Head-and-hand_2014_Endeavour.pdf

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Book review
Endeavour
Vol. 38 No. 3–4
Full text provided by
www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
Head and hand
Observing by Hand: Sketching the Nebulae in the Nineteenth Century,
O.W. Nasim, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2013
Matthew Stanley*
1 Washington Place, NYU Gallatin, New York, NY 10003, United States
All the way back to Thomas Kuhn’s
Structure of Scientific
Revolutions,
historians have framed the problem of scien-
tific observation as a tussle between the eye and the mind:
how do ideas shape what we see? Omar Nasim wants to
make this a three-way battle by adding the
hand
to the
mix. How does the act of recording (specifically drawing)
shape what we see, and what we think?
Observing by Hand
fits well with existing scholarship on
tacit knowledge and the reconstruction of scientific experi-
ments. Nasim is interested in the physical side of scientific
practice: what did scientists actually do with their bodies
during the acts of observation? Nasim emphasizes the
recording of observations, arguing that the procedures
used to stabilize an image not only allowed its publication
and dissemination, but also altered the way the observer
saw the object. It is time, he says, to dispense with the
distinction between representation and intervention.
The book focuses on the example of nebulae drawing in
the 19th century. This subject has been touched on by
previous scholars, but Nasim’s work explores it in extraor-
dinary detail. He quickly moves beyond the well-documen-
ted arguments about the resolvability of the nebulae to
investigate the specific observing practices in use by six
influential figures: John Herschel, William Parsons, Wil-
liam Lassell, E.P. Mason, E.W.L. Tempel, and George
Bond. These were all thoughtful investigators who spent
a great deal of time pondering how best to observe and
record. Amazingly, Nasim can reconstruct almost every
detail of their observing and recording processes over
decades of work.
Observing by Hand
is a model of how
to extract rich stories from complicated archives and doc-
umentary material.
Nasim places the process of
familiarization
at the core of
his argument. Put simply: the repeated drawing of an
object changes the way one sees it. The author skillfully
works with complicated records to show how images of the
same object, even made by the same observer, evolve over
time. The images changed with each drawing, emphasizing
different features and details, until finally stabilizing in a
published form that the scientific community could under-
stand. Sometimes this process was individual, as with
Herschel’s adoption of mathematical techniques into his
drawing; sometimes it was collective, as with Parsons’ need
to combine the observations made by many different assis-
tants over many years. Further, disagreements about
procedure and the purpose of observations could have
concrete consequences, as in an illuminating argument
between Herschel and Parsons on whether representative
pictures or quantitative measurements of nebulae were
more important.
These recording procedures were not, the author shows,
accidental or arbitrary. Rather, they were often based on
fundamental assumptions about the nature of the nebulae;
the need to consolidate work of many people; techniques
from land surveying and topography; and even elaborate
philosophical theories of mind. Nasim insightfully points
out that merely establishing the subjectivity of these
observations is not so interesting, and that the more
compelling issue is exactly how astronomers tried to
over-
come
this threat of subjectivity. Different observers dis-
agreed about what it was that needed to be overcome, and
which procedures could best do so. This book is an impor-
tant contribution to a general history of scientific observa-
tion, as it vigorously addresses one of the core issues: what
counts as an acceptable observation? It is also a fine
example of how to distinguish between how a scientist
recommends observations be done, and how they actually
observe.
Observing by Hand
should be read by any historians or
philosophers interested in observation in science, particu-
larly historians of astronomy. Someone studying material
culture and scientific practice will find it fascinating as well
– we have few such robust and detailed narratives of how
tangible scientific materials are produced. The book has a
great deal to offer anyone exploring the various intercon-
nections between science and art. Its emphasis on the
creation, use, and transformation of material records pro-
vides an entry point for people from many fields. Nasim has
made the story of nebular drawing accessible to a wide
interdisciplinary audience from art historians to scholars
in library science. Finally, the lavish illustrations and
beautiful production values of the book require mention.
It is a gorgeous volume that is both aesthetically and
intellectually valuable.
*Tel.: +1 212 992 7752.
Available online 6 September 2014
www.sciencedirect.com
0160-9327/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2014.07.005

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