Postponed
Due to the sudden illness of our guest speaker, Keith Thomson, the American Philosophical Society is postponing his talk on Jefferson's Shadow: The Story of His Science. The lecture and reception was to take place this Thursday evening, January 17, at 5:30 p.m. in Benjamin Franklin Hall. We will be announcing the new date for his talk soon.
We apologize for any inconvenience.
A lecture, reception, and booksigning
Keith Thomson is executive officer at the American Philosophical Society and professor emeritus of natural history at the University of Oxford. He was for five years a visiting fellow of the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello, VA. A graduate of the University of Birmingham, England and Harvard University, between 1965 and 1987 he was variously professor of biology, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. Thomson is the author of nine books, most recently The Legacy of the Mastodon and The Young Charles Darwin.
Do you recall President Kennedy’s quote as he hosted a White House dinner for Nobel laureates in 1962? Kennedy said, “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” What aspect of Jefferson’s life hasn’t been finely inspected and dissected? After all, as his tombstone notes, he was the author of the Declaration of Independence and the Virginia statute on religious freedom and father of the University of Virginia. He designed his estate at Monticello, which remains a draw for tourists the world over. The list goes on. He was a scientist, too, but in the sense of the late 18th century rather than the current one. In the term of the times, he was a natural philosopher.
With a storyteller’s gift, Thomson shows us the scientific new side of Jefferson. He answers an intriguing series of questions and illuminates the particulars of Jefferson’s scientific endeavors. The book’s appendix contains a 1786 letter on climate to a French colleague. It shows better comprehension of that science than would likely be found in 99 percent of current seekers for public office. Similarly, his observations on geology, paleontology and archaeology did the same for those sciences, and completes this comprehensive, readable work on a less examined and acclaimed aspect of Jefferson’s legacy.
POSTPONED
