A treasure trove on the history of science and technology has a new, permanent home on the west coast. The Burndy Library, composed of some 67,000 rare books and reference volumes, as well as a collection of scientific instruments, is now part of The Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif.
A treasure trove on the history of science and technology has a new, permanent home on the west coast. The Burndy Library, composed of some 67,000 rare books and reference volumes, as well as a collection of scientific instruments, is now part of The Huntington Library in San Marino, Calif.
The collection was assembled by the late Bern Dibner, a Connecticut inventor and industrialist. Materials range from antiquity to the 20th century, with a particular emphasis on 18th-century physics, including collections by and about Isaac Newton, as well as major collections in 18th- and 19th-century mathematics, the history of electricity, civil and structural engineering, optics, and color theory, among others. Rare treasures include a first edition of Robert Boyle's Experiments and Notes About the Mechanical Origin or Production of Electricity and the scientific library of Louis Pasteur.
From 1992 to 2006 the holdings and a scholarship program resided at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When the Burndy Library's agreement with MIT expired the Dibner family sought a permanent home for the collected works. The Huntington was selected over 16 other institutions.
The Huntington is one of the most heavily used rare books libraries in the nation outside of the Library of Congress. Among its strong collecting areas is the history of science and technology, documenting the growth of fundamental areas of scientific inquiry from the 12th century up to the dawn of the 21st. The addition of the Burndy Library further enhances The Huntington Library's reputation as one of the leading centers for scientific historical research.
(NASW members can read the entire article — and the rest of the Fall 2008 ScienceWriters — by logging into the members area.)
.png)
