Smithsonian Videohistory Program Symposium—Washington, D.C., May 5, 1988

Abstract

Conference Reports SMITHSONIAN VIDEOHISTORY PROGRAM SYMPOSIUM—WASHINGTON, D.G., MAY 5, 1988 T E R R I A. S C H O R Z M A N The Smithsonian Videohistory Program, sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, held a daylong symposium on May 5, 1988, that re­ viewed its first eighteen months of using video for documenting the history of science and technology. The symposium brought together those at the Smithsonian, as well as at other federal history offices, who were interested in program results thus far and who have sought ways in which to supplement their research programs with video. The Videohistory Program, established in June 1986 under the general theme “Science in National Life,” explores the consequences and implications of the visual aspects of scientific style and conduct, using video technology as a research tool. Smithsonian staff historians who participate in the program are encouraged to supplement their research with visual information, such as documenting processes at original work sites, capturing group interactions, or recording con­ temporary working environments. Four of the ten historians currently participating presented segments of their work at the symposium. In his opening remarks, David DeVorkin (National Air and Space Museum), chairman of the program’s advisory committee, empha­ sized the importance of visual information in each specific video project—information that “captures and preserves a dynamic visual portrait of the people and environments that make up modern science and technology.” He also explained the type and variety of work completed thus far, including one-on-one and group interviews in laboratories, museum collections areas, studios, offices, libraries, ob­ servatories, and rifle ranges. Pamela Henson (Smithsonian Archives) presented samples of her interviews with Dr. G. Arthur Cooper, curator emeritus of paleobiolMs . Schorzman manages the Smithsonian Vicleohistory Program. She received her M.A. in American and business history from the University of California at Santa Barbara.© 1989 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/89/3001 -0007$01.00 118 Smithsonian Videohistory Program Symposium 119 ogy at the National Museum of Natural History. Cooper’s innovative and respected interpretations of the fossil record and his specimen­ handling techniques were targets for videotaping. The footage also showed the interaction between Cooper and his longtime colleagues in a group interview session in the Cooper Room, a library named for him in the museum. During the group session, Henson introduced artifacts, such as fossils and photographs from digs, that stimulated discussion. She had done the same for interviews in the collections area, lab, and office locations and found it an excellent means to guide her respondents. The next speaker, Stanley Goldberg (National Museum ofAmerican History), presented segments selected from thirty hours of videotaped group interviews with scientists, engineers, lab technicians, equipment operators, and service personnel involved in the building of the atomic bomb. Goldberg presented scenes of a technician demonstrating spe­ cialized tools to handle the world’s first full-scale operational nuclear reactor, located in Hanford, Washington, and a four-minute tracking shot documenting the environment and layout of operating facilities at the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He also addressed social and organizational issues in group interview sessions that led to a better understanding of the Manhattan Project. David Allison (National Museum of American History) presented excerpts from his interview with J. Presper Eckert, co-inventor of the ENIAC computer. Dr. Eckert was interviewed in the “Computing be­ fore 1946” gallery at NMAH, where the original ENIAC is on display. In the course of the interview, Eckert explained its design and op­ eration while referring to the artifact for detailed description. Seg­ ments from the interview demonstrated modes of documentary camera work that included extreme close-ups of artifacts, which illuminated Eckert’s explanation of his design. Edward Ezell (National Museum of American History), the sym­ posium’s final speaker, showed a number of segments from his two-and-a-half-day interview with Eugene S. Stoner, inventor of the M-16 rifle and one of the world’s premier designers in small arms technology. Ezell selected short segments to demonstrate the variety of possibilities in collecting historical information with a video cam­ era—in...