On the Shoulders of Giants

DATE - 1973

Former Eames Office staff member Jehanne Burns said that Charles, when he was asked to design an exhibition about Isaac Newton, responded, “You can’t go straight from Copernicus to Newton. You need to do something else in-between.” This served as motivation for the Eames Office to develop an exhibition about the astronomer’s predecessors: Brahe, Kepler, Descartes, Galileo, and Gilbert.

Additional Information

A quote of Newton’s inspired this exhibition’s title: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” Like the Eames Office’s previous science-based exhibitions designed for IBM, this one coincided with a holiday: the pre-Christmas month of Advent. On the Shoulders of Giants featured freestanding triangular displays with text, photographs, and other interpretive materials, guiding visitors from the works of the five scientists to Newton’s study of calculus and development of the principles of gravitation.

After the show’s run at the IBM Corporate Exhibit Center in New York, it traveled to other institutions nationwide.

Explore Similar Works

Exhibitions

Related Products

Browse a curated selection of Eames Office products we think you’ll love

100 Quotes by Charles Eames

$25

14 Eamesian Parables Poster

$25

Shop All