The first issue of Annals of Science was published in 1936, so this issue marks the seventieth anniversary. There were earlier journals in Britain devoted to the history of medicine and to the history of engineering and technology, but Annals was the first journal in Britain devoted to the history of science. The British Journal for the History of Science dates from 1962. It and Annals are, however, both newcomers compared with Isis, founded in 1912.
Annals of Science remains with its original publisher, Taylor and Francis, which publishes many science journals, including the venerable Philosophical Magazine (1798). From 1828 to 1877, T&F published all the Royal Society of London's journals, including the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. It is agreeable and appropriate for a journal of the history of science to share a publisher with major scientific journals, and it is clear from the letters sent to Annals, as well as from the range of papers submitted to the journal, that many scientists as well as historians read this journal, and contribute to it. Scientists writing the history of science bring special expertise and forensic techniques to bear on historical problems, and referees who are historians of science ensure that the results are historiographically rigorous.
Douglas McKie of University College, London, was the prime mover in founding Annals of Science, and he was joined by Harcourt Brown and Henry Robinson; William A. Smeaton and F. Willard Gibbs subsequently joined the original team. It was not until the appointment of Professor Ivor Grattan-Guinness in 1977 that the current editorial pattern was set: a single editor with a very active international board. Today, there are twenty members of the board, coming from four continents. The growth of the board has been matched by an increase in range: the original scope of the journal was limited to science since the Renaissance, whereas today the journal's subtitle is simply The History of Science and Technology, without any period restriction. Board members have expertise from classical antiquity to the twentieth century; and the inclusion of technology in the title is indicative of a belief that science and technology belong together. Recent papers have examined technical education, industrial production, and the materials of science. A recurrent field since the early years of the journal has been that of scientific instruments, one confirmed by Professor Gerard Turner's appointment as editor in 1981, without in any way narrowing the journal's purview. The editors of Annals have from the beginning favoured articles that would be valuable decades later; the articles published have proved to be of enduring value.
Science and its history cross national boundaries. Annals recognizes the internationalism of scholarship, and publishes articles and book reviews in French and German, besides English, today's lingua franca. Book reviews are an important part of the journal, and Professor Christopher Lawrence, the Book Review Editor, ensures an appropriate range. Reviewers have generous word limits, and some important reviews vie with the regular essay reviews in length.
Photographs have been included in the journal from its foundation, and for some years now, coloured illustrations have been included. Some articles need colour, witness the essay on botanical illustration in this issue, and the reproduction of Swammerdam's illustrations of the silk worm in volume 59. Geological maps, spectra, and charts of dyestuffs are scarcely intelligible when reproduced in shades of grey.
As Professor Turner remarked in his valedictory editorial, the board, the editor, and the publisher all need copy. I, like my predecessors, am most grateful to the authors from around the globe who submit papers; the quality is impressive. I depend much on the board and on referees for their crucial contributions, and on the publisher for consistently professional work. It is a pleasure to thank them all, and to contribute to this collective endeavour.
Trevor H. Levere