Book Note

David Pantalony; Richard L. Kremer; Francis J. Manasek. Study, Measure, Experiment: Stories of Scientific Instruments at Dartmouth College. Norwich, VT: Terra Nova Press, 2005. ix + 271 pp. $65.

Reviewed by Deborah Douglas

Marking the completion of a five-year effort to transform a hidden collection of scientific instruments into a national treasure and enduring institutional asset, Pantalony's book is an inspiration. Short essays tell the history of the Allen King Collection of Scientific Instruments, survey the history of scientific instruction at Dartmouth College and discuss the significance of scientific instruments as primary sources for historical scholarship. Catalog entries on 97 evocative objects include photographs, documents, and a short description of each. (A list of the featured instruments, either in the table of contents or as an appendix, would have been useful.) I hope this model for professional curatorship of university collections outside the museum inspires other such projects. I also hope that it inspires Dartmouth to honor the King legacy by publishing additional catalogs (with more chemistry-related entries!) and beginning to collect examples of contemporary science and technology apparatus.