Outrageous Hypotheses interview excerpt on the Nuremberg Chronicle
This interview segment was recorded during the opening of the Outrageous Hypotheses exhibit at WSU MASC. The exhibit was based on Being Wrong, the 2013-2014 Common Read. Trevor Bond describes his favorite object in the exhibit, the Nuremberg Chronicle.
Outrageous Hypotheses interview excerpt about flat earth theory
This interview was recorded during the opening of the Outrageous Hypotheses exhibit at WSU MASC. In it, Mark O'English describes the materials in the exhibit about Samuel Rowbottam's Zetetic flat earch theory and what he finds interesting about it. The exhibit was created to relate to the 2013-2014 Common Read.
This is the cover for Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, by Kathryn Schulz. This book is the 2013-2014 WSU Common Reading.
Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error
Babirusa from Nieuhof’s Remarkable Voyages
World history -- Early works to 1800. Indonesia -- Description and travel.
This is likely a depiction of a babirusa, which is native to Indonesia. Here it is presented in a slender, dog-like posture. In the natural world, the babirusa more closely resembles a boar.
Remarkable Voyages and Travells [sic] into Brazil, and the Best Parts of the East-Indies
T'Amsterdam : Voor de weduwe van Jacob van Meurs, op de Keizers-gracht.
Tropical animals from Nieuhof’s Remarkable Voyages
This engraving depicts a number of animals from the Asian tropics, including an elephant and a "sucoterio," which is likely a misinterpretation of a Sumatran rhinoceros.
This illustration shows a member of a race of people called the Blemmye. They were initially described by Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturalis as in Nubia.
A new map of North America : shewing its principal divisions, chief cities, townes, rivers, mountains, &c.
North America -- Early works to 1800 -- Maps
This map of North America by British cartographer Edward Wells depicts California as an island. This misrepresentation was based on accounts from the voyages of Hernando Cortes.
Early Washington Maps
Jews -- History -- To 70 A.D. -- Early works to 1800.
In this depiction of Noah's Ark from 1681, several pairs of animals are shown boarding Noah's Ark, including a pair of unicorns near the front of the line.
Histoire des Juifs, écrite par Flavius Joseph, sous le titre de Antiquitez Judaïques
Amsterdam : Chez la Veuve Schippers, & Henry Wetstein
Arnauld d'Andilly, Monsieur (Robert), 1588-1674 Schippers, veuve, printer Wetstein, Henricus, printer
This satellite photograph from 1973 shows the braided pathways of the Channeled Scablands. While aerial photography helped illustrate Bretz's theory that a giant flood formed the Scablands, satellite images such as this provided a broader overhead perspective to better illustrate Bretz's evidence.
The channeled scablands of eastern Washington : the geologic story of the Spokane flood
Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office
Title page for A Treatise of the Great Antidote of Van Helmont, Paracelsus, and Croillius
This title page is from a pamphlet published in 1671 that describes how to create an elixir that promises long life and claims to have a "restoring nature even at the point of death...effectively removing away the seeds of all diseases."
A treatise of the great antidote of Van Helmont, Paracelsus, and Crollius; by them called the Elixir proprietatis: known by all physitians to be the greatest cordial and only medicine in the world for long and sound life: restoring nature even at the point of death, and effectually taking away the seeds of all diseases. And an examination of authors concerning its true preparation: as also, a ready way to volatise salt of tartar, by which this elixir is truly prepared.
This chart printed in a Dutch book on astronomy depicts a geocentric universe, with the Earth at its center and the planets, sun, and stars orbiting around the Earth. In this chart, Mercury and Venus orbit around the sun, which would help explain their retrograde motion. Unlike many other geocentric models, the orbit of the planets are not concentric, but instead intersect.
Hvg. Grotii Batavi Syntagma Arateorvm: Opvs Poeticae Et Astronomiae Stvdiosis Vtilissimvm: Quo Quae
Lvgduni Batavorvm : Ex officinâ Plantinianâ, apvd Christophorvm Raphelengivm, Academiae Lugduno-Batauae Typographum
Charts illustrating a geocentric universe
This chart from William Derham's Astro-theology displays a model of the geocentric universe, including the orbit of the planets, the stars, and the "coclum empyreum," which was essentially heaven. In this model, as in all geocentric models, Earth is the fixed center of the universe.
Astro-theology: or, A demonstration of the being and attributes of God : from a survey of the heavens
London : Printed for W. Innys, at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-Yard
This is the title page from William Whitson's Theory of the Earth. In it, he attempts to explain the deluge described in the book of Noah as the result of a comet passing near Earth.
New Theory of the Earth, from its Original, to the Consummation of all Things
London : Printed by R. Roberts, for Benj. Tooke at the Middle-Temple-Gate in Fleet-street
This portrait of Osmar Waller was taken when Waller was Vice-President of Washington State College. Waller taught mathematics and civil engineering at WSC and was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Waller was also a proponent of the Gravity Plan, which was a series of canals, tunnels, and dams that would have channeled water from the Pend Oreille River to the Columbia Basin.
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/masc/masc.htm
For permission to publish please contact Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (509) 335-6691.
Photograph of Bretz expedition from Intermountain Motorist
This page from an article titled "Red Hot Coulees" and inlcudes a photograph of J. Harlen Bretz leading a field trip to explain his theory to a group of geologists and journalists. The article was printed in the September 1928 issue of Intermountain Motorist.
"Big Shots" Pledge Support to Columbia Basin Project
This photograph from the Spokane Chronicle features members of the Colmbia River Development League, including James O'Sullivan, Rufus Woods, and Senator C. C. Dill. The Columbia River Development League formed in support of a dam built at Grand Coulee to spur agricultural development in the Columbia Basin and industrial development in Central Washington.
Wallis and Marilyn Kimble Northwest History Collection
Lister Gave First Push to Columbia Project
This cartoon presents the story of the Grand Coulee Dam from conception to the eventual decision by the United States Congress to fund construction of the dam. This narrative emphasizes the role of advocates of the Gravity Plan, like Governor Ernest Lister and the Columbia Basin Irrigation League. The irony here, is that the Gravity Plan was in competition with the plan to build a dam at Grand Coulee and thus the efforts of many featured in the cartoon were at times in conflict with the eventual building of the dam.
Irrigation -- Washington (State) -- Columbia River Valley.
This map taken from a 1925 brochure illustrates the series of tunnels and dams designed to channel water from the Pend Oreille River to the Columbia Basin. By maintaining a path that moved water downhill, the Gravity Plan proposed to irrigate the Columbia Basin without the use of pumps. This brochure was created by the Columbia Basin Irrigation League, who championed this plan throughout the 1920s.
This photograph of the Dry Falls system in Washington State illustrates the sort of gouging that Bretz felt could only be caused by a catastrophic flood.
Reconnassaince Topographic and Geologic Map of Grand Coulee Washington
This map was in The Grand Coulee by Bretz to illustrate his belief that the coulees in the region were created by a cataclysmic flood, as opposed to gradual processes, such as glaciation or wind erosion. The pink areas on the map illustrate a series of interconnected channels through which flowed the waters of a massive flood.
New York, N.Y., American Geographical Society
This plaque dedicated to J. Harlen Bretz for his work in explaining the topography of Eastern Washington is located outside the Dry Falls Visitor Center.
A general map of the discoveries of Admiral de Fonte & others
Northwest, Pacific -- Maps -- Early works to 1800.
In 1708 a London magazine, The Monthly Miscellany, published a letter signed by Admiral Bartholomew de Fonte. He claimed to have crossed North American from the Pacific to Hudson Bay through the legendary northwest passage. Joseph-Nicholas de l'Isle accepted the story together with Russian discoveries in Alaska. It took 20 years to disprove this map which was published as late as 1784.
This page features two etchings illustrating worms supposedly extracted from a person's nose. The example on the bottom of the page is noteworthy for its depiction of a smiling, horned organism that can invade human nasal passages.
This illustration shows a member of a race of people called the Panotti. They were initially described by Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturalis as living in the islands off Scythia.
Diagram of solar orbit over a flat earth
This diagram illustrates how the sun illuminates the Earth in Samuel Rowbotham's model of a flat Earth. The book that contains this drawing was published in 1881, well after the vast majority of Western civilization dismissed the notion. Rowbotham called his observations "zetetic astronomy" and believed the curvature of the Earth was an optic illusion.
This diagram illustrates Thomas Burnet's theory that the lack of sufficient surface water to account for Noah's flood could be explained if the Earth were hollow.
Theory of the earth : containing an account of the original of the earth, and of all the general changes which it hath undergone, or is to undergo till the consummation of all things.
London : Printed by R[oger]. N[orton]. for Walter Kettilby, at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard.