Sunday, March 19, 2:00 pm, Monthly Program via Zoom.
“Designed for Large Explosions” – The Port Chicago explosion and the Manhattan Project
A Presentation by Daisy Brown Herndon
Daisy Brown Herndon, a former school librarian,
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Monthly Program: “Designed for Large Explosions” – The Port Chicago explosion and the Manhattan Project
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Posted in Institute Activities
Posted in Institute Activities
Sunday, August 21, 2:00 pm, Public Program via Zoom.
Megan Kate Nelson is a historian and writer, with a BA from Harvard and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. She is the author of four books: Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America (Scribner 2022); The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner 2020; a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History); Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War (Georgia, 2012); and Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp (Georgia, 2005). She writes about the Civil War, the U.S. West, and American culture for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, and TIME. Before leaving academia to write full-time in 2014, she taught U.S. history and American Studies at Texas Tech University, Cal State Fullerton, Harvard, and Brown. She grew up in Colorado but now lives in Boston with her husband and two cats.
Writing and Revising Narrative History
A Presentation by Megan Kate Nelson
Join the Mechanics' Institute and the Institute for Historical Study for this exciting talk about writing with historian Megan Kate Nelson who left academia in 2014 to become a full-time writer. During this Zoom event, she will offer advice for writers who want to publish trade history books and other pieces for general readers. Dr. Nelson will talk about how to make the transition from academic to narrative history writing, how to revise manuscripts for trade publication, and how to pitch articles and Op-eds to newspapers and magazines.
Megan Kate Nelson is a historian and writer, with a BA from Harvard and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Iowa. She is the author of four books: Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America (Scribner 2022); The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West (Scribner 2020; a finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in History); Ruin Nation: Destruction and the American Civil War (Georgia, 2012); and Trembling Earth: A Cultural History of the Okefenokee Swamp (Georgia, 2005). She writes about the Civil War, the U.S. West, and American culture for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, and TIME. Before leaving academia to write full-time in 2014, she taught U.S. history and American Studies at Texas Tech University, Cal State Fullerton, Harvard, and Brown. She grew up in Colorado but now lives in Boston with her husband and two cats.Saturday, May 17, 10:00 am, Monthly Program via Zoom.
FOOTBALL AND TECHNOLOGY: The Essence of the Bay Area
A presentation by Ted Atlas
In 1878, in what is now part of the Stanford University campus, Eadweard Muybridge lined up twelve cameras, each with a string attached to the shutter release, to capture the gait of a horse as it galloped past. When viewed using Muybridge's zoopraxiscope, the twelve frames made up the world's first motion picture. The significance of the fact that it was it the behest of, and financed by, Leland Stanford cannot be underrated. The Silicon Valley and the technological eras that preceded it would not have happened without Stanford University and its alumni.
Just eight years after Muybridge's invention of the motion picture, the University of California began to play American football. Five years later, in 1891, the just opened Stanford University fielded a team. Just as college football was starting up at the turn of the century, the foundation of the Silicon Valley was being laid. The first homegrown tech company was the Federal Telegraph Company formed in Palo Alto in 1909. Stanford University invested $500 in Federal, and the company soon attracted Lee de Forest, the “Father of Electronics.” The die was cast for the Silicon Valley.
Ted Atlas is a native of San Jose and 4th -generation Californian. He returned to San Jose after earning a BA in Geography from UCLA. He is retired from the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department. Concurrent to his full-time career, he worked for 36 years in game day operations at San Francisco 49er games. This led him to write Candlestick Park, an illustrated history of the stadium published by Arcadia Publishing. He continues to write and publish articles of local historical interest. In 2025 his articles were published in Air Attack and Air Classics magazines.
You are welcome to invite friends and colleagues to attend.
The presentation will be recorded, and posted on YouTube. If you don’t want to be on the recording, just make sure your video is off. And please remember to mute your microphone!