Acknowledgements
The production of this volume, celebrating the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, has been, like everything else that takes place at the Whipple, very much a joint effort.
We are grateful to all of the authors for their contributions. They have enjoyed different sorts of relationships to the Museum, and their essays here are intended to provide a picture of the breadth and richness of the collections, as well as the very varied approaches to study that have been based on and inspired by Whipple holdings.
The collation of the volume itself has been helped substantially by Whipple Museum staff and by friends of the Museum, including Mary Brazelton, Toby Bryant, Rosanna Evans, Matthew Green, Tamara Hug, Boris Jardine, Steve Kruse, Simon Schaffer, Alison Smith, and Claire Wallace. Lucy Rhymer and Cassi Roberts at Cambridge University Press were wonderfully patient and helpful. We thank you all.
We are unable to personally thank several close friends of the Museum, whom we nevertheless mention with heartfelt gratitude for their generosity, shared knowledge, support, and friendship: Anita McConnell (1936–2016), Gerard L’Estrange Turner (1926–2012) and Don Unwin (1918–2015).
Finally, we mark the unwavering contribution of our close friend, colleague, and co-editor, Frances Willmoth (1957–2017). Encouraged by the success of the first Whipple Festschrift, marking the sixtieth anniversary, Frances conspired with us to organise and edit the present volume. Displaying her characteristically dry wit, she confessed her pleasure that she would not be in a position to be required to proofread this time. We, however, are very sad that she is not still with us, and not only to see the completed volume. Any typographical errors here are no fault of hers. We are exceedingly grateful for the inspiration and support she gave us in undertaking this project.