Field and Laboratory

This chapter explores the rise of the laboratory and the field in late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century American science. It examines the borderlands between them, and then moves to the myriad transformations in both lab and field. The emergence of science labs at colleges and universities created a place for practices, including tools and techniques (not to mention the students trained to deploy them), that moved easily between academic and industrial worlds. Along the way, the chapter discusses recurring themes, sometimes indicating similarities and at other times vast differences between lab and field. It talks about environmental settings, tools and technologies, the organization of work, and the relationships with lay people, amateurs, and the public at large. Lately, three robust historiographical developments in US history offer great promise for further enriching the historical study of lab and field: environmental history; history of American capitalism; and the United States in the world.