Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers

When:
Thursday, Dec 15, 2016 6:00p -
7:00p

Where:
Boston Athenæum
10 ½ Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108

EventScheduled OfflineEventAttendanceMode

Admission:
$15.00

Categories:
< 21, Art, Date Idea, Lectures & Conferences, Meetup, Nightlife

Event website:
http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/events/4147/nathaniel-bowditch-and-power-numbers

Tamara Plakins Thornton will present on the life and work of Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838), a man Thomas Jefferson once called a “meteor in the hemisphere.” A mathematician, astronomer, navigator, seafarer, business executive, and transformational Athenæum Trustee, Bowditch’s Enlightenment-inspired perspectives shaped nineteenth century capitalism while broadly transforming daily American life. Enthralled with the precision and certainty of numbers and the unerring regularity of the physical universe, Bowditch operated and represented some of New England's most powerful institutions—from financial corporations to Harvard College—as clockwork mechanisms. By examining Bowditch’s innovative approach to the administration of institutions as well as the political and social controversies this method provoked, Thornton’s biography sheds new light on the rise of capitalism, American science, and the social elite in the early Republic.


Tamara Plakins Thornton is a Professor of History at the State University of New York, Buffalo. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College and a PhD from Yale University. Thornton’s research interests include American cultural and intellectual history, early republic and antebellum America, capitalist culture, and the structure of intellectual life.


Registration begins December 1 at 9 am.


To register, go to: https://bbd.bostonathenaeum.org/sslpage.aspx?pid=300


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The Athenæum's five galleried floors overlook the peaceful Granary Burying Ground, and, as Gamaliel Bradford wrote in 1931, "it is safe to say that [no library] anywhere has more an atmosphere of its own, that none is more conducive to intellectual aspiration and spiritual peace." The building was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

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12/15/2016 18:00:00 12/15/2016 19:00:00 America/New_York Nathaniel Bowditch and the Power of Numbers Tamara Plakins Thornton will present on the life and work of Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838), a man Thomas Jefferson once called a “meteor in the hemisphere.” A mathematician, astronomer, navigator,...

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