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Visitors interested to know more about the history of their host city should come along to a screening of the classic 1947 documentary film, A City Speaks, on Wednesday evening at 18:00. The film, made for the Manchester Corporation and directed by the celebrated film-maker and historian Paul Rotha, presents a message from Manchester to the cities of the world, against a backdrop of all-consuming global change and uncertainty. The production radiates civic pride, charting a vision of industrial progress which is still influential in popular representations of Manchester; but it also captures its period’s optimistic focus on the future, with ambitious visions of social reform through centralised planning captured in informational graphics which were hugely innovative for their time. Dr Tim Boon (Science Museum, London) will give a brief introduction to the film, and there will be time for comments and discussion afterwards. Full details will appear in the online programme:

http://www.ichstm2013.com/programme/guide/s/E336.html

We are also very pleased to announce an addition to the ‘iCHSTM Fringe’ programme of informal social events announced last week. On Friday night, the Jabez Clegg will play host to Email Special, an international group of jazz musicians, all historians of technology, who have been getting together to play at meetings of ICOHTEC and other large international meetings since a symposium in Dresden (then part of East Germany) in 1986. Their name – a play on ‘Air Mail Special,’ a tune made famous by Benny Goodman – reflects the fact that, as an international collaboration, they largely decide what to play and rehearse via email.

For more information on this and the other Fringe events, see the website:

http://www.ichstm2013.com/fringe/

3. LUNCHTIME ADVICE SESSIONS

If you’re a graduate student, an early-career researcher, or considering a history-related career for the first time, you may be interested in our programme of lunchtime sessions presenting guidance from, and opportunities for discussion with, experts and specialists in various fields. The publishers Elsevier and Manchester University Press will be contributing sessions on journals and book publication, and there will be a series of careers-based sessions featuring established professionals from the worlds of higher education, the museums sector, and public policy work. There will also be an introduction to using social media to promote your message. In addition, on Monday and Tuesday, graduate students from the University of Manchester’s Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine will present a grad-friendly guide to local opportunities for enlightenment, fulfilment, and affordable food and drink.

Details of all lunchtime sessions appear, alongside the special sessions, at

http://www.ichstm2013.com/programme/guide/m/special.html

4. MORE TOURS, EXCURSIONS, AND DROP-IN VISIT OPPORTUNITIES

Our full listing of tours and excursions here...

http://www.ichstm2013.com/programme/guide/m/tours.html

...has likewise been updated with fuller information and details of new events. At lunchtimes, we will be offering guided walks around the University campus, exploring its history and heritage. In addition to a regularly repeated general tour, there will be specific walks devoted to physics, chemistry, biology/medicine, computer science and technical education, uncovering the working lives of such household nams as Ernest Rutherford, Alan Turing, Marie Stopes and Michael Polanyi – together with less well-known but fascinating figures such as Grafton Elliot Smith.

On Thursday afternoon, the designated free time for trips and excursions, we have arranged new tours with Chetham’s Library, the oldest public library in the English-speaking world, and with the National Railway Museum over in York; and the University’s Museum of Medicine and Health, which does not currently have a public display space, is offering the chance to view its collections.

We have also arranged access to various local displays on a drop-in basis, for visitors who aren’t sure when they will be available. These are listed here:

http://www.ichstm2013.com/explore/dropin/

and include not only Manchester exhibitions but a regular sightseeing bus tour of the nearby city of Liverpool.

Many tours have limited numbers, and should be booked in advance: this is usually possible by contacting us at tours@ichstm2013.com (but please check the website for full details). During the Congress itself, there will be a regularly staffed Congress Events Desk offering information on local possibilities.

5. LAUNCH INVITATION: WOMEN IN SCIENCE RESEARCH NETWORK

The Women in Science Research Network (WISRNet) is a project that brings historians, archivists and practising scientists together to research women's participation in science and learned societies in Britain since 1830. Its aim is to understand women's low visibility and historic exclusion, to uncover further avenues for research and to develop strategies to improve the participation of women in science today. Full details of the project are available at http://womeninscience.net/ .

WISRNet will be holding its international launch reception at the Manchester Museum (very close to the Congress site, and also the location of our opening reception) on Wednesday 24 July at 18.30. Conference delegates with an interest in women in science are invited to attend, but places are limited. If you would like to attend, please register via the project website http://womeninscience.net/?page_id=297. Places are offered on a first-come basis, so early registration is advised.

6. SPECIAL VIEWING: NINETEENTH-CENTURY GEOLOGICAL SECTIONS

The Manchester Congress is an event of unusual dimensions, and the same could be said of at least one of its objects of study. The organizers of symposium S113 (Geologists in the Field) are delighted to announce that the symposium will include the display of two large nineteenth-century geological cross-sections, one of which dates to 1839 and extends to almost 13 metres (42 ft) in length, depicting a 45km east-to-west stretch of northern England's lead mining district. The other section, showing the strata of the coal mining district of the Forest of Dean, in south-west England, dates to 1815. Both are beautifully preserved, and delegates not attending S113 will be able to examine them at a special lunchtime viewing on Friday afternoon. For more details, please see the programme at:

http://www.ichstm2013.com/programme/guide/s/E337.html

7. SECOND-HAND AND ANTIQUARIAN BOOK DISPLAY

We are delighted to announce that we have secured a large stand of second-hand and antiquarian books relating to the history of science, technology and medicine, supplied by Mark Westwood Books of Sedbergh. Full details are in the programme at:

http://www.ichstm2013.com/programme/guide/g/second-hand-books.html

8. PRIZE ANNOUNCEMENT: NEU-WITHROW BIBLIOGRAPHY PRIZE

This year sees the centenary of the Isis Bibliography of the History of Science founded by George Sarton. In commemoration, the IUHPS/DHST Commission on Bibliography and Documentation has inaugurated a new award, the Neu-Withrow Bibliography Prize, for an eminently valuable bibliography or archival finding aid. The prize is sponsored by the IUHPS/DHST, and named after two bibliographers who followed Sarton: Magda Withrow, who worked at Imperial College on the Cumulative Bibliography of History of Science, and John Neu, who worked at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as the editor of the annual bibliography for thirty-five years.

We have received the following announcement from Dr. Birutė Railienė, President of the CBD:

‘It is my pleasure to announce that Jennifer M Rampling is the winner of the Neu-Whitrow Bibliography Prize in 2013 for the work The Catalogue of the Ripley Corpus (CRC).

‘On behalf of the Commission on Bibliography and Documentation, I express my sincere appreciation to the applicants for their participation in the competition. All of the entries presented a well-developed resource, all were recently published, and all demonstrated sophisticated bibliographical/archival understanding.’

The prize ceremony will take place at the Congress on Friday 26 July as part of Session E300:

http://www.ichstm2013.com/programme/guide/s/E300.html

9. OTHER PROGRAMME UPDATES

The programme has also been updated to reflect a small number of cancellations and some room switches. One significant change: in the Scientific Instrument Commission symposium (W131), the content of Sessions G and K has been switched. ‘Instruments for exploration’ will now take place on Wednesday afternoon, and ‘Mathematical instruments for royalty and the rich’ on Thursday morning.

We will always notify the affected participants before making any major changes to the schedule, but please check carefully the status of any events you are involved in when the final version is released early next month.

10. REMOTE PARTICIPATION AND THE iCHSTM BLOG

After all these announcements for those of you who will be joining us in Manchester, we’re pleased to announce that, for those who can’t make it, there will be several ways to be involved with ICHSTM from afar!

The ICHSTM Blog has been updating twice weekly with guest blogs by researchers who will be presenting at the Congress. We are now encouraging readers to submit questions for any of our bloggers: selected questions will feature as follow-ups to the relevant panels at the Congress. You can submit a question via the Blog comments section, or on Twitter (@ichstm2013).

In addition, all of the papers that have featured as guest blogs will be audio (and possibly video) recorded at the Congress and made available online, enabling you to listen at your leisure. During the Congress, several sessions will be streamed live, and daily updates from the main conference venues will be added to the website to ensure those unable to attend in person can be part of the wider Congress experience.

11. MAILING LIST ARCHIVE

A reminder that an archive of past messages from this mailing list is now available at:

http://www.ichstm2013.com/mailinglist-archive/

Thanks again for all your contributions to the Congress!

Best regards

iCHSTM 2013 Local Organising Committee

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