(The Hague, January, 2013) – Handwritten correspondence with Albert Einstein and videos of 1930s operating theatres: these and hundreds of other notable scientific personalities and achievements from the 19th and 20th centuries are now on display in Science and Machines, a new featured collection from The European Library.
Early x-ray images taken by physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, portraits of pioneering researchers Marie and Pierre Curie and photographs of the 1913 Ghent World Fair can also be found among the more than 600 notable maps, letters, journals, videos and photographs selected for the showcase.
“This virtual exhibition brings to light many of the hopes and beliefs of former generations,” said Geert Vanpaemel, a physicist and science historian at Belgium’s University of Leuven. “Steam engines and railroads, electric lights and airplanes, the telegraph, typewriter, motion pictures and plastics were just some of the significant inventions during this unique moment in history, when man seemed able to control his own world and to improve his living conditions beyond limits.”
The material was assembled by 21 national, university and research libraries from 17 European countries. It ties together themes such as new methods in medicine, the knowledge extension in the fields of natural history and the acknowledgement of this by the newly created Noble prize in 1895.
Each object is accompanied by curatorial information in English and the main language of the contributing institution. Many objects can also be downloaded. Visit the exhibition here: http://www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/virtual/science
