Lynn Townsend White, Jr.

Who was Lynn Townsend White, Jr.?

Lynn Townsend White, Jr. was a professor of medieval history at Princeton from 1933 to 1937, and at Stanford from 1937 to 1943. He was president of Mills College, Oakland, from 1943 to 1958 and a professor at University of California, Los Angeles from 1958 until 1987. Lynn White helped to found The Society of History and Technology and was president from 1960-1962. He won the Pfizer Award for “Medieval Technology and Social Change” from the History of Science Society and the Leonardo da Vinci medal and Dexter prize from SHOT in 1964 and 1970. He was president of the History of Science Society from 1971 to 1972. He was president of The Medieval Academy of America from 1972-1973, and the American Historical Association in 1973.

White began his career as medieval historian focusing on the history of Latin monasticism in Sicily during the Norman Period but realized the coming conflict in Europe would interfere with his access to source materials. While at Princeton he read the works of Lefebvre des Noëttes, and Marc Bloch. This led to his first work in the history of technology, “Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages” in 1940.