I I INSTITUTE FOR SCIENTIFIC iNFORMATION~ I 3501 MARKET ST., PHI LADELPHIA, PA 19104 George Sarton: The Father of the I&tory of Scfesme. Part 2. Sartoss !Nsapes a New Discipiisse

Number 26 Jlfiv 1, 1985

Introduction engineer. The young couple established The first part of this short biography themselves in a picturesque country focused on the early lie of George Al- house in Wondelgem, near . fred LKon Sarton, 1 widely regarded as There, Sarton’s only surviving child, one of the key figures in the establish- Eleanore Marie (later shortened to May) ment of the as a disci- was born. There, too, Sarton founded pline in its own right. I examined the fac- the primary journal of the history of sci- tors that influenced Sarton’s philosophy ence, , which he edited for 40 years, concerning the interconnections be- and began work on his mammoth Zrrtro- tween the two cultures of science and duction to the History of .%ience. s the humanities. According to F.S. During these early years, it seemed as Bodenheimer, Sarton called this philos- though Sarton’s life and career had set- ophy “the new humanism. ” Embodied in tled into a comfortable pattern. But the his vision of the hktory of science was devastation of World War I shattered his the synthesis of science and the humani- scholarly idyll, forcing the Sartons to ties that would help make “scientists abandon their home in . They who are not mere scientists, but also could take so little with them that the men and citizens. “z precious notes for Sarton’s Introduction As mentioned in Part 1, shortly after to the History of Science were stored in a Sarton received his doctorate for his the- metal trunk buried in his garden. How- sis on celestial mechanics, on June 22, ever, a distant cousin later managed to 1911, he married Eleanor Mabel Elwes, dig up the notes and return them to Sar- the daughter of a Welsh civif and mining ton after the war.

SartossEmfgrates search of a position that would support both his family and hk dream of completing his The Sartons first went to , where History of Science. In September 1915, as George worked as a censor in the WarOffice. May reveals in her memoir, 1 Knew a Phoe- Although the flood of refugees from Belgium nix, she and her mother, Mabel, completed was welcomed, the War Office did not pay the hazardous passage across the Atlantic enough to support a family of three, and em- and joined George at the home of ployment opportunities in the history of sci- Leo Baekeland, the eccentric Belgian inven- ence were nowhere to be found. E.J. Dijk- tor of Bakelite, the first successful plastics sterhuis notes that the Italian hktonan of sci- (p. 86-91) ence, Aldo Mieli, offered Sarton the hospital- By good fortune, Sarton had reached the ity of KM home at Chlanciano, near Sienna.4 US at a time when the history of science was Instead, Sarton left his wife and child in En- becoming a recognized activity. Robert K. gland while he went to the in Merton, Columbia, and Arnold Thackray,

248 University of Pennsylvania and present editor position. With the hefp of Carnegie Institu- of Isis, note that although it was far from be- tion trustee , Wood- ing an established discipline and was almost ward created the post of research associate in unthought-of as a profession, it was begin- the history of science for Sarton. Characteris- ning to reach maturity.s (p. 110) Never- tically, according to I. Bernard Cohen, a theless, Sarton endured an uncertain time in member of the board that assumed the duties which he must have wondered whether or not of edhing Isis when Sarton eventually he would have to abandon his dream of a life stepped down, afmost as soon as Sarton heard exclusively devoted to the history of science. that he had secured a permanent position Despite this, he turned down a good job as a with a reguIar salary, he made plans to revive librarian at Rice University, Houston, Texas, Isis, which had been dormant during the because the university could not meet the one years of the war.7 condition about which he was adamant: that Thus began Sarton’s nearly lifelong associ- his employer take over the publication and ation with the Carnegie Institution; but financial support of Isis, which had been out though he was employed on a full-time basis of print since shortly after the invasion of Bel- in Washhrgton, he remained at Cambridge to gium.s (p. 93) study in the then-new Widener Library.b (p. The summer of 1916 found Sarton deliver- 110) When the war ended and he recovered ing a course of lectures at the University of 11- his notes—which were greatly augmented by linois, Urbana, and through Zsis board mem- the mass of new data he had accumulated in ber , among others, he the US—he found himself secure in one of tbe soon received other appointments.4 In the world’s great libraries, with his salary guaran- same year, for example, he gave a series of six teed by the Carnegie Institution, and with no lectures on science at the Lowell specific responsibilities or duties other than Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, and later those be set for himself. He was free at last to was a lecturer at the George Washington Uni- pursue the mission that he had never forgot- versity, Washington, DC. ten. Among those who helped Sarton arrange this frenetic but sustained round of tempo- Later Works rary appointments was L.J. Henderson, a bio- chemist and a junior but influential member Sarton’s sense of mission found its first, and of the faculty at Cam- perhaps best, expression in hk most-cited bridge, Massachusetts.b (p. 110) Henderson work, the Introduction to the History of Sci- had been teaching a course on the history of ence.s,s,g The development of this work is a science regularly since 1911 and supported microcosm of the evolution of Sarton’s con- Sarton’s goals for the discipline. He managed cept of the unity of scientific and cultural en- to obtain an appointment for Sarton as a “lec- deavors. Sponsored by the Carnegie Institu- turer in philosophy” at Harvard that extended tion, the Introduction has been cited in the until 1918, when the US involvement in Science Citation Indexm (SCP ), Sociai Sci- World War I caused financial problems for ences Citation IndeP (SSCP ), and the A rts the university. & Humanities Citation Index% (A& HCfl”) over 150 times from 1955 through 1984. It was not conceived as a work of hktorical narra- A Permanent PosMfon tive, but rather as a bibliography that would In response to Sarton’s renewed appeals serve as the basic source material for such a for work, Robert S. Woodward, second pres- hk.tory. 10It would deal with all science, cov- ident and successful organizer of the Carne- ering the enterprise from its earliest begin- gie Institution, Washington, DC, provided nings up through the twentieth century. Sar- the crucial financial support for Sarton.b ton at first imagined that it woufd be a rela- (p. 110) Wcrodward had a personal interest in tively short work. the history of science, and Sarton had been in Gradually, there emerged the concept of a touch with him even before the exile from colossal work that would consist of three se- Belgium. Although Woodward had initially ries of books. The first would survey cross- been unsympathetic to Sarton’s dream of sections of civilization by half-centuries; the establishing the history of science as a science second would deal with dtiferent types of civ- in its own right, he had slowly softened his ilizations; and the third would discuss, in de-

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tail, the histories of various %peciaf” sci- again the task eluded him. He published two: ences. The entire work would comprise some A History of Science. Ancient Science 26 volumes, but Sarton lived to complete only through the Golden Age of Greece, 12cited the first three volumes of the first series.4 60 times from 1955 through 1984, and A The first of these volumes, From Homer to History of Science, Hellenistic Science and ,3 was published in ]927 and Culture in the Last Three Centun”es B. C,, 13 contained 840 pages. It represents nine years cited about 45 times from 1955 through 1984. of active work and covered the period from Ironically, although Sarton had been wont to Homer through the eleventh century. The say that his real interests lay in the modern second volume took another four years to period, when he died, the bulk of his pub- complete. Published in 1931 in two large fished work covered antiquity and the Middle parts consisting of a total of 1,252 pages, it Ages. 10 was titled From Rabbi Ben Ezra to Roger

Bacons and covered the twelfth and thk- Honors and Awards teenth centuries. The third volume, g also printed in two parts, did not appear until Among the honors bestowed on Sarton 1947; when it did, it was apparent that the were the Prix Binoux of the AcadEmie des project could not continue, for it covered on- Sciences, Pans, in 1915 and again in 1935, ly the fourteenth century and had a total of and the Charles Homer Haskins Medal of the 1,018 pages. As reported in a 1956 obituary Medieval Academy of America in 1949. He printed in the British Medical JournaI, Sarton was made a Knight of the Order of Leopole in estimated that a similar work dealing with the his native Belgium in 1940 and was granted fifteenth century would have taken him 10 to numerous honorary degrees from such insti- 15 years to write.l” tutions as Brown University, Harvard Univer- During the course of his labors on the in- sity, and Goethe University, Frankfurt am troduction, Sarton found himself hampered Main, FRG. The scholarly honor societies to by his lack of knowledge of Arabic. 11Spend- which he belonged include the American ing the academic year 1931-1932 in the Near Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American East, he e~entually taught himself to read Phllosophlcal Society, the Royai Society of classical and modern Arabic. Sarton also Edinburgh, the Royal Flemish Academy of knew some Hebrew, Chinese, and Portu- Belgium, and the Arabic Academy of Damas- guese and was familiar with Latin and Greek. cus. A founding member of the International He was fluent in French, English, German, Academy of the History of Science, he also Italian, Dutch, Flemish, Swedish, Danish, served as President of the International Turkish, and Spanish. In 1936, he found the Union of the History of Science and Hon- time to begin a companion joumaI toIsis, and orary President of the History of Science So- he named it Osirik. The purpose of the jour- ciet y. In addition, he claimed honorary mem- nal was to publish articles that were too long bership in the history of science societies of for Isis but not quite comprehensive enough Belgium, England, Holland, Germany, to become a book. Sarton edited 10 volumes Israel, Itaiy, and Sweden. II of this new journal. The honor that gave Sarton the most plea- In 1940, I,B. Conant, President of Har- sure was the award of the George Sarton vard, elevated Sarton from his position of lec- Medal, which he was the first to receive. On turer, which was an annual appointment, to the occasion of Sarton’s retirement as editor tenured professor of the history of science. b of Isis in 1952, a committee under the chair- (p. 112) However, Sarton continued to draw manship of Frederick G. Kilgour, then of the the major portion of hk salaxy from the Car- Yale Medical L]brary, secured funds from negie Institution, which also provided Sarton Charles Pfizer and Company, a pharmaceuti- with a research and travel budget, money for cal and chemical manufacturing firm in New the purchase of books and penodlcals, and York, for a medal to be struck in Sarton’s full-time secretarial assistance. When Sarton honor. 14The obverse of the medal features a had published what would prove to be the last profile of Sarton, while on the reverse is a fig- volume of his great introduction, he resolved ure of the goddess Isis, copied from a drawing to write the lectures that he had been giving made by Sarton’s late wife for her husbands for so many years at Harvard. He planned to bookplate. The medal bears the inscription, complete the project in nine volumes, but “To further the historv of science. ”

250 The Council of the History of Science Soci- subsequent lecturers have included Ernst ety, which sponsora the award, felt that there Mayr (1971), (1972), I. Ber- was no person to whom the medal might be nard Cohen ( 1978), ( 1982), more appropriately awarded than to George Derek John de Solla Price ( 1983), and Arnold Sarton himself. 14In making the award, Doto- Thackray ( 1984). The speaker for 1985 will be thy Stimson, President of the Society said, “It Daniel Kevles. Table 2 lists each of the Sarton is most fitting that the George Sarton Medal, lecturers and their topics since the annual named in Dr. George Sarton’s honor, and to AAAS talk was renamed in Sarton’s honor. be awarded to those who have made an out- Yet despite the honors and accolades Sar- standing contribution to the history of sci- ton accumulated by the end of his career, his ence, should go first to Dr. Sarton himself..,. influence during hk lifetime was relatively Dr. Sarton has established, to a greater extent limited. According to Thackray and Merton, than anyone else, our present foundations of Harvard’s administration considered Sarton a knowledge and understanding of the hktory “.. marginal, if illustrious, man. In 1940, he of science. Thk he has achieved through had still to produce his first successful PhD more than 40 years as a pioneering, dynamic candidate, his undergraduate courses re- scholar and editor. He is truly the dean of the mained small, and he almost completely historians of science in this country.” 14 Table avoided all committee service and routine I lists the subsequent winners of the medal, academic administration. ”c (p. 112) In 1960, the History of Science Society, Although Sarton’s influence on the hk.tory under the auspices of the American Associa- of science may not be immediately obvious, it tion for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is nonetheless real. His emphasis on critical also established the George Sarton Memorial bibliography, hk instigation of sweeping sur- Lecture. The first lecturer was Ren6 Dubos; veys of the vistas of science, the journal he founded and, above all, hls classic Introduc- tion to the History of Science, aff served to Table I: Past winnera of the Sarton Medal, pre- create the elements required by a struggling sented from 1955 to 1984. new field, as opposed to methods to be emu- lated or finished products for display.c Hia presence at Harvard was instrumental in the 1955 George Sarton 1956 Charles and Dorothea Waley Singer creation of what later became one of the lead- 1957 Lynn Thomdike ing centers of the hktory of science in the 1958 John F. Fulton world. And, at least part of the reason for 1959 Richard Shryock Sarton’s lack of influence was that, during the I960 Owsei Temkin greater part of his career, there were no de- 1961 Alexandre Koyr= partments of the history of science, and 1962 E.J. Dljksterhuis 1963 Vassili Zoubov therefore no jobs. However, though the out- 1964 NOI awarded ward face of the history of science today may 1965 J. R. Partington show little trace of Sarton’s influence, the 1966 Annefiese Maier bony foundation across which that skin is 1%7 Not awarded drawn was assembled through hk efforts. 1968 Joseph Needham 1969 Kurt Vogel 1970 Walter Pagel Death of Sarton 1971 Willy Hartner 1972 Kiyosi Yabuuti George Sarton died at 7:30 a.m. on March I973 Henry Guerlac 22, 1956, of congestive heart failure. He ap- 1974 I. Bernard Cohen peared to have been in excellent health and 1975 Reni2 Taton was eagerly anticipating a visit to Montreal, 1976 flem Dibner 1977 Derek Whiteside where he was to give a lecture at McGill Uni- 1978 A .P. Youschkevitch versity on “The History of Science and the 1979 Maria Luisa Ri~lni-Bonelti New Humanism.”ls A few minutes after de- 19s0 parting from hk home in Boston for the air- 1981 A. Rupert Hall port, however, he felt ill and asked the taxi- Mwie Boas HaU 1982 Thomas S. Kuhn cab driver to turn back. He died only a few 1983 Georges Canguilhem minutes after he reached his house, while sit- 19U4 Charles C. Gillispie ting in his favorite armchair. A simple funeral

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Tabfe 2 George Sarton memorial lecturers and 1978 1. Bernard Cohen topics, presented from 1964 to 1985. HarvardUnivemhy Tbe concept of revolution in science 1979 George White 1960 Ren6 Dubos University of IJfinOis Rockefeller University Foundations of American geology The scientist and the public 1980 Charles C. Gillispie 1%1 Joacph Kaptsn Univemhy of California, Los Angeles Is the inwardneaa of science extraneous The International Geophysical Year to its history? 1%2 Gerald L. Holton 1981 Richard S. Westfall Harvard Univemity Indiana University The three types of scient~lc hypothesis: A sciendfic Jife in the 17th century: the toward a program of thematic analysis career of faaac Newton 1963 Hudson Hoagland 1982 Henry Guerlac WorcesterFoundationforExperimental Cometl University Biology, Shrewsbuy, MA Why edit scientific ? Science and the new humanism 1983 Derek J. de SoJfa Price 1964 Lloyd G. Stevenson Yale University Yale University SeaJiig wax and string: a phtiosophy of Strangers and kindred: the hktory of the experimenter’s role in the genesis of science and the history of medicine high technology 1965 Stillman Drake 1984 Arnold Thackray Municipal Financing Consultant, University of Pennsylvania San Francisco, CA The h~torirm’s calling in the age of The Accademiz dei Lincei (1603), the science forerunner of modem academies of 1985 Daniel Kevles science CaJifomia Institute of Technology 1966 George Wald God, man, and genetics: hktorical HarvardUnivershy reflections Colorvision:modelandreatity 1%7 CyriJStanJeySmith MaaaachuacttsInathuteof Technology service, which, in accordance with Sarton’s The revivalof qualities,corpuscles, and wishes, was identical to that held for h~ wife phlogiston in the modem science of some six years earlier, took place two days materials 1968 Owsei Temkhr after he died, in the Harvard Memorial Church. Historical reflections on the scientist’s Charles and Dorothea Singer note that Sar- virl ue ton has been called a great teacher, a superb 1%9 Martin J. Klein organizer of facts, and an unrivaled integra- Yale University Boltzmann, monocycles, and mechanical tor of knowledge. lb “His erudition was such explanation that even hm informaf comments were based 1970 G. Evelyn Hutchinson on exact knowledge and frequently opened Yale University new leads for the author of a paper under dis- Attitudes towards in medieval cussion,” Stin2son wrote a year after Sarton England: the Alphonso and Bird Psalters died. “The encyclopedic range of hk writings 1971 Ernst Mayr led the way to fresh and fertile fields for other Harvard University scholarz. ”17 Bodenheimer, in an obituary for From catastrophism to evolutionism: the Sarton in A rchives Intemationaies d’Histoire hwtory of a conceptual tradition des Sciences, wrote, “He was a good man.. .a 1972 Thomas Kuhn courageous man... a wise and reasonable Princeton University Mathematical versus experimental man... a great scientist.. .(and) a great tradhions in the development of humanist . . . .“2 physical science During the presentation of the first George 1973- No lectures Sarton Medal, Sarton had this to say about 1975 himself and his career “Scholars of a later 1976 Joseph Fmton age reviewing my life will sometimes wonder Yale University The emergence of biochemistry whether I was crazy; I was not crazy, but 1977 Jane Oppenheimer seemed to be, because I was overwhelmingly Bryn Mawr College dominated by two pasaions, a passion for sci- A biologist looks at history ence and another equally ardent one for the

252 humanities . . . . [I]t is impossible to live rea- and its essential reason for existing and re- sonably without science, or beautifully with- joicing in that heritage, which he took every OUt arts and letters. He who studies the M- opportunity to proclaim. He has come to tory of science and teaches it should always epitomize the hhtory of science to scholars remain in touch with the living science of his throughout the world, and the imposing num- own time,... [T]he paat cannot be separated ber of books, articles, and lectures he pro- from the present without grievous loss. The duced in the more than 45 years he devoted to present without its past is insipid and mean- his field stand as a monument as much to his ingless; the past without the present is determination and faith as to hk scholarship. obscure. The life of science, like the life of art, is eternal, and we must view it from the ● **** point of view of etemity.”14 George Sarton was a remarkably gifted and My thanks to Robert K. Merton for sug- versatile scholar who had exceptional organi- gesting the idea of wn”ting this essay and to zational ability and a seemingly endless ca- Stephen A. Bonoduce and Cecelia Fiscus for pacity for work. He also had a broad streak of their help with its prepamtion and its biblio- idealism, conceiving a lofty view of humanity graphic research. 01%5 ISI

REFERENCES

1. Garfield E. George .%rton: the father of the hktory of science. Part 1. .%rton’s early life in Belgium. Currenf Contents (26):3-9, 24 June 1985. 2, Bndenhetrner F S. George Sarton. Arch, Int. Hist. Sci. 9:295-8, 1956, 3, Sarton G. Introduction to the history of science, From Homer to Omar Khayyam. Baltimore, MD: Wflliams & Wilkins, 19S3 (1927), Vol. I. 4. Dijksterhu& E L Obituaries: in memoriam George Sarton, Cermurus 4:369-81, 1956. 5. Sarron M. I knew a phoenir. New York: Rinehart, 1959.222 p. 6. Ttmckrsy A & Mertorr R K. Sarton, George Alfred L,Son. Dictionary of scienf~ic biogmphy. New York: Scribner, 1975. Vol. 12. p. 107-14. 7. Cohen I B. George Sarton. New Yorker 29:28b-3tM, 1954. 8. Sareon G. introduction to the history of science. From Rabbi Ben Ezm toRoger Bacon. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins, 1950 (1931). Vol. IL 9. ------Introduction to the history of science. Science and learning in the fourteenth century Baltimore, MD: Wdliams & Wilkins, 1953 (1947). Vol. III. 10. Anonymous. Obituary: George Sm-ron. Brit. Med. J. t(Pt.2):865, 1956. 11, Cohen I B. George Alfred Won Sarton, (1884-1956).American Philosophical Society Year Book, 1956. Philadelphia: APS, 1957. p, 124-8. 12. Sartorr G. A history of science. Ancient science through the Golden Age of Greece, Cambridge, MA: , 1952.646 p. 13. ------A history of science. Hellenistic science and culturw in the last three centuries B.C. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959.554 p. 14. Anonymous. The George Sarton Medal. Isis 47:31-4, 1956. 15. Edftorfal Committee. George Sarron, 18S4-1956. Isis 47:99- lCS), 1956. 16. Singer C & Sfnger D. George Sarton and the h~tory of science. Isi$ 48:306-10, 1957. 17. Stfrrrsrm D. Dr. Sarton and the Hutoey of Science Society. Isis 48:28Y4, 1957,

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