It's National Bike to Work Week! If you're participating, you're in good company. Many accomplished scientists and scholars, including these @amphilsociety Members, commuted on two wheels.
These quotes come from remembrances of APS Members published in one of our journals, Proceedings of the APS. Back issues are browseable on JSTOR and new issues are available to subscribers on Project MUSE.
#NormanFosterRamsey #JanetDavisonRowley #JanHendrikOort #biketowork
HOW WE THINK by Meredith F. Small is coming on June 2nd!
This is a book for everyone—for those interested in anthropology and human behavior and the “big questions” about who we are. How We Think takes the anthropological view about the human thought process, a view that is both evolutionarily deep and widely cross-cultural, always focusing on what makes humans so different from each other, although we are also universally so much alike.
Order your copy now at pennpress.org and take 30% off with code APS30!
May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed, along with many of those on board. It's strange to think that a hydrogen-powered airship would have a smoking lounge. Other strange instances involving risk, technology, design, and more are explored in Edward Tenner's book of essays titled Why The Hindenburg Had a Smoking Lounge.
Buy your copy and take 30% off with code APS30 at pennpress.org
Coming June 2nd! Jane Colden's Botanic Manuscript: The Legacy of America's First Woman Botanist by Fenella Greig Heckscher.
Richly illustrated with Colden's own sketches and handwriting, this volume presents a full examination of Jane Colden’s Manuscript, highlights its important contributions to the early study of America’s flora, and, three hundred years after her birth, restores Colden’s legacy as one of the country’s great botanists.
Order now at pennpress.org!
#womenshistory #botany #janecolden
Philly is an important setting in Arnold Thackray's new book, MAKING SCIENCE HISTORY. A native of Manchester, England, Thackray accepted a position at Penn in the late 1960s before going on to found what became the Science History Institute (among other accomplishments).
Read more on the making of science history, and Philadelphia's role, in the book.
Take 30% off with code APS30 at the link in bio.
#Philadelphia #ScienceHistory
Boston! Don't miss APS Press author Bob Frishman talking about "Philadelphia Clockmaker Edward Duffield and The American Revolution" at @bostonathenaeum on May 4th! Tickets are available at the link in bio.
Not in Boston? Buy a copy of the book and take 30% off with code APS30 at pennpress.org
From April 22-24 renowned scholars will gather in Philadelphia for the APS General Meeting. You don't have to be an elected Member of the oldest learned society in the U.S. to listen to talks about Darwinism, Frederick Douglass, the health of democracies, and more. They're streaming on the @amphilsociety YouTube Channel.
And you can browse the APS Member book display from home! If you decide to buy a book at the link in bio, a portion of the sale will support the APS Press.
251 years ago, the first shot of the American Revolutionary War was fired at dawn in Lexington, Massachusetts. Isaiah Thomas was responsible for making sure that shot was heard round the world.
At just 26 years old, Isaiah Thomas was the printer behind the Massachusetts Spy – a Patriot newspaper for middle class readers. Thomas arranged for the Sons of Liberty to meet in secret in his Boston print shop. Under threat of execution, Thomas smuggled his press to Worcester in the middle of the night only three days before the war broke out. Joining the militiamen at Lexington on the morning of April 19th, Thomas published the first eyewitness account of the battle. His vivid, scathing report accused the British of unprovoked atrocities, stoking the fires of the Patriot cause throughout the colonies.
Thomas became a titan of early American publishing, founding the American Antiquarian Society “to gather up all the fragments so that nothing be lost” when it came to public memory of the Revolution. Barbara E. Lacey continues that work in The Illustrated Imprints of Isaiah Thomas. What did early Americans read, and how did their reading influence the ways they thought of themselves and their new nation? To learn more, consider picking up a copy of this magnificently illustrated book at pennpress.org. Use code APS30 at checkout to take 30% off your order. #TodayInHistory #americanrevolution #america250
On this day in 1895, Franklin Field became the nation’s first stadium. Named after the university’s founder, this humble venue designed for University of Pennsylvania student athletes has since gone on to host 100+ years of roaring crowds and legendary games.
But Franklin Field isn’t the only athletic "first" associated with Benjamin Franklin. Over a century earlier, Franklin himself made waves as an early proponent of aquatic fitness. An avid swimmer – who designed his own wooden swim fins at the age of 11 – Franklin was even posthumously inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame!
To celebrate this "firstiversary" of Philadelphia’s sporting history, consider diving deeper into our favorite polymath’s athletic legacy by picking up a copy of Benjamin Franklin, Swimmer by Sarah B. Pomeroy at pennpress.org. Use code APS30 at checkout to take 30% off your order.
Order at pennpress.org
@52firstsphilly #benfranklin
Are you in Philly for the @oah_history conference on American history? So are we! Come see us in the exhibit hall to say hello, browse our books and journals, and tell us about your research.
Thanks to everyone who came out to the APS last night for a publishing salon on difficult books. We had a great discussion thanks to our speakers: Alia Hanna Habib, Laura B. McGrath, Nathaniel Popkin, and Declan Spring.
What is the most difficult book you've read? Take a look at how our attendees responded, and let us know in the comments how you would answer.
Our next salon is coming up in June and we hope to see you there!
Tomorrow! Wednesday April 15th we are talking about difficult books at the APS.
@headhousebooks will be there selling the following 4 titles:
📕Take It from Me: An Agent's Guide to Building a Nonfiction Writing Career from Scratch by @aliahannaha (@pantheonbooks 2026)
📕Partly Strong, Partly Broken by @nathaniel.popkin (@new_door_books 2026)
📕Nightmare of the Embryos by Mariella Mehr (@ndpublishing 2026)
📕Herscht 07769 by László Krasznahorkai (@ndpublishing 2024)
Go online to preorder @laurabmcgrath 's 📕Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction (coming April 28 from @princetonupress )
Register for this free event at the link in bio.
