History of Science and Nature materials in Haverford Special Collections (HC)

By Daniel Smith, who was a Philadelphia pharmacist and professor at Haverford. This book is a textbook of chemistry set out in numbered sections. Smith created this edition of the book by heavily revising an earlier 1837 edition to include new advances in chemistry.

By Robert Boyle. 1684 edition presenting first presenting Boyle’s experiments and conjectures on pores in animals and plants and then attempting to extrapolate these principles to minerals.

By Columbus C. Conwell. Part of a volume of the Pendle Hill Library and bound together with other short works, this work lists various compounds isolated from vegetable sources and describes their physical properties with an attempt at chemical classification.

By Theodore W. Richards. This book is a bound-together collection of journal articles in English and German from 1886-1908 concerning chemistry and ordered roughly sequentially.

By John Dalton, who was a chemist and meteorologist most famous advancing a theory of atoms. This work is his seminal publication showing how atomic theory could explain problems like the mixing of gases and chemical reactions.

By Paracelsus, who was a Renaissance physician who was famous for questioning scholastic methods in medicine. This work is a translation by Arthur Waite focusing on Paracelsus’ occult writings particularly astrology and alchemy.

By Basilius Valentinus, about alchemy.

By Isaac Sharpless. This work is a textbook in physics covering the major areas in physics at the end of the nineteenth century in a relatively non-technical way. It is notable for an extensive list of suggested experiments and illustrations of experimental apparti.

By Sir Richard R. Phillips. This work attempts to summarize physics of the time without the use of mathematics. It includes a number of illustrations of experimental apparati.

By Digby Kenelm, who was an English natural philosopher and supporter of Charles I. This book contains reflections on the nature of the physical world including quantity, light, motion, chemistry, and color as well as sections on nature, memory, knowledge, and emotions.

By Nicolaus Copernicus. First-edition copy of Copernicus’ seminal work laying out his heliocentric theory.

By Galileo Galilei. This item is three volumes from 1718 of the collected works of Galileo in Italian including illustrations.

The first part of this book is a translation of part of the first-century work Astronomica by Marcus Manilius along with annotations by Edward Sherburne. The second part of the book presents a catalog of astronomers ancient and modern. Includes fold out moon maps and astronomical charts.

By Isaac Newton. First edition copy of Newton’s 1687 work on physics.

By Benjamin Franklin. This book is a collection of letters written by Franklin to various people describing his experiments with electricity and his observations derived from those experiments. Includes some pictures of experimental apparti.

By Robert Boyle. This is a 1669 volume expanding on his experiments with an air pump that Boyle undertook with Robert Hooke.

By Robert Boyle. 1665 edition of Boyle’s treatise examining the nature of coldness.

By Joseph Moxon. Includes information on using sundials, and ancient stories about the origin of the stars and constellations.

By Johannes de Sacrobosco, an astronomer who wrote on the Ptolameic universe and the problems of the Julian calendar.