• Contact Us
  • Events calendar
Entering Swellesley
Pinnacle, Wellesley

The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

  • Advertise
  • Contribute
  • Eat
  • Wellesley Square
  • School
  • Top 10 things to do
  • Embracing diversity
  • Charities/Community
  • Arts
  • Camp
  • Kids
  • Environment/Sustainability
  • Events
  • About us
  • Subscribe
  • Natick Report
  • COVID-19
  • Letters to the Editor
  • 2021 Town Election
  • Bulletin Board
Needham Bank, Wellesley
Boston Sports Institute, Wellesley

Overcoming inertia to attend Wellesley’s Isaac Newton exhibit

September 18, 2019 by Bob Brown Leave a Comment

Temps reached into the 80s Saturday, making for a beautiful day. Mrs. Swellesley was off hiking in western Mass with friends. I was laying low, resting my legs in advance of a sure-to-grueling 5K road race.

OK, I guess I’ll actually pop over to the Babson College pop-up exhibit of Sir Isaac Newton artifacts that I signed up for back in July. How boring can it be?

As it turns out, not boring at all.

Sure, as I assembled in the lobby of the Sorenson Center I realized my worst fears. Asked by a visiting curator from the Huntington Library in California what drew us to this exhibit, the majority of the group responded that they were engineering grads from Olin College. A Wellesley College instructor also was in the mix. Then there was me, a lowly wordsmith looking for a touch of enlightenment.

While I know my basic Newtonian facts, such as the Big 3 laws and that he didn’t discover gravity by getting bonked on the head by an apple, I didn’t quite appreciate the extent to which he was one of those Ben Franklin types who was the best at seemingly everything he did. That he was doing STEM before there was STEM.

Not only was this down-to-earth 17th- and 18th-century figure a great mathematician and scientist, but the Master of the Mint, an alchemy enthusiast, and “the most learned religious scholar of his time,” according to Huntington’s Joel Klein, an alchemy expert himself. Newton’s religious research, including his own blasphemous beliefs, mainly came to light after his death, when collectors like Babson acquired his works at auction.

“No problem was too big for Newton,” Klein asserted.

Babson Newton exhibit

Because this exhibit was so small, featuring about a dozen items enclosed in 4 cases borrowed from Harvard, attendees were  forced to zero in on what was before them. It reminded me of The Raconteurs show I’d just attended at the House of Blues, where attendees were required to lock their phones in pouches to compel them to stare at Jack White and his band mates for 90 minutes instead of holding up and checking their phones during the show.

On display at Babson from Sept. 20-22 was just a sampling of the massive Newton collection assembled by Grace Babson, first wife of college founder Roger Babson. Roger Babson was known to have a fascination with Newton’s laws, applying them to business, as well as with the concept of anti-gravity.

Babson Newton exhibit
Huntington Library curator Joel Klein, talking alchemy

 

The Newton exhibit, set in a black box theatre, included an original edition of Principia, THE math book, with Newton’s hand-scrawled notes in the margins. Also on display were very old coins, at least one of which was clipped, or cut off around the edges. Schemers did this to sell off the silver and still use the coin for its own value. Though they did so at the risk of being burned, hung or drawn and quartered. Such ploys were high crimes at the time, Klein said.

A cryptic Newton sketch related to his efforts to discover the philosopher’s stone, which in theory could turn base metals into silver or gold, also made for interesting viewing. Especially after Klein noted Newton’s focus on the substance antimony, and something about the “menstrual blood of a sordid whore.”

I didn’t see that coming.

Nor did I foresee myself reserving a book called Newton and the Counterfeiter from the library after my visit. But I did.

For every action, like us writing a Swellesley post, there should be an equal and opposite reaction: Here’s how to Advertise and/or Donate to support our independent journalism venture

print

Share

Filed Under: Babson College, History, STEM, Uncategorized

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Linden Square, Wellesley
Fran's Flowers
Clearhaven Recovery

Tip us off…

Please send tips, photos, ideas to [email protected]
Wellesley Square ad
Wellesley, Jesamondo
Admit Fit, Wellesley
Sexton test prep
Feldman Law
Fay School, Southborough
Wellesley Theatre Project
The Moving-Pictures Company
image of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
covid vaccine
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Never miss a post with our free daily Swellesley Report email
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

You can subscribe for free, though we appreciate any contribution that supports our independent journalism.

Click here to read our Natick Report

Natick Report

Most Read Posts

  • Newton-Wellesley Orthopedic Walk-In—no appointment needed
  • Wellesley summer camp listings 2021 — find the experience of a lifetime
  • Wellesley Business Buzz: Poppin In at Linden Square; Chase Bank site becomes sign central; Women-owned businesses; Forklift enters Wellesley meal-delivery scene
  • Wellesley Give & Take update
  • Wellesley's Lee Delaney, CEO of BJ's Wholesale, passes away at age 49

Events Calendar

« April 2021 » loading...
S M T W T F S
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
1
Wed 21

Wellesley Select Board online office hours

April 21 @ 8:30 am - 10:00 am
Thu 22

Ben Franklin, The Early Years: Wellesley Historical Society online lecture

April 22 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Sat 24

WellesleyRocks concert: Shira Doron & Patrick Hayden; Bigfoot acoustic

April 24 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Mon 26

Virtual lab tour, pooled COVID testing

April 26 @ 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Wed 28

Fay School virtual information session

April 28 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am

Pages

  • Guidelines for Letters to the Editor
  • How to submit your flyer for the Community Bulletin Board page
  • Wellesley Community Bulletin Board
  • Wellesley coronavirus (COVID-19) updates
  • Wellesley’s 7 official scenic roads
  • Wellesley, Mass., fishing spots
  • Wellesley Choral Society
  • Wellesley College Notable Alumnae
  • Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.
  • Wellesley outdoor art gallery
  • Wellesley restaurants offering take-out and delivery
  • Wellesley, Massachusetts restaurant — Amarin of Thailand

Recent Comments

  • Abby on Beyond Wellesley: Swellesley goes to Eastie
  • CH on Beyond Wellesley: Swellesley goes to Eastie
  • Donna on Wellesley weathers April snow
  • Maria T on Wellesley Give & Take update
  • Haihong Li on Wellesley Give & Take update

Links we like

  • Great Runs
  • Jack Sanford: Wellesley's Major League Baseball Star
  • Taquitos.net
  • Tech-Tamer
  • The Wellesley Wine Press
  • Universal Hub
  • Wellesley Sports Discussion Facebook Group

Categories

  • 2021 Town Election (21)
  • Animals (387)
  • Antiques (48)
  • Art (544)
  • Beyond Wellesley (31)
  • Books (345)
  • Business (1,382)
  • Camp (2)
  • Careers/jobs (46)
  • Churches (73)
  • Clubs (211)
  • Construction (282)
  • Dump (114)
  • Education (2,921)
    • Babson College (244)
    • Bates Elementary School (14)
    • Dana Hall School (29)
    • Fiske Elementary School (6)
    • Hardy Elementary School (33)
    • Hunnewell Elementary School (34)
    • MassBay (49)
    • Schofield Elementary School (20)
    • Sprague Elementary School (19)
    • St. John School (1)
    • Tenacre Country Day School (9)
    • Upham Elementary School (30)
    • Wellesley College (600)
    • Wellesley High School (895)
    • Wellesley Middle School (195)
  • Embracing diversity (52)
  • Entertainment (729)
  • Environment (680)
  • Fashion (134)
  • Finance (13)
  • Fire (144)
  • Food (328)
  • Fundraising (565)
  • Gardens (137)
  • Government (425)
    • 2020 Town Election (47)
  • Health (760)
    • COVID-19 (152)
  • History (361)
  • Holidays (367)
  • Houses (121)
  • Humor (45)
  • Kids (820)
  • Law (3)
  • Letters to the Editor (12)
  • Media (63)
  • METCO (4)
  • Military (3)
  • Morses Pond (97)
  • Music (545)
  • Natick Report (28)
  • Neighbors (252)
  • Obituaries (62)
  • Outdoors (589)
  • Parenting (60)
  • Police (704)
    • Crime (358)
  • Politics (545)
  • Real estate (294)
  • Religion (127)
  • Restaurants (306)
  • Safety (143)
  • Scouts (1)
  • Senior citizens (111)
  • Shopping (123)
  • Sports (907)
  • STEM (107)
  • Technology (158)
  • Theatre (383)
  • Town Meeting (22)
  • Transportation (212)
  • Travel (12)
  • Uncategorized (1,212)
  • Volunteering (319)
  • Weather (169)
  • Wellesley Election 2019 (21)
  • Wellesley Free Library (259)
  • Wellesley's Wonderful Weekend (5)
RSS Feed Icon Subscribe to RSS Feed

© 2021 The Swellesley Report
Site by Tech-Tamer · Login