Place: Woods Hole Historical Museum
The Woods Hole Historical Museum will be holding a “Conversation” about summers of long ago in Woods Hole, when the family of the speakers, Alan Steinbach and his sister Mary Steinbach Ulbrich, and the family of the Japanese scientist Katsuma Dan, were the best of friends.
Katsuma Dan and his American wife Jean Clark Dan are featured in the Museum’s summer’s exhibit “The Science Connection: Woods Hole and Japan”, which was created to coincide with Highfield’s summer exhibit of Japanese prints. Both the husband and wife had been graduate students of Dr. Heilbrun at the University of Pennsylvania and MBL, and both became frequent visitors and researchers in Woods Hole. The Steinbach children and the Dans became fast friends, a friendship that has lasted their whole lives through. Burr Steinbach became director of MBL. Katsuma Dan became director of the Misaki Marine Lab south of Tokyo. It is he who was the author of the famous letter posted at the Misaki Lab at the end of World War II, asking the American Navy to not destroy the scientific equipment at the lab, and signing it “The Last One to Go.” The letter was reprinted in Time magazine (among other places), and the original is on display at MBL.
The Conversation is free and open to the public. For more information, call the Museum at 508-548-7270 or visit the website www.woodsholemuseum.org. The exhibit is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10-4.