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History of Meteorology -- Needs and Opportunities Washington, DC May 29-31, 2002 International Commission on History of Meteorology (ICHM)
Minutes of the Meeting
Wednesday 29 May 2002 The meeting was called to order by ICHM President Jim Fleming at 3 p.m. in Room 328 Phillips Hall, George Washington University. In attendance: Mal Berry (ret., Met. Svcs. of Canada), Kris Harper (Oregon State U.), Jim Fleming (Colby College), Roy Goodman (American Philosophical Society), Joan Kenworthy (ret., University of Durham, U.K.), Barney Mergen (George Washington U.), Al Mongeon (U.S. National Weather Service), Diane Rabson (NCAR), Robert Reeves (U.S. National Weather Service subcontractor), Roger Turner (History of Science Society), David van Keuren (Naval Research Lab), Edmund P. Willis (Independent). All the attendees introduced themselves. Jim Fleming then explained that the purpose of the ICHM was to promote the scholarly study of the history of meteorology, climatology, and related sciences including their social and cultural aspects; and to preserve research materials, create finding aids, share collection information, and encourage the compilation of bibliographic information internationally. Following Fleming's remarks, Bernard Mergen, Professor of American Civilization at GWU, gave the keynote address: Imagining Snow. Mergen, author of Snow in America (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997), is interested in all aspects of American history, especially issues of work and leisure, human impact on the physical environment, material and visual representations of nature and culture, and the internationalization of American Studies. He is currently working on a book on the perceptions, marketing, and management of weather in the 20th century. Mergen gave a delightfully illustrated talk on how snow has been described, measured, and represented in a variety of media since the mid-19th century. Following the talk a number of attendees adjourned for a wonderful evening of discussion and food at Charlie Chiang's Restaurant. Thursday 30 May 2002 The meeting reconvened at 0930 at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History hosted by instrument curator Deborah Jean Warner. Attending: William Aird (ret., NOAA), Mal Berry, Norm Canfield (U. of Maryland), Steve Cole (American Geophysical Union), Jim Fleming, Roy Goodman, Doria Grimes (NOAA Library), Kris Harper, Brian Heckman (US Air Force Academy via video link), John Kenworthy, Bernard Mergen, Al Mongeon, Diane Rabson, Rebecca Raines (US Army), Robert Reeves, Roger Turner, David van Keuren, Matthew White, Ed Willis, Sepideh Yalda (Millersville U.) Following the introduction of all participants, the group heard the following talks: Brian Heckman (US Air Force Academy), The Partnership between Aeronautics and Meteorology, ca. 1890s-1940s. Heckman, who uses historical topics in his meteorology courses, argued that aeronautics and meteorology were interdependent partners who contributed to each other's progress. He noted that detailed accounts of this history are lacking. Malcolm Berry (retired, Met. Svc. of Canada), The Rise and Fall of Climate Applications: The history of a Meteorological Service of Canada program. Berry discussed the history of climate applications within the Canadian program from its early days of focus on agriculture and forestry (as a small organization) to the impact of the environmental movement and computer technology which aided its rise in the 1960s and 1970s. However, by the 1980s budget crises and a change in governmental emphasis to social programs led to its decline. Doria Grimes (NOAA Library), NOAA Library Climate Data Imaging Project. Grimes brought everyone up-to-date on the digitization of satellite data, climate data (available from 70 countries, on-line, at no charge), back issues of Monthly Weather Review (1871-1973), and US Weather Bureau maps from 1871-1968. See http://www.lib.noaa.gov. Steve Cole (American Geophysical Union), Irving Langmuir and Weather Control: A modern-day Quixote or Prometheus? Cole discussed Langmuir's training as a chemist, his work at the General Electric labs, and his pattern of having fun making the discovery and leaving the application work to others. Kris Harper (Oregon State), Boundaries of Research: Civilian leadership, military funding, and the international network surrounding numerical weather prediction, 1945-1955. Harper briefly introduced how the Meteorology Project at the Institute for Advanced Study was started by John von Neumann in the immediate post-war years and how the successful move from development to application was the result of the accommodations of theorists to forecasting needs and of forecasters to the requirements for theory development. Jim Fleming then read the abstracts from: Boris S. Chendov (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), On the Interdisciplinary Approach to the History of Meteorology. Chendov argues that meteorology can be used as a general point of entry into the interdisciplinary areas which are rising to the fore in both the history and philosophy of science. Gregory Cushman (University of Texas, Austin) who described his future work on El Niño and the production of universal knowledge by transnational networks. Fleming also read messages from the following members around the world who were not able to attend the meeting: Dr. Togo Tsukahara, Kobe University who is working with Dutch colonial archives to reconstruct early observations in Japan. Dr. George Vlahakis, President of the Greek Society for the History of Science and Technology who would welcome a future ICHM meeting in Athens. Dr. Cornelia Lüdecke, Vice-President of the ICHM, from Munich, Germany who invites us to meet in Germany in 2004. After the lunch break, attendees discussed the possibilities for future meetings including meeting at the same time as the American Geophysical Union, European Geophysical Union (Nice, France, spring 2003), American Meteorological Society annual meeting (Long Beach, California February 2003), the Royal Meteorological Society/Association of British Climatologists (U.K.). Attendees also discussed possible venues for future meetings including an invitation from Connie Lüdecke to meet in Munich (summer 2004). It was suggested that future meeting places and times for related organizations be posted on the ICHM website. As a reminder, Beijing is the 2005 meeting location for the International Congress of History of Science. Melody Herr, acquisitions editor for the Johns Hopkins University Press expressed interest in contacting conference participants who are working on book projects. University of Chicago Press issued a 20 percent meeting discount and exhibited the books Air Apparent by Mark Monmonier and Reading the Skies by Vladimir Jankovitch. The session ended with a general discussion of "needs and opportunities" that included the following items: * Institutional memberships. Suggestions included professional organizations (e.g., American Meteorological Society) and private corporations (e.g., companies that make scientific instruments or provide private meteorological/climatological services). * Mixing with other groups, e.g., historians of science, historians of geophysics, environmental historians, general historians. * Exchanging information, e.g., data, where information is, who has it, who has worked on it. * Creating a pool of referees from within the group to provide feedback on works in progress. * Focusing the ICHM website on the history of meteorology. Attendees were encouraged to send contributions as .htm files. [Mal Berry is willing to help with this effort.] * Raising the history consciousness of meteorology, e.g., sending contributions to a variety of publications (technical, historical, general interest). * Applying for tax exempt status for ICHM. Friday 31 May 2002 Most attendees departed the DC area on Thursday evening and Friday morning. However, Norm Canfield arranged for a trip to the University of Maryland Archives which was attended by Kris Harper and Joan Kenworthy. The Maryland Room is the repository for the Helmut Landsberg papers. Curator Lauren Brown had pulled out interesting books and letters from the Landsberg collection for us to see. The finding aid for this collection is excellent and is available by request.
Respectfully submitted, Kristine C. Harper |