A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists and Inventors in American Film and TV since 1930

A. Bowdoin Van Riper

• Publisher: Scarecrow Press
• Year: 2011
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780810881297
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Films that dramatize historical events and the lives of historical figures-whether they are intended to educate or to entertain-play a significant role in shaping the public's understanding of the past. In A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists and Inventors in American Film and TV since 1930, A. Bowdoin Van Riper focuses on the dramatized portrayals of a particular group of historical figures-scientists, engineers, and inventors-that have appeared on American film and television screens. This volume analyzes individual portrayals, the public images of particular scientists and inventors, and the ideas about science and technology that, collectively, they represent.

In this first in-depth study of how historic scientists and inventors have been portrayed on screen, Van Riper catalogs nearly 300 separate performances and includes essays on the screen images of more than 80 historic scientists, inventors, engineers, and medical researchers. The individuals covered include Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Marie Curie, Dian Fossey, and Bill Gates.

Arranged chronologically by the subject's date of birth, entries for each individual explain their major contributions to science and technology, analyze the ways in which they've been portrayed in film and on television, and conclude with a complete list of screen portrayals and a discussion of suggestions for further reading. A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists and Inventors in American Film and TV since 1930 will be of interest to anyone concerned with the depiction of historical events and historical figures in film and television, and to anyone interested in the public understanding of science and technology.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I: Antiquity through the Enlightenment
• Hippocrates of Kos (460–370 BC)
• Aristotle (384–322 BC)
• Archimedes (c. 287–212 BC)
• Gutenberg, Johan (c. 1400–1462)
• Da Vinci, Leonardo (1452–1519)
• Copernicus, Nicholas (1473–1543)
• Bacon, Francis (1561–1626)
• Galileo (1564–1642)
• Digby, Kenelm (1603–1665)
• Newton, Isaac (1642–1717)
• Halley, Edmond (1656–1742)
• Harrison, John (1693–1776)
• Franklin, Benjamin (1706–1790)
• Part II: The Nineteenth Century
• Fulton, Robert (1765–1815)
• Whitney, Eli (1765–1825)
• Oersted, Hans Christian (1777–1851)
• Audubon, John James (1785–1851)
• Babbage, Charles (1791–1871)
• Cooper, Peter (1791–1883)
• Morse, Samuel F. B. (1791–1872)
• Bowie, James (1796–1836)
• Ericsson, John (1803–1889)
• De Lesseps, Ferdinand (1805–1894)
• Darwin, Charles (1809–1882)
• Lovelace, Augusta Ada Byron King, Countess of (1815–1852)
• Mitchell, Maria (1818–1889)
• Pasteur, Louis (1822–1895)
• Kelvin, William Thomson, Lord (1824–1907)
• Nobel, Alfred (1833–1896)
• Crapper, Thomas (1834–1910)
• Langley, Samuel P. (1834–1906)
• Powell, John Wesley (1834–1902)
• Newcomb, Simon (1835–1909)
• Holland, John Philip (1840–1914)
• Bell, Alexander Graham (1847–1922)
• Edison, Thomas (1847–1931)
• Ehrlich, Paul (1854–1915)
• Part III: The Twentieth Century to 1945
• Freud, Sigmund (1856–1939)
• Tesla, Nikola (1856–1943)
• Ford, Henry (1863–1947)
• Carver, George Washington (1864–1943)
• Curie, Marie Sklodowska (1867–1934)
• Wright, Wilbur (1867–1912) and Orville (1871–1948)
• Adler, Alfred (1870–1937)
• Carter, Howard (1874–1939)
• Marconi, Guglielmo (1874–1937)
• Jung, Carl Gustav (1875–1961)
• Kroeber, Alfred (1876–1960)
• Einstein, Albert (1879–1955)
• Kenny, Elizabeth (1880–1952)
• Goddard, Robert H. (1882–1945)
• Malinowski, Bronislaw (1884–1942)
• Fokker, Anthony (1890–1939)
• Kinsey, Alfred (1894–1956)
• Momsen, Charles Bowers “Swede” (1896–1967)
• Blalock, Alfred (1899–1964)
• Williams, David Marshall (1900–1975)
• Part IV: The Twentieth Century after 1945
• Tucker, Preston (1903–1956)
• Oppenheimer, J. Robert (1904–1967)
• Hughes, Howard R., Jr. (1905–1976)
• Farnsworth, Philo T. (1906–1971)
• Von Braun, Wernher (1912–1977)
• Wilkins, Maurice (1916–2004)
• Feynman, Richard (1918–1988)
• Franklin, Rosalind (1920–1958)
• Mowat, Farley (1921–)
• Kearns, Robert (1927–2005)
• Bull, Gerald (1928–1990)
• Nash, John Forbes, Jr. (1928–)
• Watson, James D. (1928–)
• Fossey, Dian (1932–1985)
• Sacks, Oliver (1933–)
• Boisjoly, Roger (1938–)
• Canfield, William
• Jobs, Steve (1955–)
• Gates, Bill (1955–)
• About the Author