ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
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Dear friends 1/28/2006 with apologies for cross-posting
Hard on the heels of Ben Franklin's 300th comes the 300th birthday of
Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778). The American Swedish Historical Museum in
Philadelphia is planning to mount an exhibition, "Linnaeus &
America," opening early in 2007. The show will be the first
exploration of the cultural, historical, and scientific significance
of the New World to Linnaeus--and of Linnaeus to our national
identity.
We are looking for museums, libraries, schools, historical societies,
science centers, nature and environmental education centers, 18th C
historic sites, and so on that would be interested in booking the
exhibition for 2-6 months in 2007 and beyond.
We're especially eager to reach centers of Swedish-American culture
as well as the places that Linnaeus's student, Pehr Kalm, visited in
1748-1751, from Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley to the Niagara
Falls and the St. Lawrence (see Kalm's classic eyewitness account,
Travels into North America
http://www.americanjourneys.org/aj-117/index.asp.)
The show is relatively small: 12 panels (each 4x8ft) of graphics and
text, and a replica of Linnaeus's herbarium cabinet. The panels can
be arranged in many configurations, so they will fit comfortably in a
hallway, lobby, reading room, or gallery. We'll suggest ways the
host sites can augment the panels with books, documents, scientific
illustrations, maps, specimens, scientific instruments, and artwork,
and we'll provide lists of speakers, ideas for programs, and
activities for kids.
The designs are stunning--by designers who have done major
exhibitions for the Franklin Institute and the Smithsonian.
If your organization is interested, please get in touch with me as
soon as possible. We'd very much like to have letters of interest in
hand by next week for a National Endowment for the Humanities grant
application (due Feb 3).
Thanks very much,
Karen
Karen Reeds, Ph.D.
Guest Curator, Linnaeus & America
American Swedish Historical Museum, Philadelphia
http://www.americanswedish.org/linnaeus.html
609--279-9420
fax: 609--279-9446
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Read about our first Linnaeus Day Talk & Walk and find out why the
Philadelphia Inquirer called Linnaeus "One Significant Swede"
http://citypaper.net/articles/2005-05-19/mixpicks2.shtml
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/12000394.htm
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