Out of this World: Planetary Imagery and Theodora Allen’s Cosmic Garden I

This program aired on Thursday, May 19, 2022, 2022

In her work, Cosmic Garden I, Theodora Allen joins a long line of artists and scientists who have sought to represent the wonders of the cosmos. Those efforts took on a new life during and just after the Gilded Age, when science and technology enabled a new understanding and new ways of capturing the stars. Our distinguished guests, Adler Planetarium Curator and Director of Collections Pedro Raposo and University of Chicago Professor Emeritus of Astronomy & Astrophysics Richard Kron, will share images and stories of space from a bookended period of Chicago history, between the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the Century of Progress Exposition in 1933.

Please note: This program will be recorded but not broadcast live. To receive a recording, reserve a ticket. Each ticket holder will receive a recording of the program.

About Our Speakers

Richard Kron, PhD University of California Berkeley, is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics at The University of Chicago. He currently leads the Dark Energy Survey, an international collaboration of scientists that is charting how the Universe has expanded over cosmic time by measuring large samples of galaxies and supernovae. He is also exploring the century-old photographic plates archived at Yerkes Observatory to assess the scientific value of the collection, how these unique objects can be digitized, and how the images and the stories behind them can be made accessible to astronomers, artists, and the general public.

Pedro M. P. Raposo, DPhil University of Oxford, is Curator and Director of Collections at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, where he oversees world-class collections of astronomical instruments, prints, and rare books. He has published on topics such as the history of nineteenth-century astronomical observatories, astronomy and empire, the history of modern planetaria, and the concept of discovery in astronomy. Raposo has acted as content expert and curator for several exhibitions, including ‘What is a Planet?’, which was awarded the First Prize in the 2016 Great Exhibitions competition of the British Society for the History of Science. Raposo is also co-chair of the Collections, Archives, Libraries and Museums (CALM) Caucus of the History of Science Society and Secretary of the Scientific Instrument Commission of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science.

Image credits:

Young, Charles A, Lessons in Astronomy including Uranography: A Brief Introductory Course without Mathematics, for Use in Schools and Seminaries (Boston: Ginn and Company, c. 1890), p. 198.; Arcturus, Century of Progress Exposition brochure, c. 1933, Adler Planetarium library; Theodora Allen, The Cosmic Garden I, 2016. Oil on linen. Javier and Monica Mora Collection, Miami.