tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1030220433025894048.post2719942665485879696..comments2023-11-03T08:02:25.369-04:00Comments on AmericanScience: A Team Blog: Southern ScienceDavid Roth Singermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12841041983824755867noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1030220433025894048.post-36215086179803735692012-03-06T16:38:56.684-05:002012-03-06T16:38:56.684-05:00Hey Will. Thanks for jumping in. I had not heard o...Hey Will. Thanks for jumping in. I had not heard of the Barnard Observatory. One of best observatories of the 1840s---I gather---was in a far more surprising place than a southern university. Alexander Dallas Bache led to the creation of an internationally recognized observatory in Philadelphia's Central High School. (I got that from Bruce's _The Launching of Modern American Science_, 47) And another significant observatory was also in the South, if you count DC: the Naval Observatory.<br /><br />More generally, I did not mean to insinuate that I was surprised to find science in the South. I was surprised by the category of "Southern science" as distinct from science or "American science."<br /><br />Your references to Charleston did get me thinking and I checked out Bruce (cited above). It turns out that he does talk about "Southern science," largely in explaining why the South seemed to have so little of it in the 1850s. But he agrees that Charleston was the center of it, with New Orleans a distant second. If Southern science had a character, it was characterized by a particular interest in natural history (hardly unconventional) and---I'm adding this---by physicians engaged in human and racial science.<br /><br />I bet adding doctors more into the mix of "science" would make the South look at least less behind than Bruce argues.Danhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05217832960135325575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1030220433025894048.post-86942448464291177482012-03-06T02:53:22.589-05:002012-03-06T02:53:22.589-05:00My knowledge is about as sparse, but since there a...My knowledge is about as sparse, but since there are no other takers.... The Barnard Observatory in Mississippi is one of the oldest observatories in the US: http://www.olemiss.edu/tours/lmsections-barnard.html<br /><br />Also in the antebellum South, Charleston was a scientific center, which included John James Audobon. I believe that polymath physicians were particularly important in these circles.<br /><br />Also, if you count Virgina, there's always Jefferson.Will Thomashttp://etherwave.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com