Catalogue

"Science is not a democracy, and neither scientists nor historians of science send out ballots to decide who is a great scientist and whose work is deemed significant....Just as there is a pecking order in contemporary science, so, too, historians of science are the overseers of this order for past scientists. Sometimes this order is relatively stable, but revisionists have occasionally caused a dramatic reordering or the insertion of new members into this scientific hierarchy. Biography therefore shares with the rest of human knowledge a characteristic incompleteness...Human knowledge does not stay put, and neither does scientific or biographical knowledge. "

Robert Paradowski, 1995.

Historians of Science Collections

Paul Farber
Tom Hager and Linus Pauling
Margaret Osler, 1996
Mary Jo Nye
J. Brookes Spencer

Information and Credits

The writers of history are a recent collecting focus for the Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections. To date the Historians of Science Collections include the catalogued papers of Thomas Hager, author of the 1995 biography Force of Nature: The Life of Linus Pauling, and Margaret Osler, historian of 17th century science and philosophy. The Historians of Science Collections also feature the uncatalogued papers of three distinguished scholars from Oregon State University - 2006 Sarton medalist Mary Jo Nye, OSU Professor Emeritus and former department chair Paul Farber, and OSU Professor Emeritus J. Brookes Spencer.

FEATURED

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“The Bootlegger's Son: Or the Stochastic Method in Biography.”
Tom Hager, March 1, 1995. Transcript.

Content Description

Quantity

2 Catalogued Collection, 3 Unprocessed Collections

Related Papers

Tom Hager's communications with Linus Pauling are further documented in the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Papers, Correspondence folder 151.2.

Materials related to Paul Farber, Mary Jo Nye and J. Brookes Spencer's lengthy service to the Oregon State University Department of History are contained within the College of Liberal Arts Records (RG 143), held in the University Archives component of the Special Collections & Archives Research Center.

More Catalogue Information

Subject Terms, Restrictions on Access, Restrictions on Use, Preferred Citation, Processing Information, Acquisition Information