Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
2-2022
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
English
Advisor
Joan Richardson
Committee Members
Ammiel Alcalay
Wayne Koestenbaum
Subject Categories
American Art and Architecture | American Studies | Arabic Language and Literature | Comparative Literature | History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Literature in English, British Isles | Literature in English, North America | Medieval Studies | Modern Art and Architecture | Nonfiction | United States History
Keywords
Bermuda, Nonsuch, maritime history, marine exploration, submersibles, William Beebe, Else Bostelmann, Gloria Hollister, apophasis
Abstract
Between 1930 and 1934, aboard a ship floating near the Atlantic island of Nonsuch, marine biologist Gloria Hollister took notes while listening to her colleague William Beebe, suspended below in a steel ball called the bathysphere, as he gazed out its quartz windows at the undersea world and spoke to her through a simple telephone. Hollister’s logbooks record new species, bioluminescent phenomena, and unfamiliar effects of light and color. With Beebe reporting from a half mile underwater, they represent the first eyewitness account of the deep ocean. Like the iconic photograph of earth taken from space, they are a turning point in our conception of the planetary. Based on original archival work, this dissertation explores the bathysphere logbooks and related materials as objects of major historical and scientific importance, while also viewing them within the literature of visionary experience and as foundational texts of today’s ecological and oceanic imagination.
Recommended Citation
Fox, Brad, "On the Bathysphere Logbooks" (2022). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4624
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Included in
American Art and Architecture Commons, American Studies Commons, Arabic Language and Literature Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Medieval Studies Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Nonfiction Commons, United States History Commons