Machine Age (1850 - 1945)
Elizabeth Anderson headshot

Historical Influenza and Viral Evolution

Event
Historical photo of Philadelphia's Fairmount Water Works

How Philadelphia’s Water Pollution Problems Shaped the City

Distillations Podcast
Rubella (German Measles) vaccination clinic in 1969

Roe v. Wade v. Rubella

Distillations Podcast
Bredig Archive materials

Hamodia: A Golden Age Turned Black
Media Coverage
Portait of Rohm and Haas worker George Trapp

Distilled #10: Fancy Portraits for Factory Workers

Distillations Video
Two brain scans: one seemingly healthy one and one afflicted by alzheimer's

The Alzheimer’s Copernicus Problem

Distillations Podcast
Grainy photograph of a well-dressed crowd

Marie Curie, Marie Meloney, and the Significance of a Gram of Radium

Distillations Article
Surrealist painting of artist drawing planet on canvas

How the First American Science Writer Found (Then Lost) God in the Cosmic Ray

Distillations Article
Eight uniformed men working in and around a concrete and steel hole

Hunting the Nazi Nuclear Hoard

Distillations Article
Illustration of rat climbing down a ship's mooring rope with a city in the distance

San Francisco’s Plague Years

Distillations Article
Satirical cartoon on food adulteration from Puck magazine

Harvey Wiley’s Fierce Pursuit of Food Safety

Distillations Article
Dutch tea advertisement

Ronald Fisher, a Bad Cup of Tea, and the Birth of Modern Statistics

Distillations Article
miners hauling electronics that are causing pollution

Rare Earths: The Hidden Cost to Their Magic

Distillations Podcast
Polio vaccine dropped on to sugar lump for child patient.

Book Club: The Story of the Polio Vaccine

Distillations Article
Closeup of a penicillin fermentation jug

Distilled #8: Penicillin Jug

Distillations Video
Science history photo collage

Love, Hate, and Sex from the History of Science

Distillations Podcast
Still from Where Are My Children: At the end of the film the Waltons are visited by the spectral images of their offspring, first as children and then as young adults.

Where Are My Children? Public Health in the Movies

Distillations Article
19th century breast reliever

Distilled #7: Bicycle Horn or Breast Pump?

Distillations Video
Photo illustration of woman with migraine

Sex(ism), Drugs, and Migraines

Distillations Podcast

Baking Up a Storm

Distillations Article

Family Practice

Distillations Article

Exhuming the Flu

Distillations Article

Saving Old Movies

Distillations Article
An early 20th century porcelain painting kit

Distilled #5: Porcelain Painting

Distillations Video
Photo illustration of poppy flowers and opioid addict

Treating America’s Opioid Addiction

Distillations Podcast
Photo illustration of poppy flowers and meeting chairs

Treating America’s Opioid Addiction

Distillations Podcast
stereoscope with stereograph

Distilled #4: Virtual Reality in the 19th Century

Distillations Video
Photo illustration of poppy flowers and prison-hospital for addicts

Treating America’s Opioid Addiction

Distillations Podcast

Probing the Mysteries of Human Digestion

Distillations Article

Opioids’ Devastating Return

Distillations Article
Closeup of telegraph sent by Eleanor Roosevelt

Distilled #3: Water Fit for a King

Distillations Video
A portrait of Charles Darwin by Thomas Johnson

Book Club: Simultaneous Discovery and Darwin’s Ghosts

Distillations Article

If You Smell Something, Say Something

Distillations Article

Distilled #2: An Early (Gold-Plated!) Not-Quite-IUD

Distillations Video
Woman irritated by smog in LA in the 1950s

Fighting Smog in Los Angeles

Distillations Podcast

Serious Fun

Distillations Article

Hard Work and Happenstance

Distillations Article

From Barbers and Butchers to Modern Surgeons

Distillations Article
Women wearing orange yoga pants and yellow sneakers

The Yoga Pant Problem

Distillations Podcast

Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès’s Recipe for Margarine

Distillations Video

Braving the Elements: Why Mendeleev Left Russian Soil for American Oil

Distillations Article
Vintage margarine ad

Butter vs. Margarine

Distillations Podcast
Portrait of refugee doctor

Refugee Doctors

Distillations Podcast
Detail of illustration outside confectionery, 1885

Our Mutual Friend

Distillations Article

The Birds, the Bees, and the Froggies

Distillations Article

The Age of Scurvy

Distillations Article
Fist and flask graphic

Political Science

Distillations Podcast

A Tear Gas Tale

Distillations Article

Women’s Work

Distillations Article

A Recipe for Good Health

Distillations Article

A Killer of a Cure

Distillations Article

A Forgotten Star

Distillations Article
1950s ad for Mum cream deodorant

The Smell of Shame

Distillations Podcast

Waging War on Immigration and Science

Distillations Article
LZR Racer

Winning Skin

Distillations Article
Amputation

Auld Medicine

Distillations Article
Figues de Solliès by Mon Œil

The Joy of Cooking

Distillations Article
Crocidolite asbestos, Pomfret Mine, Vryburg, South Africa.

Flexible Meaning
Research
Lee Berry with Ambler interviewee Victor Romano.

Tips for Recording Your Family History

Distillations Article
Diagram of sports bra

Second Skin

Distillations Podcast

Still Life

Distillations Article
Filippo Marinetti, 1934

Food Fight

Distillations Article
Illustration of a Pasteur-Chamberland filter

The Filter of Life

Distillations Article
Illustration of childbirth

(Natural) Childbirth

Distillations Podcast
Walter Potter's Monkey Riding a Goat

Death and Taxidermy

Distillations Video

Home Away from Home

Distillations Article
Maximilian Ringelman Smoke Charts, 1897. The Institute Collections.

Ringelmann Smoke Charts
Research
Munsell Book of Color, 1940s. The Institute Collections. Photo by Gregory Tobias

Munsell Color Charts
Research
Millipore portable water-testing kit. The Institute Collections. Photo by Conrad Erb

Field Water Testing and Analysis Instruments
Research
Clara Esther Hartley lab notes. Special Collections, the Institute

Clara Esther Hartley Lab Notes
Research
Haeckel illustration of hummingbirds

Information Overload

Distillations Article

Learn
Learn

Science Kits at Play: 1900s

Distillations Video
Vaughn Bell poses with her work Village Green.

Home
Research

Instruments
Research

The Ancient Chemistry Inside Your Taco

Distillations Video

Science Kits at Play: 1850s

Distillations Video
Detail from Sanborn map of Ambler, PA.

REACH Ambler
Research

Behind the Beaker
Research
Tho-Radia ad

The Secrets of Life

Distillations Article
P.S. Krøyer's The Iron Foundry, Burmeister and Wain

Future Calculations

Distillations Article

Deanna Day

People

Oral History Collections
Collections
pH Meter Illustration

Virtual Chemistry
Learn

Historical Biographies
Learn
Medusa Nebula

Elements of Invention

Distillations Article
Cottingley Fairy

The Magic of It All

Distillations Article
Esperanto postcard

Speaking in Tongues

Distillations Article
Oral History bound books

Oral History Collections
Collections

Modern Books and Journals
Collections

Ramya Rajagopalan

People
U.S. postal inspectors, ca. early 20th century

Under Cover of Ink

Distillations Article

Boom Times

Distillations Article
German physicists from before World War II

Magical Thinking

Distillations Article
Mysto Magic

Presto Chango

Distillations Article
Emil Fischer.

Emil Fischer
Historical Profile
Russell Marker.

Russell Earl Marker
Historical Profile
Jacobus Henricus van’t Hoff in 1904.

Jacobus Henricus van’t Hoff
Historical Profile
Stanislao Cannizzaro. Edgar Fahs Smith Collection, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.

Stanislao Cannizzaro
Historical Profile
Elizabeth Hazen (left) and Rachel Brown, 1955. Smithsonian Institution Archives, image # SIA2008-3566

Elizabeth Lee Hazen and Rachel Fuller Brown
Historical Profile
A photograph that William Henry Perkin took of himself at the age of 14—four years before he discovered the first synthetic dyestuff.

William Henry Perkin
Historical Profile
George Washington Carver, Tuskegee Institute, 1906.

George Washington Carver
Historical Profile