History 138 - Class 7

History 138: Science in the U.S.

Class 7 (9/9)
Exploring a continent

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Outline

Exploring a continent
Manifest Destiny and the frontier metaphor
The state of geographical knowledge

Exploration: over land and sea
Lewis and Clark (1804-1806)
The Coast Survey and mixed motives
Beyond the continent: the Wilkes Expedition (1838-1842)
Aside: Frémont and California (1840s)

Who benefited
Government assistance, but what government value?
The Pacific Railroad Surveys (1850s)
What the naturalists gained
Institutions and community
Natural history novelties

Exploration and ethnology
Comparative linguistics
Dealing with human difference

Names and Terms

Primary	Secondary
Manifest Destiny (coined 1845) Louisiana Purchase (1803) Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809) William Clark (1770–1838) U.S. Coast Survey (est. 1807) Alexander Dallas Bache (1806-1867) Monroe Doctrine (1824) U.S. Exploring Expedition (Wilkes Expedition) John C. Frémont (1813-1890) (Army) Corps of Topographical Engineers polygenism	War Department prairie dog Perry Expedition (1853-54) Mexican War (1846-1847) Mexican Boundary Survey (1849-1853) Union Pacific / Central Pacific

Assignment

Hugh Richard Slotten, "The Dilemmas of Science in the United States: Alexander Dallas Bache and the U.S. Coast Survey," in Scientific, ed. Numbers and Rosenberg, 37-60. [Originally Isis 84 (1993): 26-49.]

Who were the audiences to whom Bache (pronounced BAYCH) addressed himself?
Why was the Coast Survey successful? Why is it important to science in the U.S.?
Who were the Lazzaroni?
What does Slotten mean by the "dialectical tensions inherent in the practice of American science" (38-39)?