Wednesdays: April 3, 10, 17, 24, 2013
10:30 a.m. - Noon
Linda Hall Library Auditorium

Dr. William B. Ashworth, Jr., Associate Professor of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Consultant for the History of Science, Linda Hall Library.

About the course: With the invention of printing, scientists had to find ways to convert an image to a reproducible form to accompany the printed text. The first printed illustrations were woodcuts, and soon copper-plate engravings were added to the repertoire. Beginning about 1700, other techniques for printing images were invented, including mezzotint, aquatint, wood engraving, and lithography. Color was initially applied by hand, but techniques for printing in color slowly emerged. And with the appearance of photography in 1839, methods for converting a photographic image to print had to be developed. In this course, we will look at the history of the printed scientific image, from 1460 to about 1900. The course will coincide with the Linda Hall Library exhibition, Crayon and Stone: Science Embraces the Lithograph, which was on view from March 28 to September 14, 2013.

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