With the total solar eclipse of 2024 rapidly approaching, author David Baron shares a pertinent tale from the distant past. In the summer of 1878, a similar eclipse traversed America’s Wild West, darkening the frontier while rousing the ambitions of an entire nation. The event lured to the Rocky Mountains many of the era’s great minds—including Vassar College astronomer Maria Mitchell, who headed an all-female expedition to Denver, and a young Thomas Edison, who after observing the eclipse in Wyoming soon lit the world with his most famous invention. Baron recounts the tale of this historic event in his book American Eclipse, which the Wall Street Journal praised as “a sweeping, compelling portrait of the scientific and social aspirations of Gilded Age Americans.”

 

David Baron is an award-winning author, journalist, and broadcaster. A former science correspondent for NPR and recent Chair in Astrobiology at the Library of Congress, he has written for the New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and other outlets. An avid eclipse chaser whose TED Talk has been viewed more than two million times, Baron has witnessed eight total solar eclipses across five continents.

 

David Baron will join us via Zoom with a presentation about the events in the book, his reflections on the 2017 eclipse and thoughts on the upcoming one in April.

Eclipse glasses will be distributed at this event.