Using archival records to determine if a friendship between two women was something more is challenging. At first glance, the records are rather ambiguous, perhaps intentionally so. What can we learn if we look closer?
Part 1 covers a few of the people associated with Washington University who played a part in the building of the atomic bomb with reference to the 2023 film Oppenheimer. Part 2 focuses on the part Arthur Holly Compton played in Robert J. Oppenheimer’s life and as inspiration for the movie. There are spoilers for [Read more]
Did you know the PC was invented at Washington University? Well, not that PC. The Programmed Console. In the spring of 1965, Jerome R. Cox Jr. and Wesley A. Clark co-taught a graduate course in computer design in which teams of students designed working computers. One student, V.W. “Bill” Gerth, also wrote an interactive radiation [Read more]
When St. Louisans hear the name Barnes today, the century-old Barnes Hospital (now Barnes-Jewish Hospital) on Washington University’s medical campus might come to mind. But, before Barnes Hospital came into existence in 1914, St. Louisans would have known Barnes to be the largest medical school in downtown St. Louis.
In 2015, the Heinz Nixdorf Museum in Paderborn, Germany, opened an exhibition honoring women in computing. In addition to pioneers like Ada Lovelace, the museum recognized the contributions of Mary Allen Wilkes, whose work at MIT and Washington University was essential to the development of the Laboratory Instrument Computer (LINC) then on display at the [Read more]
Christopher Nolan’s Academy Award winning 2023 film Oppenheimer is based on Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin’s 2005 biography of theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The movie cleverly compresses several decades of Oppenheimer’s life around his leadership in building the first atomic bomb and his subsequent political blacklisting during the McCarthy era. Although none are [Read more]
One of the distinguishing features of early modern Europe is its fascination with and embrace of the Greco-Roman past. While this is perhaps most obvious in the literary and visual arts—think of the many new editions of classical works such as Ovid’s Metamorphoses, or paintings such as Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus—medicine was equally enamored [Read more]
Bio, chem, math,NIH grant compliance—My love for youIs its own branch of science. Is your sweetie into immunology? Does your heartthrob have a lab job? If so, send your beloved one of these valentines from the Becker Archives! You’ve caught my eye, Valentine I’ve identified the specimen—it’s love, Valentine Our love is electric, Valentine Your [Read more]
From February 5-9, 2024, libraries, archives and other cultural institutions around the world are sharing free coloring sheets and books based on materials from their collections. On the first floor of Becker Library, you’ll find snacks, coloring books and materials, so let your inner child take over! Read on to learn more about the images chosen from Becker’s rare [Read more]
Nobel laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini was born in Turin on the 22nd of April 1909. She was one of 4 children, 3 girls and 1 boy, born to Adamo Levi, a gifted mathematician, and Adele Montalcini, a skilled painter. While both parents were considered highly cultured and had a strong appreciation for intellectual pursuits, certain educational [Read more]