Category: History of Science

“A Trifling Return…for the Great Service”: Learning from the Industrial Arts Index
02 October 2023 by Grayson Van Beuren


“A Trifling Return…for the Great Service”: Learning from the Industrial Arts Index

As we head into the last quarter of 2023, we’ve been getting inquiries from researchers about what is “exclusive” to Paratext’s Eight Centuries. As a response, we’re reaching back into our blog archive to republish some posts on sources and methodologies that remain just as relevant today as when they were first posted. This article, originally published in June 2018, was part of the  “Exploring” blog series looking at various exclusive sources(read more)




Now Available to Search in United States Masterfile: NASA Index to Photograph Files
03 July 2023 by Paratext Editorial


Now Available to Search in United States Masterfile: NASA Index to Photograph Files

Paratext is happy to announce another recent addition to United States Masterfile: the NASA Index to Photograph Files, 1958-1991. This resource joins the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Repository and the NASA Planetary Data System Digital Products archive in United States Masterfile, giving researchers access to a wider variety of NASA-derived resources than ever before. Providing searchable descriptions of nearly 65 thousand images produced by NASA from the late 1950s to the(read more)




Now Available to Search in United States Masterfile: NASA STI Repository
07 December 2022 by Paratext Editorial


Now Available to Search in United States Masterfile: NASA STI Repository

Paratext is happy to announce another recent addition to United States Masterfile: the NASA Scientific and Technical Information Repository. A resource containing over 500 thousand records and counting, NASA’s Scientific and Technical Information Repository contains documents from as far back as the days of NACA to as recently as 2022. The NASA STI repository contains open source reports, technical documents, metadata, videos, sound recordings, and images relating to the past and(read more)




Now Available to Search in Eight Centuries: Biodiversity Heritage Library
16 November 2022 by Paratext Editorial


Now Available to Search in Eight Centuries: Biodiversity Heritage Library

Paratext is happy to announce another recent addition to Eight Centuries: the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL). A database founded in 2006 and maintained by a consortium of United States and European libraries and academies, the BHL operates as an Open Source resource for the biological research community. The BHL data contained in Eight Centuries comprises over 166 thousand records to biology texts ranging from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Within the Biodiversity(read more)




A Smell Bad Enough to Leave Town: One of the Worst Odors in the History of Science
10 August 2020 by Grayson Van Beuren


A Smell Bad Enough to Leave Town: One of the Worst Odors in the History of Science

This is post continues our series exploring the oddest, most out-there corners of the history of science to be found in the Catalogue of Scientific Papers and other similar sources in Eight Centuries. Those unfamiliar with this fascinating source from the Royal Society should check out our description of the CSP. I recently read this post about incredibly bad smells in the New York Time’s “Good Question” series (written by the always-great Randall Munroe).1 In the post, he(read more)




“Perfectly Adapted to Its Purpose and Fairly Indestructible”: A Cutting-Edge Tech Review from 1901
24 March 2020 by Grayson Van Beuren


“Perfectly Adapted to Its Purpose and Fairly Indestructible”: A Cutting-Edge Tech Review from 1901

This is the first post in a series exploring the most out-of-the-way corners of the history of science to be found in the Catalogue of Scientific Papers. Those unfamiliar with this fascinating source from the Royal Society should check out our description of the CSP. This post is about a device that was everywhere in retail and business until roughly the 1970s, at which point it quietly dropped out of the public eye. I’m talking about the mechanical calculator called the Comptometer.(read more)




“A Want of Dignity Wholly Unworthy of the Government”: James Smithson, the Annual Report, and the Question: “Should the Federal Government Participate in Scientific Investigation?”
04 June 2019 by Grayson Van Beuren


“A Want of Dignity Wholly Unworthy of the Government”: James Smithson, the Annual Report, and the Question: “Should the Federal Government Participate in Scientific Investigation?”

The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC recently named Lonnie G. Bunch III as its fourteenth Secretary, the first African American to hold the position. In celebration of this occasion, let’s explore the beginnings of the Smithsonian.   The Smithsonian Institution is a remarkable institution. Founded in 1846 and sometimes called “the nation’s attic,” the institution brings millions of visitors in contact with science and history each year. Scholars(read more)




“The Entire Collection Could Have Been Held by a Four-Shelf Bookcase”: Dr. John Shaw Billings and the Surgeon General Office’s Library
16 May 2019 by Grayson Van Beuren


“The Entire Collection Could Have Been Held by a Four-Shelf Bookcase”: Dr. John Shaw Billings and the Surgeon General Office’s Library

We recently augmented 19th Century Masterfile with data from the Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon-General’s Office. This index—and the library that spawned it—were largely the work of one incredible surgeon and bibliophile: Dr. John Shaw Billings.   We’ve all, while researching, thought to ourselves, “I sure wish the library had this particular book,” or lamented, “It sure would be great if this library’s collection was(read more)




"A Profitable, Elevating, and Attractive Profession”: Bettering Farming through the Farmers' Bulletin
12 July 2018 by Grayson Van Beuren


"A Profitable, Elevating, and Attractive Profession”: Bettering Farming through the Farmers' Bulletin

Exploring the Farmers’ Bulletin… Our “Exploring” series continues with the Farmers’ Bulletin, a publication from the United States Department of Agriculture that first appeared in 1889. For over a century, the Bulletin has disseminated the latest research out of Agricultural Experiment Stations across the country with the aim of leading farmers to bigger crop yields and more rewarding home lives. Persuit of this goal has sometimes led the Bulletin to publish(read more)




“A Trifling Return…for the Great Service”
06 June 2018 by Grayson Van Beuren


“A Trifling Return…for the Great Service”

Exploring the Industrial Arts Index... Continuing with our “Exploring” blog series, today we will look at the Industrial Arts Index. Before the current-day crowd of scientific and engineering online discovery services existed, staying up-to-date in one’s field involved visiting the reference section of the local library and using their subject indexes. The Industrial Arts Index was one such tool, designed to make it easy to find the most widely-used and useful articles in(read more)




New Major Science and Technology Content from IGI Global
30 March 2017 by Paratext Editorial


New Major Science and Technology Content from IGI Global

IGI Global is a leading international academic reference publisher in information science, business science, medical information science and engineering science. This week, Paratext added more than 270 additional Major Reference Works, with an emphasis on IGI Global’s contributions to STEM studies, to the vast introductory metadata of Reference Universe: 1975-2017. This new addition of nearly 16,000 article level links to the 273 most(read more)




Largest Repository for History of Science Periodicals Now Online
30 November 2016 by Paratext Editorial


Largest Repository for History of Science Periodicals Now Online

356 years after The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge held their first 'learned society' meeting in 1660, Paratext announces the addition of The Society's International Catalogue of Scientific Literature, 1901-1914 to 19th Century Masterfile: 1106-1930. This is the continuation of the monumental Catalogue of Scientific Papers 1800-1900, which Paratext deployed in 2012.   The International Catalogue is the largest single editorial(read more)




New Elsevier Content in Reference Universe
17 November 2016 by Paratext Editorial


New Elsevier Content in Reference Universe

Elsevier remains one of the world’s leading providers in science, health, and technology discoveries. In conjunction with the efforts of Elsevier, Reference Universe: 1975-2017 aims to provide researchers with the most current, introductory works of today. With that in mind, Paratext has enhanced the Elsevier profile in Reference Universe with an additional 12,000 article level links to 257 new Elsevier major reference titles. The(read more)




Links to Royal Society Full-Text Journals' Now in 19th Century Masterfile
31 January 2012 by Paratext Editorial


Links to Royal Society Full-Text Journals' Now in 19th Century Masterfile

The Royal Society is the oldest scientific academy still in existence, having begun in the 17th century with the regular meetings of natural philosophers interested in promoting knowledge of the natural world through observation and experiment. Paratext is pleased to announce that more than 6,000 links to the full text of the Royal Society Journals are now included in 19th Century Masterfile. The journals make up part of the more than 1,500 titles indexed within(read more)




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