Science in History

So after a couple of higher-stress weeks at the end of work, my research was wrapped up, conclusions were drawn, presentations were made, and bags were packed.

Time to go home.

Don't get me wrong. I had a lot of fun in the big apple. But its not my home state. Of course, neither were Nebraska or Utah. But really. NYC is the polar opposite of home in more ways than I can count. It's just time to get back to clean smelling air and less crowded streets. And a couple of projects that need write-ups. And planning for graduate school. And...oh yeah. Apparently the life planning that goes into getting married sometime in the not too distant future.

Yeah...that too. Looks like I have a busy year ahead.

Those of you who have loyally kept up with my posts over the past couple of years know what this means! It's time for the seemingly-annual paleo-nerd road trip that I drag whichever poor parent decides to help me move home on!

Today was more about spoiling the part of me that is into the history of paleontology, actually. You see, back before the Civil war (and partially stretching back to before the Revolutionary war), paleontology was just being born and was just being adopted by the great thinkers of the world. George Cuvier was developing comparative anatomy and geology, Darwin was alive, extinction was still being hotly debated as fact or fiction, and men could literally be anything and everything they wanted to be. At least, gentlemen could. Those who were well-read, well, they read. Everything. And the collected. These were jacks-and masters- of all trades, men like Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. Thinkers like these men formed the American Philosophical Society, literally right next door to the very building in which they would sign our Declaration of Independence. What may sound boring (I mean.... philosophy?) was actually a center of science and research, as well as thinking, that still funds a wide variety of research today.

They also have a small museum and happen to be celebrating a birthday. I had to see.

This is where the first dinosaur on American soil would be announced and pondered, where Cope and Marsh would hotly debate anything and everything, and where men got their footholds to boost them into the world of the thinking.

Having only one exhibit hall, what they actually put on display for the public rotates. Education just isn't the main function here. But what they put on display is incredible. While not paleontological, they were showing off their huge linguistics collection, notes and papers written by Jefferson and others, including notebooks from the expedition of Lewis and Clark, recording the languages of the Native Americans. Jefferson feared that these languages would be lost, but also hoped to trace the origins of these men through their languages. Arguments written flattering these cultures were meant to convince Europe that America wasn't a degenerate nation that shrank anyone who came to the young country (propaganda that was being circulated to keep people from wanting to voyage to the land of the free.) Lewis and Clark were also instructed to find fossils-and the extinct beasts that they were from, living- for this same reason, to find the something big, strong. The mammoths. The giant lions that were thought to have existed (until Cuvier wrote back to say that the "teeth" Jefferson had were from giant sloths.) Jefferson went to his grave believing that these beasts were still alive, that extinction was false and that somewhere, his country had large, majestic creatures rivaling those of Africa.

In his defense, there was a lot of unexplored territory at the time of his death. It's about like someone believing that aliens could possibly exist somewhere on the grounds that there is more universe than we'll ever be able to see.

I actually came to Philadelphia 11 years ago with my parents and sister, and I remembered that I had to get a Phily Cheese Steak, see the Liberty Bell (which turns out to have a story just as true as that of Cherry Bounce, for those of you familiar with Raleigh history and myths), get a post card stamped at Franklin's post office....

And that led to a fossil.

Behind his post office is an entire area dedicated to his life. Basically, his properties are still preserved. His post office is still a USPS post office. His print shop stands. His home is.... gone. But outlined! And a property that he and his wife used to rent out showcases archeological finds from the area. Particularly things that were thrown out in the garbage....

....down the privy.... yuck.

And because of an unfortunate accident, I found a bone.

Franklin, like many of the other founding fathers, was a thinker and a scientist. And a collector. It turns out that he had a mastodon tooth, sent to him while he was in Europe, from Ohio (possibly from Big Bone Lick, where I went two summers ago on my way to Nebraska.) And... whoops! It got thrown down the privy.

Eww...

It wasn't in the rental house with the other artifacts, but thanks to a couple of very, very helpful park rangers, I managed to track it down to the Benjamin Franklin Museum, conveniently located next door. It was well done, showcasing his many inventions, discoveries, and sense of humor. But I had forgotten that he collected bones as well.

Thank you, archeologists.

Fun fact: he also had the connections that allowed for the path of Venus to be mapped from different vantage points world wide, which then helped him calculate our distance, and that of other planets from the sun.

On the way home, we also passed this guy, an animatronic dinosaur advertising an exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Looks like another stop in Phily is in order tomorrow morning :)