Science and Invention, Volumes I and II: Consolidated Report on Sites in Southwest Region
Brown WE. 1965. Science and Invention, Volumes I and II: Consolidated Report on Sites in Southwest Region. National Historic Landmark Theme Studies. Santa Fe, NM
The Southwest was essentially a frontier environment throughout the period covered by this study. Thus one looks in vain for fundamental accomplishments in such pure sciences as physics and chemistry. Laboratory facilities of the type that would result in such accomplishments were nonexistent. The same sorts of environmental limitations apply to the field of invention, though there were some notable applications of inventions that had been developed in the East.Very significant scientific work was done, however, in two fields: anthropology and the natural sciences---primarily biology and geology. Anthropology (including its subdisciplines--archeology, ethnology, linguistics, etc), is not treated in this study, it being the opinion of this Region that this broad field should be incorporated into a special theme study dealing with the social sciences. Thus we come to the crux of this discussion: the natural sciences. We may conceive of the Southwest as a great open book exhibiting some of natures's most stupendous wonders, some if its most fantastic geologic manifestations, some of its most variegated landscapes and life zones. As the Southwest was culturally a raw and extreme land, so was it raw and extreme in nature. From the time of the first Spaniard right up to the present day the scientist has found nature exposed here, naked to the elements. In the desert, in the mountains rising abruptly from the deserts, and in the canyons gashing the deserts, the scientist found incredible conjunctions in geology and biology. In a few hours he could hike from Sonoran desert to Alpine forest in Southwestern mountains, or descend through two billion years of earth history in Grand Canyon. Thus, in natural science, as in art and literature, the Southwest was the Nation's great outdoor laboratory and place of inspiration. Here came the savants of the East to gather objects and impressions which they took back East to their laboratories. For most of the period here considered, the basic approach to the Southwestern frontier in science, as in every other field, was extractive.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Brown, William
- Date of Issue
- 1965-07
- Units
- HIST
- Keywords
- arts, Civil War, colonial, Communication, Cultural Resources, Discovery, ehistory, era, Historical Resources, History, Industrial, Industry, Invention, Inventions, National Historic Landmark, Republic, Revolution, Science, sciences, significance, technology, theme study, tools, Transmission, Transportation, Trends, weapons