Caltech Historian Brings Newton to the Huntington Library

Caltech News Release
For Immediate Release
February 16, 2005

Caltech Historian Brings Newton to the Huntington Library

PASADENA, Calif. - As a boy, Isaac Newton was
terrible at working on his mother's farm. Sheep
he was supposed to watch, for example, would
wander away while Newton became engrossed in a
book. But even in grammar school in Grantham,
England, Newton showed his considerable talents.
One ingenious device he built was a wooden
replica of a water mill, powered by a mouse on a
treadmill, the mouse motivated to run by tugs on
a string tied to its tail.

The boy evolved into the man who discovered the
law of universal gravitation and planetary
motion, who invented calculus, proved that white
light is composed of a spectrum of colors, and
ultimately, extended his influence beyond science
to impact all aspects of modern culture.
Beginning March 5, Newton's life and work will be
explored in the first of a two-part exhibition at
the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and
Botanical Gardens in San Marino. By showcasing a
range of Newton artifacts, the exhibition will
"examine the formation of the mind of a genius,"
says noted Newton scholar Mordechai Feingold, the
show's curator and a professor of history at the
California Institute of Technology.

A mathematician and physicist, Newton transformed
the realm of scientific thought and inquiry, but
also the wider intellectual world as well. After
Newton, the search for universal principles
shaped the development of ideas in virtually all
fields, including history, psychology,
metaphysics, and literature. "Everyone wanted to
be the Newton of their field," says Feingold.
"Adam Smith wanted to be the Newton of economics;
Hume wanted to be the Newton of moral philosophy.

"He became one of the greatest icons of science
that ever lived," says Feingold. "The diffusion
of various stages of his ideas not only permeated
science, but art, literature, and religion as
well through the 18th and 19th centuries."

Because of this wide-ranging influence, the
exhibition will be in two parts. The first will
focus on Newton and his science, and will run
through June 12 in the library's west hall. Then,
a follow-up exhibition titled The Newtonian
Moment: Isaac Newton and the Making of Modern
Culture will examine the influence his work
exerted on all aspects of modern culture. It will
run from Saturday, July 23, 2005 through Sunday,
January 1, 2006.

The Huntington exhibit follows on the heels of a
similar exhibition, also curated by Feingold,
that took place at the New York Public Library.
While the Huntington will also include key
manuscripts from the Cambridge University Library
in England (where the largest collection of
original Newton materials reside), it will mainly
draw from Huntington's Newtonian artifacts, none
of which traveled to the East Coast. "The
Huntington has an extraordinary collection of
scientific materials," says Feingold. The show
will also feature items from Caltech and from
UCLA's Clark Library, showcasing a trove of
Newton articles that are housed in Southern
California institutions.

Through approximately 70 Newton manuscripts,
books and related materials, the exhibition will
explore the many facets of Newton's pursuits that
are not as well-known, such as his strong
interest in alchemy and theology. Visitors to the
exhibition will see many of his personal letters,
books, and drawings. A centerpiece of the first
exhibit will be Newton's personal copy of the
first edition of his Principia Mathematica,
published in 1687. "It is the monumental treatise
that unified celestial and terrestrial mechanics
under a single law--universal gravitation--and
charted the course of physics for some two
centuries," says Feingold. Once the book was
published, Newton took a copy and interleaved it
with blank pages facing the original pages,
handwriting corrections and additions on the
blank sheets and in the margins. Also on display
will be The Opticks, published 17 years after the
Principia and containing Newton's revolutionary
theories regarding light and colors. The
exhibition will also display works of people who
significantly influenced Newton's thinking,
including Galileo and Ren? Descartes.

Even as Newton's new concepts were gaining
acceptance and setting a new scientific standard,
they provoked controversies and even public
clashes. "For friends and foes alike, Newton
became an icon to be emulated or rejected,
revered or excoriated, but always there to
contend with," says Feingold. In the end, Newton
redefined the study of nature by insisting that
it must be based on hard evidence and not on
hypotheses. Ultimately his ideas and innovations
helped to usher in a brave new age of reason.
"Hence, the era of Enlightenment and Revolution
may be viewed as the Newtonian Moment," Feingold
adds.

Feingold's book The Newtonian Moment: Isaac
Newton and the Making of Modern Culture,
published last year, will be available in the
Huntington's bookstore.