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the idea of a “trading zone” between partially
overlapping subcultures of modern science. I will
end with a discussion of how the idea of trading
zones might help us as we face increasingly vexed
intersections of scientific and non-scientific cultures,
such as our present conundrums about the disposal
of nuclear waste. In order to address these concerns,
not just to talk about them, I have been increasingly
involved with projects to use historical reasoning
about material science to open these discussions
beyond purely scholarly audiences, which has meant
working simultaneously in film as well as print.
History of Science Society Newsletter
the History of Post-War Science and Technology in
the United States,” otherwise known as the JCAST
Report, which he edited. NSF had earlier funded
the Joint Committee on Archives of Science and
Technology to promote preservation of and access
to these archives, and that such repositories and
collections have grown exponentially since then is due
in large part to Clark’s report.
Clark’s other book-length publications include his
1979 Biographical Dictionary of American Science, The
17th through the 19th Centuries, his 1990 Biographical
Index to American Science: The 17th Century to 1920,
and his 1996 chronology and research guide to the
History of Science in the United States. And in the 21st
century Clark enabled on-line access to all of these
resources, and others, through his website, “History
of Science in the United States: Research Aids for
the 19th Century.”
Former HSS President, Michael Sokal (left) and Clark Elliott
conferring on the occasion of the January tribute in Clark’s honor.
Tribute to Clark A. Elliott
On 22 January 2011, relatives, friends, and
colleagues of Clark A. Elliott — long-time Archivist
at Harvard University and Librarian of the Burndy
Library during many of its years at MIT — gathered
in Waltham, Massachusetts, to honor him on the
occasion of his 70th birthday. Some HSS members
may know Clark best as the co-editor of Osiris
14, Commemorative Practices in Science: Historical
Perspectives on the Politics of Collective Memory
(1999). But many others also recognize him as one
of the founders of the Forum for the History of
Science in America, and as the long-time editor (and
bibliographer) of its Newsletter, News & Views.
In toasting Clark at the gathering, several archivists
and historians of science enjoyed highlighting many
of his other accomplishments. These include, for
example, the 1983 report on the “Documentation of
As befitting someone who has served the
Harvard history of science community so well for so
many years, Clark has also written extensively on the
history of science at the university. After a series of
influential articles, he co-edited Science at Harvard
University: Historical Perspectives and published his
biography of long-time Harvard librarian and man
of science, Thaddeus William Harris (1795–1856):
Nature, Science, and Society in the Life of an American
Naturalist.
To pay further tribute to Clark, many of the
historians of science present made donations to
the HSS Bibliographer’s Fund in his honor. They
now urge others who benefited from Clark’s lifelong
efforts — as an archivist, an organizer, a
bibliographer, and a scholar — to join them by
making their own contributions. In all, Clark’s
achievement embodies a career well worth honoring,
and emulating, and recognizing in this manner.
(Contributions to the Fund may be made by going to
https://www.hssweb.org/donate/)
22 History of Science Society Newsletter • April 2011