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| The Adventures of Captain John Smith, Pocahontas, and a Sundial: Astronomy, Mathematics, and Power at the Time of Jamestown |
| Dr. Sara Schechner - David P. Wheatland Curator, Harvard University Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments |
| Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 8:00 PM |
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While exploring Virginia by canoe in December 1607, Captain John Smith was ambushed by Powhatan Indians and chased into the swamp. Wounded by arrows and mired in the cold mud, Smith surrendered and was led to their chieftain, Opechancanough. Smith played for time. He pulled out his pocket sundial and proceeded to deliver a lecture on astronomy! The Indians marveled at the dancing needle of the magnetic compass, which they could plainly see but not touch because of the glass cover. They apparently thought less of Smith’s discourse in a foreign language on the sun, moon, and planets, as within the hour, Smith’s captors had him tied to a tree and were ready to shoot him. But then, Opechancanough held the sundial aloft and spared Smith’s life. For the next month, Smith was alternately fÉted and condemned before being released with the help of Pocahontas. Smith’s lucky break with his pocket sundial confirmed his belief that mathematical–indeed, astronomical–instruments were vital to the survival of Jamestown.
This famous event in American history will be our gateway to understanding the importance of astronomy in the exploration of the North America.
Speaker Bio
Sara Schechner, Ph.D. is the David P. Wheatland Curator of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University, and the Secretary of the Scientific Instrument Commission of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science. She is the chairman of the Historical Astronomy Division of the American Astronomical Society and a member of Commission 41 of the IAU.
Schechner earned degrees in physics and the history and philosophy of science from Harvard and Cambridge. Before returning to Harvard’s History of Science Department, Schechner was chief curator at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum in Chicago, and curated exhibits for the Smithsonian Institution, the American Astronomical Society, and the American Physical Society. Her books include Comets, Popular Culture, and the Birth of Modern Cosmology (1997) and Western Astrolabes (1998). Current research focuses on sundials, science, and social change; and the impact of Revolutionary politics on astronomy in colonial America.
Schechner is mindful of the importance of outreach between scholars and the public. Her astronomy outreach projects have included interactive sundials for outdoor learning centers, a hands-on astrolabe kit, and programs for the Girl Scout Councils of the Nation’s Capital and Patriots’ Trail. For the Transit of Venus in 2004, Schechner organized a sunrise festival at Harvard that included observations of the transit not only with modern instruments but also with the same telescope used by John Winthrop in 1769, museum exhibitions, the Harvard Band performing John Philip Sousa’s Transit of Venus March, and special talks. She is currently at work on a sundial for the blind for a public park in Newton, MA.
Please join us for a pre-meeting dinner discussion at Changsho, 1712 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA at 6:00pm before the meeting. |
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