Caltech Library News

Remembering George Housner (1910-2008)

George Housner will be remembered at a memorial gathering this month at Caltech. Recognized here and throughout the world as the founding father of earthquake engineering, Housner was also devoted to the collecting of art and books. In an oral history with the Caltech Archives in 2003, he noted that these interests occupied a separate sphere in his life from science and technology. Housner donated his Asian art collection to Pasadena's Pacific-Asia Museum. The bulk of his rare book collection—approximately 270 titles—was given to the Caltech Archives in 2001. His personal and scientific papers were gifted to the Archives in 2002.

Housner's book collecting was guided by his personal interests. The visionary English poet and artist William Blake was a special favorite. He also admired the art and writings of William Hogarth, among other 18th-century satirists. On the early history of science and technology, Housner acquired a number of exceptional books, among them the first Latin edition of Newton's Opticks (1706), published two years after the original English edition under Newton’s supervision. Housner also amassed a group of rare early writings on earthquakes, beginning with a 1531 pamphlet claimed to be the earliest published first-hand account of an earthquake. The shaker occurred in Mainz, Germany, in 1528, and the booklet was printed by no less a publisher than the grandson of Gutenberg’s own assistant and eventual successor, Peter Schoeffer. Other notable early printed accounts include several of the great Lisbon quake of 1755 and a very rare illustrated report on the great Ansei quake of 1855 near Tokyo.

More images from the Housner book and art collections may be viewed in Parts 4 and 5 of the Archives' online exhibit, "Documenting Earthquakes".