan, NadezhdaTeffi, Natalya Baranskaya, and Nina Sadur. The text is supported by quotations from the Russian, all accompanied by English translations.Less
Russian women's writing is now attracting enormous interest both in the West and in Russia itself. Written from a feminist perspective, this book combines a broad historical survey with close textual analysis. Sections on women's writing in the periods 1820–80, 1881–1917, 1917–54, and 1953–92 are followed by chapters on individual writers. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including rare literary journals and almanacs, the book shows familiar figures such as Akhmatova, Tsevtaeva, and Tolstaya in a new context and brings to light a colourful gallery of fascinating but neglected writers including Elena Gan, NadezhdaTeffi, Natalya Baranskaya, and Nina Sadur. The text is supported by quotations from the Russian, all accompanied by English translations.
Maureen Perkins
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198121787
- eISBN:
- 9780191671302
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198121787.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature, 18th-century Literature
Taken as a whole, the Stationers' Company almanacs catered for more than just the cottage-dweller. At least some of the evidence for a predominantly low social level of readership comes from the pen ...
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Taken as a whole, the Stationers' Company almanacs catered for more than just the cottage-dweller. At least some of the evidence for a predominantly low social level of readership comes from the pen of Charles Knight, in whose interests it was to make such a clear-cut distinction seem possible. By constructing a picture of a newly literate, impressionable workforce corrupted by the ‘trash’ of almanacs, he lent urgency to his own plans to produce a respectable replacement. The potential divisiveness of popular reading for popular audiences was replaced by the mass discourse of an idealized ‘society of the text’, a readership whose utilitarian values would acknowledge the grand narrative of useful knowledge.Less
Taken as a whole, the Stationers' Company almanacs catered for more than just the cottage-dweller. At least some of the evidence for a predominantly low social level of readership comes from the pen of Charles Knight, in whose interests it was to make such a clear-cut distinction seem possible. By constructing a picture of a newly literate, impressionable workforce corrupted by the ‘trash’ of almanacs, he lent urgency to his own plans to produce a respectable replacement. The potential divisiveness of popular reading for popular audiences was replaced by the mass discourse of an idealized ‘society of the text’, a readership whose utilitarian values would acknowledge the grand narrative of useful knowledge.
Michael J Lannoo
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520264786
- eISBN:
- 9780520946064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520264786.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Aldo Leopold's book, Game Management, was well received, especially among scientists, conservationists, and sportsmen. With this book, he not only created an entirely new academic discipline. On June ...
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Aldo Leopold's book, Game Management, was well received, especially among scientists, conservationists, and sportsmen. With this book, he not only created an entirely new academic discipline. On June 26, 1933, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation approved $8,000 per year for five years to support a game management program, and Leopold also finagled the first-ever academic appointment in wildlife biology, at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Leopold followed up Game Management by putting his ideas into action. He first leased, then bought, eighty acres on the Wisconsin River, just north of Baraboo and east of the Wisconsin Dells. The place had a shack—an old chicken coop—where Leopold and his family began spending weekends. Here, he wrote essays, many of which became his second book, A Sand County Almanac. At the Shack, Leopold and his children kept a journal. Entries to the Shack journals were made in pencil.Less
Aldo Leopold's book, Game Management, was well received, especially among scientists, conservationists, and sportsmen. With this book, he not only created an entirely new academic discipline. On June 26, 1933, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation approved $8,000 per year for five years to support a game management program, and Leopold also finagled the first-ever academic appointment in wildlife biology, at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Leopold followed up Game Management by putting his ideas into action. He first leased, then bought, eighty acres on the Wisconsin River, just north of Baraboo and east of the Wisconsin Dells. The place had a shack—an old chicken coop—where Leopold and his family began spending weekends. Here, he wrote essays, many of which became his second book, A Sand County Almanac. At the Shack, Leopold and his children kept a journal. Entries to the Shack journals were made in pencil.
Michael J Lannoo
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520264786
- eISBN:
- 9780520946064
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520264786.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
In early July 1941, Aldo Leopold flew to the Delta Waterfowl Station in Manitoba, Canada, where he conferred with his former student and station director, Albert Hochbaum. Leopold and Hochbaum had ...
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In early July 1941, Aldo Leopold flew to the Delta Waterfowl Station in Manitoba, Canada, where he conferred with his former student and station director, Albert Hochbaum. Leopold and Hochbaum had for some time spoken informally about working together on a book of essays. Leopold was to provide the text, Hochbaum the drawings. By August 1941, plans for the book had become more definite, though the two men set no firm schedule. That fall, Leopold began crafting the first essays, drawing from his Shack experiences. In February 1947, Hochbaum withdrew from the project because of his responsibilities at the Delta Waterfowl Station. Philip Vaudrin, a trade editor at Oxford University Press, wrote to Leopold expressing interest in publishing his book. But just after Leopold and Vaudrin reached their publication agreement, Leopold died on April 21, 1948. From its original title Great Possessions, Leopold's book was finally published in the fall of 1949 as A Sand County Almanac.Less
In early July 1941, Aldo Leopold flew to the Delta Waterfowl Station in Manitoba, Canada, where he conferred with his former student and station director, Albert Hochbaum. Leopold and Hochbaum had for some time spoken informally about working together on a book of essays. Leopold was to provide the text, Hochbaum the drawings. By August 1941, plans for the book had become more definite, though the two men set no firm schedule. That fall, Leopold began crafting the first essays, drawing from his Shack experiences. In February 1947, Hochbaum withdrew from the project because of his responsibilities at the Delta Waterfowl Station. Philip Vaudrin, a trade editor at Oxford University Press, wrote to Leopold expressing interest in publishing his book. But just after Leopold and Vaudrin reached their publication agreement, Leopold died on April 21, 1948. From its original title Great Possessions, Leopold's book was finally published in the fall of 1949 as A Sand County Almanac.
Niall Ó Ciosáin
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780198187318
- eISBN:
- 9780191803277
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780198187318.003.0016
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter discusses the almanacs of nineteenth-century Ireland. The almanac was a text that could be put together and read in different ways. Its uniformity of appearance from year to year might ...
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This chapter discusses the almanacs of nineteenth-century Ireland. The almanac was a text that could be put together and read in different ways. Its uniformity of appearance from year to year might make it seem static, traditional, and conservative. For readers of limited skill, however, it offered an entry into print culture, a text which was easy to decipher, short, and discontinuous. It also provided an initiation into a more abstract and linear sense of time. The calendar gave an overview of the entire year in an essentially numerical form, while the covers of many almanacs place the year of publication in a regular sequence deriving from a reference point outside any particular locality. Foremost among the Irish almanacs aimed at a comfortable readership was the Gentleman’s and Citizen’s Almanac, published in Dublin from the 1720s to the 1840s. Aside from the standard calendar and list of fairs and markets, it contained detailed tables of distances for road travel and cost of postage from Dublin, as well as lists of government offices, office holders, and gentry families, all ‘printed by authority’.Less
This chapter discusses the almanacs of nineteenth-century Ireland. The almanac was a text that could be put together and read in different ways. Its uniformity of appearance from year to year might make it seem static, traditional, and conservative. For readers of limited skill, however, it offered an entry into print culture, a text which was easy to decipher, short, and discontinuous. It also provided an initiation into a more abstract and linear sense of time. The calendar gave an overview of the entire year in an essentially numerical form, while the covers of many almanacs place the year of publication in a regular sequence deriving from a reference point outside any particular locality. Foremost among the Irish almanacs aimed at a comfortable readership was the Gentleman’s and Citizen’s Almanac, published in Dublin from the 1720s to the 1840s. Aside from the standard calendar and list of fairs and markets, it contained detailed tables of distances for road travel and cost of postage from Dublin, as well as lists of government offices, office holders, and gentry families, all ‘printed by authority’.
Albert E. Moyer
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520076891
- eISBN:
- 9780520912137
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520076891.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter discusses Newcomb's intellectual meanderings in his younger years, and his first encounters with Joseph Henry and other practicing scientists. Newcomb was born in Wallace, Nova Scotia, ...
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This chapter discusses Newcomb's intellectual meanderings in his younger years, and his first encounters with Joseph Henry and other practicing scientists. Newcomb was born in Wallace, Nova Scotia, in 1835. He tried his hand at mathematical and scientific writing by producing a paper titled “A New Demonstration of the Binomial Theorem.” Having visited Washington, D.C., and learned of the Smithsonian Institution, he sent his mathematical demonstration to no less a figure than Joseph Henry (1797–1878), Smithsonian secretary and laureate of American physical science. Newcomb sought Henry's advice on the merits of the paper and its suitability for publication. Henry, after asking the opinion of a colleague in mathematics, responded with both reserve and encouragement, and also advised young Newcomb to contact the U.S. Coast Survey about the possibility of obtaining a suitable technical job. Geophysicist Julius E. Hilgard helped Newcomb obtain the position of “computer” under the direction of astronomer Joseph Winlock at the Nautical Almanac Office in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Less
This chapter discusses Newcomb's intellectual meanderings in his younger years, and his first encounters with Joseph Henry and other practicing scientists. Newcomb was born in Wallace, Nova Scotia, in 1835. He tried his hand at mathematical and scientific writing by producing a paper titled “A New Demonstration of the Binomial Theorem.” Having visited Washington, D.C., and learned of the Smithsonian Institution, he sent his mathematical demonstration to no less a figure than Joseph Henry (1797–1878), Smithsonian secretary and laureate of American physical science. Newcomb sought Henry's advice on the merits of the paper and its suitability for publication. Henry, after asking the opinion of a colleague in mathematics, responded with both reserve and encouragement, and also advised young Newcomb to contact the U.S. Coast Survey about the possibility of obtaining a suitable technical job. Geophysicist Julius E. Hilgard helped Newcomb obtain the position of “computer” under the direction of astronomer Joseph Winlock at the Nautical Almanac Office in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Albert E. Moyer
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520076891
- eISBN:
- 9780520912137
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520076891.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter reviews Newcomb's professional attainments during midcareer. After serving at the Naval Observatory since 1861 and after much political maneuvering, Newcomb was appointed superintendent ...
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This chapter reviews Newcomb's professional attainments during midcareer. After serving at the Naval Observatory since 1861 and after much political maneuvering, Newcomb was appointed superintendent of the navy's Almanac Office in 1877. His accomplishments in his early astronomical research to merit possible head positions at the Smithsonian Institution, the Harvard Observatory, the Coast Survey, and the Almanac Office are discussed. The chapter then describes the scientific societies that desired Newcomb as a leader. For instance, in 1877, he served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and, in 1879, succeeded the recently deceased Joseph Henry in two annual terms as president of the Philosophical Society of Washington.Less
This chapter reviews Newcomb's professional attainments during midcareer. After serving at the Naval Observatory since 1861 and after much political maneuvering, Newcomb was appointed superintendent of the navy's Almanac Office in 1877. His accomplishments in his early astronomical research to merit possible head positions at the Smithsonian Institution, the Harvard Observatory, the Coast Survey, and the Almanac Office are discussed. The chapter then describes the scientific societies that desired Newcomb as a leader. For instance, in 1877, he served as president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and, in 1879, succeeded the recently deceased Joseph Henry in two annual terms as president of the Philosophical Society of Washington.
Dorothy Price and Christopher Short
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781526121622
- eISBN:
- 9781526158291
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7765/9781526121639.00007
- Subject:
- Art, Art History
This chapter lays out the purpose and contents of the volume. It begins by sketching the origins of Der Blaue Reiter, which was formed in 1911 by Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and Gabriele Münter ...
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This chapter lays out the purpose and contents of the volume. It begins by sketching the origins of Der Blaue Reiter, which was formed in 1911 by Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and Gabriele Münter after Kandinsky’s Composition Vwas rejected by the New Artists’ Association of Munich.It then introduces the other chapters, written by a mixture of established and emerging scholars, which examine the legacy of Der Blaue Reiter from a variety of perspectives.Less
This chapter lays out the purpose and contents of the volume. It begins by sketching the origins of Der Blaue Reiter, which was formed in 1911 by Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and Gabriele Münter after Kandinsky’s Composition Vwas rejected by the New Artists’ Association of Munich.It then introduces the other chapters, written by a mixture of established and emerging scholars, which examine the legacy of Der Blaue Reiter from a variety of perspectives.
T.J. Tomlin
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199373659
- eISBN:
- 9780199373673
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199373659.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies, Religion and Society
A Divinity for All Persuasions investigates the religious significance of early America’s most ubiquitous popular genre. Other than a Bible and perhaps a few schoolbooks, an almanac was the only ...
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A Divinity for All Persuasions investigates the religious significance of early America’s most ubiquitous popular genre. Other than a Bible and perhaps a few schoolbooks, an almanac was the only printed item most people owned before 1820. A calendar surrounded by poetry, medical advice, moral axioms, and amusing anecdotes, the almanac is most often associated with folksy quaintness rather than serious cultural significance. This book uncovers and analyzes the pan-Protestant sensibility distributed through the almanac’s pages between 1730 and 1820. Influenced by readers’ opinions and printers’ pragmatism, the religious content of popular print supports an innovative interpretation of early American cultural and religious history. In sharp contrast to a historiography centered on intra-Protestant competition, this book demonstrates how most early Americans relied on a handful of Protestant “essentials” (the Bible, the afterlife, and a recognizably moral life) rather than denominational specifics to define and organize their religious lives. A Divinity for All Persuasions reveals popular culture’s influence on American religious life and the overwhelmingly religious nature of early American popular culture.Less
A Divinity for All Persuasions investigates the religious significance of early America’s most ubiquitous popular genre. Other than a Bible and perhaps a few schoolbooks, an almanac was the only printed item most people owned before 1820. A calendar surrounded by poetry, medical advice, moral axioms, and amusing anecdotes, the almanac is most often associated with folksy quaintness rather than serious cultural significance. This book uncovers and analyzes the pan-Protestant sensibility distributed through the almanac’s pages between 1730 and 1820. Influenced by readers’ opinions and printers’ pragmatism, the religious content of popular print supports an innovative interpretation of early American cultural and religious history. In sharp contrast to a historiography centered on intra-Protestant competition, this book demonstrates how most early Americans relied on a handful of Protestant “essentials” (the Bible, the afterlife, and a recognizably moral life) rather than denominational specifics to define and organize their religious lives. A Divinity for All Persuasions reveals popular culture’s influence on American religious life and the overwhelmingly religious nature of early American popular culture.
Deidre Shauna Lynch
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780226183701
- eISBN:
- 9780226183848
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226183848.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter tracks the efforts that critics, readers, anthologists, and publishers of almanacs made in the early-nineteenth century to incorporate aesthetic experiences into the continuum of ...
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This chapter tracks the efforts that critics, readers, anthologists, and publishers of almanacs made in the early-nineteenth century to incorporate aesthetic experiences into the continuum of everyday life, a time frame increasingly conceptualized as affection’s true home. Considering the alliances forged at this time between literature and discourses on health and domestic timetabling, it describes how the lover of literature came to be privileged as someone who was able in her reading life to “go steady” and who was prepared for married life accordingly. After discussing the accounts of the pleasures of poetic meter produced by the era’s associationist psychology--which centered on the human nervous system’s propensity for rhythm and repetition--the chapter outlines how later in the century, novels, Jane Austen’s especially, would absorb some of the therapeutic functions previously ascribed to poetry. Novels became loveable, literary, and healthy in measure as they became perennially rereadable.Less
This chapter tracks the efforts that critics, readers, anthologists, and publishers of almanacs made in the early-nineteenth century to incorporate aesthetic experiences into the continuum of everyday life, a time frame increasingly conceptualized as affection’s true home. Considering the alliances forged at this time between literature and discourses on health and domestic timetabling, it describes how the lover of literature came to be privileged as someone who was able in her reading life to “go steady” and who was prepared for married life accordingly. After discussing the accounts of the pleasures of poetic meter produced by the era’s associationist psychology--which centered on the human nervous system’s propensity for rhythm and repetition--the chapter outlines how later in the century, novels, Jane Austen’s especially, would absorb some of the therapeutic functions previously ascribed to poetry. Novels became loveable, literary, and healthy in measure as they became perennially rereadable.
Thomas S. Kidd
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300104219
- eISBN:
- 9780300128406
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300104219.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter discusses how New England almanacs served the interests of British nationalism through preserving the memory of key dates in the British monarchy, and singing the monarchs' praises in ...
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This chapter discusses how New England almanacs served the interests of British nationalism through preserving the memory of key dates in the British monarchy, and singing the monarchs' praises in poetry. Almanacs, like the newspapers, often helped to promote themes sympathetic to the Protestant interest, and showed that the new cosmopolitanism and “enlightened” thought about science did not necessarily lead to theological liberalism. The chapter reveals that almanac-makers commanded a unique position in early eighteenth-century print trades, and serviced New England's interests in British identity and international Protestantism. Almanacs helped to create a heightened sense of British national identity by marking days both in the monarch's life, and those signifying Britain's deliverance from popery and arbitrary government. They easily combined ideas about redemptive history and science, much in the same manner as did their contemporaries Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, and others.Less
This chapter discusses how New England almanacs served the interests of British nationalism through preserving the memory of key dates in the British monarchy, and singing the monarchs' praises in poetry. Almanacs, like the newspapers, often helped to promote themes sympathetic to the Protestant interest, and showed that the new cosmopolitanism and “enlightened” thought about science did not necessarily lead to theological liberalism. The chapter reveals that almanac-makers commanded a unique position in early eighteenth-century print trades, and serviced New England's interests in British identity and international Protestantism. Almanacs helped to create a heightened sense of British national identity by marking days both in the monarch's life, and those signifying Britain's deliverance from popery and arbitrary government. They easily combined ideas about redemptive history and science, much in the same manner as did their contemporaries Cotton Mather, Jonathan Edwards, and others.
Clare Pettitt
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198830429
- eISBN:
- 9780191894688
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198830429.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
‘Yesterday’s News’ investigates the overlapping of different kinds of media time in the 1820s and 1830s. It tracks the persistence into modernity of older cultures of print and reading: almanacs, ...
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‘Yesterday’s News’ investigates the overlapping of different kinds of media time in the 1820s and 1830s. It tracks the persistence into modernity of older cultures of print and reading: almanacs, ballads, broadsheets, and miscellanies were all circulating alongside the popular illustrated twopenny papers of the 1820s. Historical descriptions (of the classical past; medieval dress; customs of the Tudors, and such like) became placeholders for ‘news’ in these popular papers. Using John Clare’s The Shepherd’s Calendar (1827) as an important commentary on the intersections of print and different forms of time in the 1820s, this chapter measures the time lag of the news for most Londoners who were unable to afford expensive newspapers and instead relied on out-of-date information, or topical popular publications, and so were struggling to catch up and, in the meanwhile, were encountering history as news.Less
‘Yesterday’s News’ investigates the overlapping of different kinds of media time in the 1820s and 1830s. It tracks the persistence into modernity of older cultures of print and reading: almanacs, ballads, broadsheets, and miscellanies were all circulating alongside the popular illustrated twopenny papers of the 1820s. Historical descriptions (of the classical past; medieval dress; customs of the Tudors, and such like) became placeholders for ‘news’ in these popular papers. Using John Clare’s The Shepherd’s Calendar (1827) as an important commentary on the intersections of print and different forms of time in the 1820s, this chapter measures the time lag of the news for most Londoners who were unable to afford expensive newspapers and instead relied on out-of-date information, or topical popular publications, and so were struggling to catch up and, in the meanwhile, were encountering history as news.
