100 Years of Planetaria: 100 Stories of People, Places, and Devices

This book marks the centenary of the remarkable invention of an opto-mechanical planetarium projector, the Zeiss Mk I. In May 1925, the first public planetarium opened at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. In the ensuing decades, this invention spread all over the world, becoming an integral part of modern life.

The book presents a global narrative of the modern planetarium and its history through a selection of 100 objects and their stories. Written by a varied international group of contributors including planetarium professionals, scientists, historians, and other experts, these object stories highlight major developments in planetaria as they relate to advances in astronomy and space science as well as changes in society and culture at large.

The objects featured in this book show how planetaria gained a central place in modern life at the intersection between science, education, art, and entertainment. They also connect the reader with the diverse people whohave made the modern planetarium a reality and continue to pave the way for its future - be they planetarium staff, scientists, architects, artists, engineers, educators, or planetarium visitors.

Matthew McMahon is the Museum Collections Officer for the Armagh Observatory and Planetarium as well as a PhD Candidate studying at Queen’s University Belfast. He specialises in the study of Irish Astronomical Instruments, and the historical geographies of planetaria.

Dr. Pedro M. P. Raposo is the Martha Hamilton and I. Wistar Morris III Executive Director of Library and Archives at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University. He was formerly Curator and Director of Collections at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, where he was responsible for Adler’s world-class collections of astronomical instruments, prints, and rare books. Raposo holds a doctorate in the history of science from the University of Oxford, where his doctoral project on the Lisbon Observatory in the context of nineteenth century astronomy was distinguished with the Magellan Prize in 2007. He has published on topics such as the history of nineteenth-century observatories, astronomy and empire, the history of modern planetaria, the circulation of knowledge in eighteenth-century Europe, 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.

Mike Smail is Senior Director of Theaters & Visualization at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, where he leads a team that handles all aspects of Adler’s two dome theaters, as well as in-museum digital content. Smail is currently Treasurer of the International Planetarium Society, and the President-Elect of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association. He has a keen interest in the history of planetaria, namely with regard to opto-mechanical planetarium projectors, and in depictions of astronomical imagery and concepts in popular media.

Dr. Katie Boyce-Jacino is the Curator and Director of Collections at the Adler Planetarium, where she oversees a rich collection of historical scientific instruments and rare books. Prior to the Adler, she was an Assistant Teaching Professor at Barrett, the Honors College of Arizona State University, where she taught courses in cultural history and the history of technology. Boyce-Jacino received her doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University, with a dissertation on the cultural history of planetaria in interwar Germany. She has previously been a fellow at the National Air and Space Institute, the American Institute of Physics, the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, and the Freie Universität Berlin.