Critical Pointcollecting Books

physicsworld.com Comment: Robert P Crease Critical Point Collecting books An important document at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, in a caravan of six tractor-trailer collection is about to transform trucks with hidden GPS locators in case the the history of physics holdings cargo was hijacked. Gregg Pachkowski Gregg I asked Huntington Library curator at the Niels Bohr Library, says Dan Lewis about the value of collections such as Dibner’s in an age of digitization. Robert P Crease Four things, he said. First, not everything is digitized; digitization is labour-inten- “I failed retirement,” Dave Wenner told me. sive, costly, often poorly done, and useless Even among collectors of physics books without accompanying metadata. Second, – a quirky bunch – the 72-year-old Wenner there’s historical value in being able to con- is unusual. He grew up in Cocoa, Florida, sult books in context; that is, together with near the Kennedy Space Center, and nearly other books that authors read and to which became a physicist. Intimidated by “scarily Valuable insights Some of the books in Dave they were responding. “[Third], there’s smart” and more focused peers, however, Wenner’s history of physics collection. evidence in the physical object that can’t he opted instead for a business career. But be replicated online. Notes. Watermarks. after retiring in 2003 from decades as a documents, translating them, and writing Erasures and crossouts. Smells. Cracks in management consultant, he decided to about the Italian physicist and astronomer, woodblocks that can date when a book was relearn the subject. Diligently. He hired a Drake dropped out of industry and, aged 57, printed.” Finally, Lewis said, there’s an physics postdoc as a tutor and spent six to received his first academic appointment as experiential element. “An online exhibit of eight hours a day studying different areas a full professor at the University of Toronto. the books Newton owned is not as engaging of physics, in the process identifying and He eventually donated his collection to as a collection of those same books. There’s beginning to collect key documents. what is now the Thomas Fisher Rare Book no substitute for originals!” “Most book collectors focus on trophies Library in Toronto, helping to make it a or special areas,” Wenner explained. “I major destination for historians of science. The critical point went broad.” He began by breaking up phys- On a recent visit I saw an original copy of But I heard the most dramatic argument ics into areas, eventually down to sub-fields Galileo’s Dialogo (1632); a copy of Niccolò for preserving such collections from Greg and individual topics, such as the physics Tartaglia’s Nova Scientia (1537), which had Good, director of the AIP’s Center for of weather. Proceeding section by section, probably been owned by Galileo and con- History of Physics. Good did his gradu- he pinpointed 3700 key documents. Culti- tained intricate drawings that had been cut ate work with Drake in Toronto, and is a vating book dealers and conducting daily on woodblocks to print; as well as a copy of driving force behind the library’s efforts to Boolean Internet searches, Wenner was Ptolemy’s Geography, also probably once in acquire Wenner’s collection; he is spend- able to purchase 3500 of these. Several Galileo’s possession. ing the next few months trying to raise the documents in his collection he has never Another important collection was funds needed to purchase and transport seen for sale, such as Emmy Noether’s 1918 assembled by Bern Dibner (1897–1988), the material to the Niels Bohr Library offprint announcing her famous theorem a Ukrainian-born American industrial- (donate.aip.org/helphistory). I asked Good linking symmetries and conservation laws ist and founder of the Burndy Company, if book collections were still valuable for – a result that is foundational for modern which manufactured electrical compo- historians in the Internet age. high-energy physics. nents. Enchanted by Leonardo da Vinci, “Absolutely!” Good replied. “Having Last year, satisfied that his collection was whose seamless integration of science and everything that our culture has produced essentially complete, Wenner began prep- art resonated with Dibner’s own passions, on the cloud is a prescription for a new arations to sell the collection and started Dibner began collecting da Vinci material, Library of Alexandria catastrophe. You are putting the finishing touches to his 800- soon expanding its scope to include the his- putting all your faith in one system.” The page self-published book History of Physics: tory of electricity, then the history of sci- contents of the most famous library of the the Wenner Collection. The book is remark- ence and technology. ancient world were, according to legend, able not just for its list of key physics docu- In 1941 Dibner founded the Burndy accidentally destroyed by a fire. ments, but also for Wenner’s descriptions Library in Norwalk, Connecticut, where Apart from providing physics historians of the historical context of each. He has his company was headquartered, to house with insurance against a possible e-poca- now agreed to sell his collection for $5m his collection. It focused on the early his- lypse, Good also notes that the collection to the Niels Bohr Library of the American tory of electricity, and included books and would substantially enhance the breadth Institute of Physics (AIP), where it will sig- manuscripts by pioneers such as Galvani, of the Niels Bohr Library’s existing hold- nificantly transform the library’s holdings. Volta and Franklin. In the 1970s Dibner ings, and extend its depth by two centuries sent a quarter of the books, totalling about – making the library that much more valu- Collective thoughts 11 000, to the Smithsonian Institution in able for historians of the physical sciences. Most book collectors start out less delib- Washington, DC, to form the nucleus of Wenner may have failed retirement, but erately. In the 1930s, for example, the the Dibner Library of the History of Sci- historians of physics should rejoice. Canadian industrialist Stillman Drake ence and Technology. The Smithsonian (1910–1993), who was fascinated by the his- has added to the collection, which now has Robert P Crease is chair of the Department tory of science, acquired books for some about 35 000 books and 2000 manuscripts. of Philosophy, Stony Brook University, US, time before realizing that his collection had In November 2006 the rest of the Burndy www.robertpcrease.com, a theme: Galileo. After decades of collecting Library – 67 000 volumes’ worth – arrived e-mail [email protected] Physics World February 2018 21.

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