The Library will be CLOSED Friday, July 4, 2025, in observance of Independence Day.
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
Open today 4 PM - 11 PM
The multiple rainbows or irises seen around the shadows of persons in high altitude deserts, with an erupting Cotopaxi added in, detail of an engraving in A Voyage to South America, by Jorge Juan and Antonio de Ulloa, 2nd Engl. ed., vol. 1, plate 5, p. 446, 1760 (Linda Hall Library)
Antonio de Ulloa, a Spanish military officer, geodesist, and astronomer, died July 3, 1795, at the age of 79. Ulloa was only 19 years old and still...
Robert Ridgway, an American ornithologist, was born July 2, 1850, in Mount Carmel, Illinois. He began drawing birds at an early age. At the age...
Christophe Plantin, a French printer, died July 1, 1589, at the age of about 69. Plantin is sometimes referred to as a humanist printer, but he...
Paul E. (Ed) Yost, an American engineer, inventor, and aviator, was born in Bristow, Iowa on June 30, 1919.
The Farnese Atlas is a marble Roman statue sculpted around 150 C.E. and now in the Archaeological Museum in Naples. Its name comes from the fact...
John Stevens III, an American inventor and public official, was born June 26, 1749, in New York City. He was perhaps the most inventive of the...
Franchino Gaffurio, an Italian composer and music theorist, died June 25, 1522, at the age of 71. Gaffurio was the Maestro di cappella at the...
The Great Refractor, a telescope at Harvard College Observatory (HCO) saw its "first light" on June 24, 1847, meaning it was ready to view and/or...
Liu Cixin, a Chinese science fiction author, was born June 23, 1963, in Beijing. He grew up in Shanxi province in northern China during ...
Luca Pacioli, a Tuscan mathematician and Franciscan friar, died on June 19, 1517, at about age 70. He was born in Borgo Santo Sepolcro, now known...
On June 18, 1858, Charles Darwin got the shock of his life. We have written a number of posts about Darwin, discussing his portrait history, his...
François Jacob, a French molecular biologist, was born June 17, 1920. Jacob's plans to become a physician were interrupted by Hitler and the Second...
Sarah B. Landry, an illustrator of the natural world, was born June 15, 1942. Last year, I wrote a post on E. O. Wilson, the Harvard entomologist...
Monday - Friday10 AM - 5 PM
