Finding Our Way: An Exploration of Human Navigation

When:
Thursday, Feb 12, 2015 11:00a -
Wednesday, Apr 15, 2015 4:00p

Where:
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Harvard Science Center, 1 Oxford Street
Cambridge, MA 02138

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Admission:
FREE

Categories:
Art

Event website:
http://chsi.harvard.edu/chsi_exhibitions.html

This exhibition at Harvard's Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments explores both the biological underpinnings of human navigation and its technological history, from the sea-faring cultures of the southern Pacific to early European mariners. Compelling mounted specimens from the Museum of Comparative Zoology, also of Harvard University, help tell the story of the human navigational instinct, deeply rooted in animal biology. Viewing accurate scale models of sailing canoes and nautical stick charts from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, visitors will marvel at how expert navigators, using a relatively simple toolkit, successfully negotiated the complex archipelagos of the southern Pacific. Drawing from the extraordinary Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, the exhibition traces the evolution of European celestial navigation, from the quadrant and astrolabe to the cross staff, octant, and sextant and showcases an array of variations in navigational instrument design. The exhibition displays diverse navigational methods used by fourteenth- to nineteenth-century mariners—including compasses and various dead-reckoning tools, as well as nautical atlases, maps, piloting books, and astrological texts borrowed from the Harvard Map Collection and the Houghton Library Archives. Historical Scientific Instruments, will be open following the lecture until 9:00 pm. Presented in collaboration with the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the David P.Wheatland Charitable Trust


The Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments is open Monday - Friday, 11:00 am - 4:00 pm


Presented by: Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard Museums of Science & Culture

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02/12/2015 11:00:00 04/15/2015 16:00:00 America/New_York Finding Our Way: An Exploration of Human Navigation This exhibition at Harvard's Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments explores both the biological underpinnings of human navigation and its technological history, from the sea-faring cultur... Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Cambridge, MA 02138 false MM/DD/YYYY

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