Paul.Brinkman@ncdenr.gov
919.733.7450 x711
Ph.D. (History of Science and Technology) University of Minnesota, 2005
B.A. (History and Geology) Augustana College, 1991
Research Interests
Dr. Brinkman is a historian of science specializing in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century geology and vertebrate paleontology, especially in the American West. He is also interested in the spread of science from Europe to the New World; the trans-Atlantic exchanges of specimens and ideas; and the life and work of Charles Darwin, his contemporaries, and their contributions to geology, paleontology, and biogeography. Of particular interest is the question of what Darwin did during the voyage of HMS Beagle and how this influenced his thinking about the mutability of species.
His approach to history of science is largely sociological: science was what scientists did. He writes narrative accounts of scientific events, which reconstruct scientific practice – what they did, how they did it, and how this affected their results. He tries to practice what he calls "hands-on" history as much as possible. Likewise, he aspires to write the kind of micro-historical narrative that places the reader in the boots of the naturalist, with a Marsh pick or a plant press in hand.
Finally, he plays an integral role in research on fossils at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, which has a thriving field program in terrestrial vertebrates of the Triassic. He collects new fossil vertebrate specimens in the field. He prepares them in the lab. And he participates in the study and description of specimens. He also teaches paleontology lab and field techniques to volunteers, students, interns, etc.
Other Appointments
Research Assistant Professor, Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, N.C. State University
Library Research Associate, The Field Museum
Selected Publications
Books
Brinkman, P. [In press]. The Second American Jurassic Dinosaur Rush, 1895–1905. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Kohl, M., Martin, L. and Brinkman, P. (eds.) 2004. A Triceratops Hunt in Pioneer Wyoming: The Journals of Barnum Brown & J. P. Sams, University of Kansas Expedition of 1895. Glendo, Wyoming: High Plains Press.
Peer-reviewed
Brinkman, P. [In press]. Charles Darwin’s Beagle voyage, fossil vertebrate succession, and the gradual birth & death of species. Journal of the History of Biology.
Brinkman, P. [In press]. Dinosaurs, museums, and the modernization of American fossil preparation at the turn of the 20th century. Petrified Forest National Park Fossil Preparation and Collections Symposium Proceedings Volume.
Brinkman, P. 2009. Frederic Ward Putnam, Chicago’s cultural philanthropists, and the founding of the Field Museum. Museum History Journal 2(1): 73-100.
Brinkman, P. 2005. Henry Fairfield Osborn and Jurassic dinosaur reconnaissance in the San Juan Basin, along the Colorado-Utah border, 1893–1900. Earth Sciences History 24(2): 159–174.
Kohlstedt, S. G. and Brinkman, P. 2004. Framing nature: Reflections on the formative years of natural history museum development in the United States. Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences 55(supplement 1): 7–33.
Brinkman, P. 2003. Bartholomew James Sulivan’s discovery of fossil vertebrates in the Tertiary beds of Patagonia. Archives of Natural History 30(1): 56–74.
Brinkman, P. 2000. Establishing vertebrate paleontology at Chicago's Field Columbian Museum, 1893–1898. Archives of Natural History 27(1): 81–114.
Brinkman, P. 1999. Score! A method for constructing improved polyethylene foam liners for specimen trays. Collection Forum 13(2): 90–92.
Rieppel, O. and Brinkman, P. 1996. Nothosaurus Munster, 1834 (Reptilia, Sauropterygia): proposed precedence over Conchiosaurus Meyer, [1833]. Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature 53(4): 270–272.
Other Publications
[Submitted]. Review of: Worlds before Adam: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform. Reports of the National Center for Science Education.
2009. Review of: The Voyage of the Beagle: Darwin’s Extraordinary Adventure aboard FitzRoy’s Famous Survey Ship. Nautical Research Journal 54(1): 60-61.
2007. The Field Museum. In: The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
2006. Bully for Apatosaurus. Endeavour 30(4): 126–130.
2006. Benjamin Dann Walsh — Darwin’s prairie correspondent. In the Field 77(2): 20.
2004. She married a dinosaur. In the Field 75(3): 20.
2004. Bartholomew James Sulivan. The Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Scientists. Volume IV. Bristol: Thoemmes Press, pp. 1944–1945.
2004. A Triceratops hunt in frontier Wyoming: The University of Kansas Expedition of 1895. (Co-authored with Mike Kohl and Larry Martin). [Abstract] Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24(supplement to 3): 79a.
2000. Review of: Letters Home from the Bone Camps: Annals of a Field Museum Paleontologist. Archives of Natural History 27(2): 269–270.
1998. Review of: Discovering Dinosaurs in the Old West: The Field Journals of Arthur Lakes. Archives of Natural History 25(3): 451–452.
