THE JAMES ARTHUR LECTURE SERIES
James Arthur was born February 26, 1842, of Scottish parents at Crosscandley, Ireland. While he was still a child the family moved to Glasgow where he attended the technical school and trained in mechanics, metal and woodwork. At this early age he took an interest in horology and made sundials and started restoring and collecting clocks and watches. In November 1871 he came to the USA. His wife and the three older children followed in 1872. James Arthur was a skilled mechanic with knowledge of machinery and fine construction. Fourteen years after coming to the USA he established the Arthur Machine Works at 188-190 Front Street, New York, for the manufacture and repair of machinery in general and in particular for the construction of models for inventors. The business proved lucrative, as he was able to make a world tour in 1897, and added many interesting pieces to his collection throughout his lifetime. He continued working until he retired in 1912. He died at Winsted, Connecticut, April 27, 1930.On December 1, 1925, he donated his horological collection together with a substantial endowment to New York University, specifying that part of the endowment should fund an annual lecture. Daniel W. Hering, Professor Emeritus of Physics, was appointed Curator. The original collection of 1,336 items was enlarged, principally by donation, so that by 1932 it amounted to 1,464 items made up of 224 clocks, 1,190 watches, and 50 books. Of particular interest are the original tallcase clocks he designed and made. His notebook No. 1 contains the original designs of 13 tallcase clocks built in his shop by himself or his workmen.
New York University never completed the reassembly and display of the items and, in 1964, they moved from University Heights to the present location in Greenwich Village. At that time they transferred most of the collection to the Smithsonian Institution. In 1982 New York University decided to dispose of the Arthur Collection, dividing the items between The Smithsonian Institution, the Time Museum at Rockford, and the NAWCC Museum at Columbia, Pennsylvania.
The late Ward Francillon was instrumental in making the James Arthur Lecture the keynote of the Annual NAWCC Seminar, continuing that part of Arthur's original legacy which NYU had fulfilled only intermittently. The first NAWCC James Arthur Lecture was at the 1984 Seminar in Hartford, Conn.
JAMES ARTHUR LECTURES AT N.Y.U. "Time and Its Mysteries" 1932-19841932 Time - Robert Andrews Millikan 1933 Time and Change in History - John Campbell Merriam 1934 On the Life-time of a Galaxy - Harlow Shapley 1935 The Beginnings of Time Measurement and the Origins of Our Calendar - James Henry Breasted 1936 The Time Concept and Time Sense Among Cultured and Uncultured Peoples - Daniel Webster Hering 1937 What is Time? - William Francis Gray Swann 1938 Time and Individuality - John Dewey1939 Time and the Growth of Physics - Arthur H. Compton 1940 The Astronomical Scale - Henry Norris Russell 1941 The Geologic Records of Time - Adolph Knopf 1946 Time and Historical Perspective - James T. Shotwell 1949 Developments in Portable Timepieces - George P. Luckey 1951 The Early American Clock Making Industry - BrookPalmer 1953 From Hours to Microseconds: Three Centuries of Timekeeping Progress - Arthur L. Rawlings 1969 The Hypothesis of Environmental Timing of the Clock - Frank A. Brown, Jr. The Cellular-Biochemical Clock Hypothesis - J. Woodland Hastings 1972 Physics at the Origin of Time - R. Omnés and Steven Frautschi 1975 Time and the Atom: Precise Measurement of Time with Atomic Clocks, Molecular Beam
Spectroscopy with Molecules, Atoms and Neutrons - Norman F. Ramsey
1978 Time Without End: Physics and Biology in an Open Universe - Freeman J. Dyson 1980 Reality, Illusion and Time: Time and Light Beyond the End of Time - John Archibald Wheeler 1984 Symmetry Principles in Physics; Time as a Dynamical Variable Discrete Theory of General Relativity - Tsung Dao Lee
NAWCC JAMES ARTHUR LECTURES 1984 Horology and the Whole Man - Dana J. Blackwell 1985 Paradigms and Clockmaking - Douglas H. Shaffer 1986 Mark Leavenworth, Clockmaker - Snowden Taylor 1987 The Time of Our Lives - David Landes 1988 The Importance of Horology in Our Lives - Seth Atwood 1989 The History of British Public Timekeeping - Beresford Hutchinson 1990 The History of the Watch - Henry B. Fried 1991 Horologists Oiled the Industrial Revolution - Theodore R. Crom 1992 Uses of the Atomic Clock - Norman F. Ramsey 1993 The Mechanical Watch in the Twenty-first Century: The Renaissance of the Mechanic - George Daniels 1994 Horological Ephemera, Its Variety, Availability, and Importance - David Penney 1995 Clockmaking or Timekeeping - Douglas H. Shaffer1996 Running a Railroad on Time - Dr. Ian Bartky 1997 Bristol's Clock Museum in the Early Years - Who and What Made It Tick - Bartlett Barnes 1998 Modern Time, Old South - Mark M. Smith1999 Horological Gods and Heroes - Chris H. Bailey 2000 The Early Collectors - David Thompson 2001 American Wristwatches - Bruce Shawkey 2002 Watches and Clocks: The Road to Quality Mass Production - David K. Landes 2003 The Long Now - Alexander Rose2004 Horology in Science and Science in Horology - Jonathan Betts 2005 The Inventive Mind - Dr. David Collard 2006 The American Influence on Swiss Watchmaking - Antoine Simonin 2007 The Beginning of Mass Production: Eli Terry and the Porter Contract - Donald Hoke 2008 Curtis Mann2009 - (no symposium)2010 Saving Time for the Future: Conservation and the Paradox of Restoration - John R. Watson 2011 Tall case Wood Works Clocks - Philip Morris 2012 The Search for Truth - John Hubb2013 The Time of Our Lives - Will Andrewes 2014 Introduction to Breguet - Philip Poniz 2015 The History of Music Boxes - Steve Boeh 2016 What Do Clocks Have To Do With Time - Thomas Allen 2017 Time in American Painting - John Wilmerding2018 Collecting Antiques Long Before it Was Cool - Robert C. Cheney2019 The Heinlein Pocket Watch - Thomas Esser 2020 (symposium postponed to 2021)2021 Sundials and Clocks behind Enemy Lines - Sara Schechner Jeanne Schinto's Article Series - "James Arthur and His "Temple of Time": A Cautionary Tale for Collector-Donors and Their Beneficiaries" Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Courtesy of Maine Antique Digest, 2018-2019 An antique tall clock, originally owned and modified by James Arthur, was recently donated by Bob Frishman to the Horological Society of New York. It stands and ticks among the thousands of books and periodicals in the HSNY's comprehensive horological library. Visitors are welcome!
NAWCC JAMES ARTHUR LECTURES 1984 Horology and the Whole Man - Dana J. Blackwell 1985 Paradigms and Clockmaking - Douglas H. Shaffer 1986 Mark Leavenworth, Clockmaker - Snowden Taylor 1987 The Time of Our Lives - David Landes 1988 The Importance of Horology in Our Lives - Seth Atwood 1989 The History of British Public Timekeeping - Beresford Hutchinson 1990 The History of the Watch - Henry B. Fried 1991 Horologists Oiled the Industrial Revolution - Theodore R. Crom 1992 Uses of the Atomic Clock - Norman F. Ramsey 1993 The Mechanical Watch in the Twenty-first Century: The Renaissance of the Mechanic - George Daniels 1994 Horological Ephemera, Its Variety, Availability, and Importance - David Penney 1995 Clockmaking or Timekeeping - Douglas H. Shaffer1996 Running a Railroad on Time - Dr. Ian Bartky 1997 Bristol's Clock Museum in the Early Years - Who and What Made It Tick - Bartlett Barnes 1998 Modern Time, Old South - Mark M. Smith1999 Horological Gods and Heroes - Chris H. Bailey 2000 The Early Collectors - David Thompson 2001 American Wristwatches - Bruce Shawkey 2002 Watches and Clocks: The Road to Quality Mass Production - David K. Landes 2003 The Long Now - Alexander Rose2004 Horology in Science and Science in Horology - Jonathan Betts 2005 The Inventive Mind - Dr. David Collard 2006 The American Influence on Swiss Watchmaking - Antoine Simonin 2007 The Beginning of Mass Production: Eli Terry and the Porter Contract - Donald Hoke 2008 Curtis Mann2009 - (no symposium)2010 Saving Time for the Future: Conservation and the Paradox of Restoration - John R. Watson 2011 Tall case Wood Works Clocks - Philip Morris 2012 The Search for Truth - John Hubb2013 The Time of Our Lives - Will Andrewes 2014 Introduction to Breguet - Philip Poniz 2015 The History of Music Boxes - Steve Boeh 2016 What Do Clocks Have To Do With Time - Thomas Allen 2017 Time in American Painting - John Wilmerding2018 Collecting Antiques Long Before it Was Cool - Robert C. Cheney2019 The Heinlein Pocket Watch - Thomas Esser 2020 (symposium postponed to 2021)2021 Sundials and Clocks behind Enemy Lines - Sara Schechner Jeanne Schinto's Article Series - "James Arthur and His "Temple of Time": A Cautionary Tale for Collector-Donors and Their Beneficiaries" Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Courtesy of Maine Antique Digest, 2018-2019 An antique tall clock, originally owned and modified by James Arthur, was recently donated by Bob Frishman to the Horological Society of New York. It stands and ticks among the thousands of books and periodicals in the HSNY's comprehensive horological library. Visitors are welcome!