Collections Blog

Celebrating 15,000 historical works in our digital collections.

Telling rich stories about lives in science.

Rosalind Franklin announces a funeral for a hypothesis.

What Theosophy reveals about a moment when science and the occult were not so neatly opposed.

How a new collection at the Institute reveals the friction of interdisciplinary science.

A visit to Knoebels Amusement Resort and chemist Joseph Priestley’s historic home in PA inspires a closer look at the Institute’s rare book collection.

Public perceptions of 20th-century medical science as seen through book cover illustrations.

The Institute’s museum education team partners with Philly Touch Tours to offer a more meaningful history of science experience.

Mapping Philadelphia’s industrial past with digital tools.

Memory, materials, and the history of science in the Eugene Garfield Papers.

Explore the history of science behind U.S. efforts to feed schoolchildren with Lunchtime exhibition curator Jesse Smith.

Unwrapping the mystery of a Styrofoam Santa in our collections.

New World ingredients in Old World dyes.

How a Jewish scientist’s intellectual property became a lifeline in his journey from Nazi Europe to the United States.

A fraught collaboration ushered a medical classic into the world.

Alchemical imagery in political cartoons.

When bad weather eclipses celestial sightings, our collections can save the day.

Recovering a scientist’s journal entries from obsolete digital files.