Blade and Bone The Discovery of Human Antiquity Exhibition Opening March 29,2012

President's Message * j ^ H Dear Friends,

As the Linda Hall Library concludes its 65th anniversary year, all that remains is to thank you for making The Year of Innovation a success. Our talented staff assembled imaginative and thought-

provoking events emphasizing the breadth and depth of the Library's holdings and the historical impact that science and technology has had during the past 500 years. These events conveyed the belief that an understanding of science and its history is a useful commodity in today s complex world. Your attendance and enthusiam for the subject matter was overwhelming. Our anniversary year concluded with the Library's Annual Fund campaign. Each campaign gift reminded us that the Linda Hall Library is surrounded by a community of supporters who share the Library's goal of collecting, maintaining, and making available for research and scholarship one of the world's finest collections devoted to science, engineering, technology, and their histories. Equally important, your gifts helped raise public awareness of the impact that science has upon our lives and the world we inhabit. Your generosity this year was exceptional. The Annual Fund campaign was our most successful ever. The Library's 66th year begins with intriguing new programs that will examine the origins of humankind, retrace the route of the Transcontinental Railroad, and explore the concept of time. We will also welcome our first class of resident fellows under our revised fellowship program. Fellowship recipients will spend from one to nine months in residence, using the Library's holdings to support advanced research projects. Each fellow will offer a public program discussing some aspect of his or her research projects. As the year begins, we re-dedicate ourselves to maintaining the Library's stature as a premiere research center for science, engineering and technology, and as a destination for vibrant programs that advance our understanding of these subjects. Please join us. Sincerely, Lisa Browar President

An Interview with Donald Johanson

Paleoanthropologist Donald Johanson gained worldwide fame in 1974 with his discovery of a 3.2-million-year-old species of Australopithecine at the Hadar excavation site in Ethiopia. He named his discovery, a partial skeleton of an adult female, Lucy. Johanson classified Lucy Australopithecus afarensis, a new species in the hominid family tree that forever changed our understanding of human origins.

Johanson will speak at the Linda Hall Library on April 24 at 7 p.m. as part of the Relatively Human lecture series. In early January, he spoke with Eric Ward, Director of Public Programming, about Lucy and the field of paleoanthropology.

Eric Ward: What was Lucy's significance in 1974, and what's been her most lasting contribution to the field of paleoanthropology?

Donald Johanson: Lucy, Australopithecus aferensis, drew the two major lines of evolution together on the human family tree. The one line that led to a sort of ape-men called Australopithicus... to earliest homo... It means that this was a species that was generalized enough to be a common ancestor to all the later hominids... [Also], a large part of the diagnosis and understanding of the most recent species that have been announced, such as Ardipithecus ramidus, which I will talk about a little bit in my lecture, came through comparative anatomical studies with Lucy's species. So afarensis has become a benchmark for judging the more recent fossils that have been discovered in that early time range. I think that is her enduring importance.

There is nothing that surpasses the moment of discovery.. .The great reward for me was that I was the guy, the individual, who looked down at the ground and saw the first bone of Lucy and said, "there it is."

Donald Johanson

EW: What do we know today about the afarensis species?

DJ: We know an enormous amount about the anatomy of the species because we have bones from virtually every part of the skeleton: hands, feet, arms, legs,

pelvis, thorax, skull. We know there is significant difference in body size between males and females. We know that the foot was very much designed like our own foot. It had a strong longitudinal and transverse arch to the foot, and these arches are very important in maintaining the integrity of the foot and also in providing some propulsive force for our bipedal walking.

EW: You mentioned the recent announcement of the discovery of Ardipithecus ramidus. How does this species fit into the family tree?

DJ: There is a great deal of discussion right now as to whether or not A ramidus was an ancestor to later Australopithicus. There are some scholars, including myself, who have some doubt that this was a direct ancestor to Australopithicus. It may very well have been one of those quite interesting evolutionary sidelines that suggest that perhaps early human ancestors adapted in several different ways—only one of which ultimately led to us.

EW: Much like the Hobbits, Homo floresiensis, that were discovered in Flores, Indonesia in 2003.

DJ: Exactly. The Hobbits certainly are not an ancestor to us because they existed alongsideofusfora very long time in isolation in Southeast Asia. So stepping back and looking at the family tree, we see that it had many more branches than we had anticipated when I first announced Lucy way back in the early 1970s. There weren't a lot of species on the human family tree (I will show an illustration of this during my lecture), yet today there are many, many more.

EW: What does that mean for human evolution?

DJ: There are some people who still look at human evolution as a straight line, that there are ancestors and descendants, and the descendants are all on the way to us. And what the Hobbits and Neanderthals and specialized robust Australopithicus creatures show us is that just because you can walk upright, just because you can make tools, just because you have big brains, doesn't mean that you are necessarily an ancestor to modern humans. It tells us something about the

fact that extinction, the Grim Reaper of evolution, comes along and does begin to winnow out species, and that is something that we all have to be aware and cognizant of as we look at ourselves as a species.

EW: You're off to Ethiopia next week. How do recent advances in laboratory research complement the work that you're doing in the field?

DJ: We tend to be discovery-centric. We think that the field is discovery driven, that we're going to find a Rosetta stone that is going to reveal everything. But, as we make these discoveries, we're beginning to find out with modern techniques and technology...that it's new analytical techniques, both on the genetic side as well as in the area of scanning and understanding function and biomechanics, that are revealing to us a host of new information about our

ancestors and about those creatures that went extinct... So, I thinkthat there is a very important balance between field work and lab work.

EW: The potential for making the big find has to be incredibly motivating.

DJ: There is nothing that surpasses the moment of discovery. Most anthropologists who are involved in this field are working on discoveries made by other people, which is fine. They are sometimes called the consumers, and we're called the producers. Very rarely does someone in the field make the big discovery themselves. The great reward for me was that I was the guy,

the individual, who looked down at the ground and saw the first bone of Lucy and said,"there it is." And that's something that has really stuck with me over the years.

EW: And you were just out of graduate school, right?

DJ: I was 31 years old and I didn't know what hit me. It was one of those things: don't wish for something, it might come true. And here it was, and all of a sudden I had an enormous responsibility to make sure whatever was done with this was done correctly, and that I would assemble a team that would work closely on it and bear the responsibility of dealing with it. So, it was a huge reward. At the same time, an enormous amount of responsibility.

EW: Thank you for your time. We're looking forward to your lecture.

Spring Programs

Thursday, February 23,7 p.m. 10th Annual Paul D. Bartlett, Sr. Lecture Primate Psychology and Monkeynomics Laurie Santos, Director, Comparative Cognition Laboratory, Yale University

HCan the collapse of the world financial markets be explained in part by human evolutionary history? Are human economic decisions, both rational and irrational, determined as much by nature as by

intellect? Psychology professor Laurie Santos delves into questions about human economic behavior and decision-making through her behavioral studies of capuchin monkeys.

The Linda Hall Library Bartlett Lecture is presented in association with The Yale Club of Kansas City, The Harvard/Radcliffe Club of Kansas City, and the Princeton Alumni Association of Greater Kansas City. Made possible through generous support from Marilyn and Jim Hebenstreit and Mr. and Mrs. Paul D. Bartlett, Jr.

Thursday, March 15,7 p.m. Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything Joshua Foer, 2006 US. Memory Champion and best-selling author

At a time when electronic devices have all but rendered our individual memories obsolete, Joshua Foer's unlikely journey from chronically forgetful science journalist to U.S. Memory Champion is a revelatory

exploration of the vast, hidden impact of memory on every aspect of our lives.

Thursday, March 29,6 p.m. Exhibition Opening Blade and Bone: The Discovery of Human Antiquity

Until the mid-19th century, it was generally believed that humans were a recent addition to the earth, perhaps 6,000 years old, according to William Ashworth, who

curated the Library's spring exhibition. In it he documents the discovery and acceptance of human antiquity by displaying the books and journals in which major revelations were announced.

"Several discoveries in the 1830s and 1840s suggested to some that humans were ancient, although many such claims were almost universally rejected. It wasn't until 1859," Ashworth says, "that the scientific world did a rapid about-face."

The discovery that year of human tools, found alongside extinct animal remains in a cave at Brixham, England, caused archaeologists to take another look at previous evidence for human antiquity. By 1870, the discoveries of Neanderthal (1856) and Engis (1833) had been re-evaluated and accepted as genuine, and new finds had been made at Cro-Magnon cave (1868) in southern France. By the end of the century, even popular literature was displaying restoration scenes showing cave men fighting saber-toothed tigers, and human antiquity was a commonly accepted concept.

"The Library has nearly all of the important documents," notes Ashworth. "We will have on display the first images of the fossil remains of Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, Homo erectus, and Australopithecus, as well as stone tools, excavations, and cave art. An added visual touch will be the display of reconstructions of ancient human skulls, which are quite remarkable."

The exhibition opens Thursday, March 29, at 6 p.m., followed by a lecture by Brian M. Fagan, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, at 7 p.m. Exhibition galleries are open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the second Saturday of each month from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Admission is free with free parking available in Library lots.

Made possible by a generous grant from the Victor E. Speas Foundation, Bank of America, Trustee.

RELATIVELY HUMAN A Linda Hall Library Lecture Series

Thursday, March 29,7 p.m. Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans Brian M. Fagan, Professor Emeritus of Archaeology, University of California, Santa Barbara

Cro-Magnons were the first fully modern Europeans. Not only were they the creators of the stunning cave paintings at Lascaux and elsewhere, but they were the most adaptable and

technologically inventive people that had yet lived on earth. Archaeologist and best-selling author Brian Fagan explores the world of the Cro-Magnons, the mysterious, little-known race that survived the Ice Age and became the ancestors of today's humans.

Tuesday, April 24,7 p.m. Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins Donald Johanson, Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University

Few contemporary scientists have created the kind of excitement and controversy that Donald Johanson has brought to the field of paleoanthropology. His 1974 discovery of the world's best-known

fossil, the 3.2-million-year-old Lucy, made Johanson's name synonymous with a new understanding of our human origins.Thirty-eight years after Lucy, Johanson continues to probe the origins of our species and what it means to be human.

Thursday, May 3,7 p.m. Neanderthal Genome Project: New Insights into Human Evolution Richard Edward Green, University of California, Santa Cruz

After extracting ancient DNA from the 40,000-year-old bones of Neanderthals, Ed Green discovered that non-Africans throughout the world carry between one and four percent Neanderthal DNA in their

genomes. This compelling evidence that modern humans interbred with Neanderthals shortly after migrating out of Africa gives scientists an insight into what makes humans genetically human.

Thursday, May 10,7 p.m. The Pleistocene Meets Middle Earth: The Significance of the Indonesian Hobbits (Homo floresiensis) for Interpreting Human Evolution Matthew Tocheri, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.

Over half of all the bones in the human skeleton are in the hands and feet, and Matt Tocheri believes these bones tell a significant portion of our evolutionary story. His work on the wrist bones of

Homo floresiensis, the so-called Hobbits of human evolution, received considerable attention worldwide after it was published in 2007 in the journal, Science. His findings dramatically changed our understanding of human evolution.

Spring lectures are made possible through generous support from Dr. Richard Gentile, Tuck and Susan Spaulding, Bob and Sally West and the Linda Hall Library Annual Fund.

Lectures are free and open to the public; however, seating is limited and e-tickets are required. The e-ticket registration form is available at www.lindahall.org/events. If you have questions, please email events@lindahall.org or call (816) 926-8772 to leave a message.

Matinee Movie Series Please join us in the Library's auditorium for free screenings of any or all of these fascinating films.

Tuesday, January 31,2 p.m. - Earth Tuesday, February 28,2 p.m. - What Darwin Never Knew Tuesday, March 27,2 p.m. - Becoming Human: Unearthing Our Earliest Ancestors Saturday, April 14,11 a.m. - Babies Tuesday, April 24,2 p.m. - Babies Saturday, May 12,11 a.m. - Digital Nation Tuesday, May 22,2 p.m. - Digital Nation

Linda Hall Library Launches New Online Catalog

In response to escalating user expectations, a rapidly expanding information universe, and the need for increased operational efficiencies, the Library launched its new online catalog (catalog.lindahall. org) on January 1,2012.

With its significantly improved searching capabilities, the new catalog is designed to meet the ever-evolving needs of contemporary library users, and makes the Linda Hall Library's collections more discoverable than ever before.

Through a single search box, users can now search across the full breadth of content in the Library's

vast collection and beyond. A single search will also produce results about related research resources located in libraries all over the world making an astounding amount of accurate information immediately available to Linda Hall Library patrons.

The Library built its information-handling infrastructure on a platform powered by ExLibris, an industry leader in Library automation. Replacing one online catalog with another took almost two years and involved nearly every Library department, as well as a large team of dedicated staff members led by project manager, Erik Lewis. To the entire team's credit, this project adhered closely to a well-defined schedule and delivered the finished product on time — precisely at the stroke of midnight January 1,2012!

Encouraging Young Scientists Each spring, several participants from the Greater Kansas City Science and Engineering Fair, sponsored by Science Pioneers, are invited to display their work in the Library's Main Reading Room. Library staff choose projects from fourth graders to high school students based on scientific content, unique approaches to problem solving, and visual composition. Winners are then honored with a reception during which the President of the Library presents the Shipman Award, in memory of the Library's first director, Joseph C. Shipman. The Shipman Award is given for mastery of scientific writing demonstrated in either a project or paper. Science Fair winner, Sarina Farb

Last year's winner was home-schooled high school junior Sarina Farb of LeCompton, Kansas. Her winning topic was "The Effects of BPA — an Endocrine Disrupter Extracted from Thermal Receipt Paper — on the Proliferation of Cancer Cells." It was Sarina's sixth year participating in the Greater Kansas City Science Fair and the third time she was recognized by the Linda Hall Library. In a thank-you letter to Library staff, Sarina wrote that the awards over the years made her feel that all of her hard work had paid off, and gave her "a wonderful opportunity to see other projects and meet and talk with people who also appreciate science." Sarina's parents, JoAnn and Joe Farb, said that their daughter's Science Fair projects were often the focus of her curriculum because the work involved covered all subject areas. The 2012 Linda Hall Library Blue Ribbon Exhibition and Reception will be held on May 15, following the 61st Greater Kansas City Science and Engineering Fair, March 21-23 at Union Station. Check www.lindahall.org later this spring for details.

All Aboard the New History of Railroad Technology Website

In the first half of the 19th century, travel from the eastern to the western frontier was slow, arduous, and dangerous. Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman predicted that the task of building a railroad to unite the continent would be "the work of giants." However, the seemingly impossible feat was accomplished in the 1860s with the building of the Transcontinental Railroad which revolutionized travel and trade, and completely changed life in America.

Though a number of websites devoted to railroad history exist, none contain the breadth and depth of the collection available at the Linda Hall Library. Now, thanks to the generous support of the BNSF Foundation (of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway), the Library's extensive collection of 19th century railroad periodicals is available online.

Locomotive America built by the Grant Locomotive Works of Paterson, N. J.f for the 1867 Paris Exposition. An example of a standard American locomotive of the mid-19th century.

Visitors to the new History of Railroad Technology website, railroad.lindahall.org, will learn about an extraordinary period in America's history through the digitized periodicals and other elements, like an interactive timeline that chronicles the creation of the Transcontinental Railroad.

By making approximately 150,000 pages of 19th century railroad literature searchable and available via the web, this digital project is unique and provides a significant resource devoted to the historical importance of railroad technology in the United States. The Library is delighted to offer this exciting research opportunity to scholars and members of the general public who are interested in learning more about the history and technology of the 19th century.

Digital versions of the materials reduce handling and help conserve the paper collection. The railroad periodicals were digitized by Library staff using a camera stand with a V-shaped cradle to minimize damage to the fragile materials. As the text was digitized, it was processed through OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software to make the words searchable online.

The Library staff designed the website, and produced it in consultation with web development company 305 Spin (www.305spin.com).

HIGHLIGHTS railroad.lindahall.org

• An interactive timeline of events • General information on 19th century

railroad technology • Digitized railroad periodicals • How the steam engine was invented

and how it operated • The historical development of rail cars • Remarkable engineering feats • How the railroads affected the way we

tell time today

Linda Hall Library Online View our current exhibitions and lectures,

and browse our online catalog at lindahall.org

Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/Linda.Hall.Library,

and follow us on Twitter @LindaHall_org

Linda Hall Library SCIENCE, ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY—INFORMATION FOR THE WORLD

5109 Cherry Street Kansas City, MO 64110-2498 USA

Hanscom Air Force Base Collection Comes to the Library The U. S. Air Force Geophysics Research Library at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Massachusetts recently extended an opportunity to fortify the Linda Hall Library's holdings in the history of science. The Hanscom Collection contains many notable and scarcely-held items currently lacking in the Library's own extensive history of science collection, and was the product of personal contacts with antiquarian book dealers worldwide.

The Hanscom gift arrived last summer containing treasures dating from the 17th century through the mid-1990s. Many of the volumes retain their original and carefully preserved leather bindings. The collection includes an impressive range of subjects-natural history, geology, geophysics, meterology, climatology, volcanology,

seismology, and arctic science- as well as a significant number of publications emanating from institutes, societies, museums, universities, and observatories throughout Europe, Eastern Europe, and the former Soviet Union. Of special interest are the materials pertaining to scientific voyages and expeditions.

HEDGEHOG Number 50•Spring 2012

To mark the occasion of the 50th issue of Hedgehog, the image of the publication's namesake was selected from Histoire Naturelle (Paris, 1760) by Georges Buffon, one of the library's most popular natural historians. This illustration can be found in the LHL Digital Collections as part of The Grandeur of Life collection.

The cover image depicts a cave man fighting a cave bear, by artist L. Dalliance, published in Henri Du Cleuziou's Creation de I'Homme (Paris, 1887), one of the books presented in the exhibition Blade and Bone: The Discovery of Human Antiquity.

HEDGEHOG is published twice a year by

The Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology

5109 Cherry Street Kansas City, Missouri 64110

816-926-8792 fax 816-926-8790 www.lindahall.org