Browse Items (26 total)

This page from an article titled "Red Hot Coulees" and inlcudes a photograph of J. Harlen Bretz leading a field trip to explain his theory to a group of geologists and journalists. The article was printed in the September 1928 issue of Intermountain…

This plaque dedicated to J. Harlen Bretz for his work in explaining the topography of Eastern Washington is located outside the Dry Falls Visitor Center.

This interview segment was recorded during the opening of the Outrageous Hypotheses exhibit at WSU MASC. The exhibit was based on Being Wrong, the 2013-2014 Common Read. Trevor Bond describes his favorite object in the exhibit, the Nuremberg…

This interview was recorded during the opening of the Outrageous Hypotheses exhibit at WSU MASC. In it, Mark O'English describes the materials in the exhibit about Samuel Rowbottam's Zetetic flat earch theory and what he finds interesting about it.…

This is the title page from William Whitson's Theory of the Earth. In it, he attempts to explain the deluge described in the book of Noah as the result of a comet passing near Earth.

This map of North America by British cartographer Edward Wells depicts California as an island. This misrepresentation was based on accounts from the voyages of Hernando Cortes.

This photograph from the Spokane Chronicle features members of the Colmbia River Development League, including James O'Sullivan, Rufus Woods, and Senator C. C. Dill. The Columbia River Development League formed in support of a dam built at Grand…

This illustration shows a member of a race of people called the Blemmye. They were initially described by Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturalis as in Nubia.

This illustration shows a member of a race of people called the Panotti. They were initially described by Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturalis as living in the islands off Scythia.

This diagram illustrates how the sun illuminates the Earth in Samuel Rowbotham's model of a flat Earth. The book that contains this drawing was published in 1881, well after the vast majority of Western civilization dismissed the notion. Rowbotham…

This is likely a depiction of a babirusa, which is native to Indonesia. Here it is presented in a slender, dog-like posture. In the natural world, the babirusa more closely resembles a boar.

This engraving depicts a number of animals from the Asian tropics, including an elephant and a "sucoterio," which is likely a misinterpretation of a Sumatran rhinoceros.

This is the cover for Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, by Kathryn Schulz. This book is the 2013-2014 WSU Common Reading.

In this depiction of Noah's Ark from 1681, several pairs of animals are shown boarding Noah's Ark, including a pair of unicorns near the front of the line.

This title page is from a pamphlet published in 1671 that describes how to create an elixir that promises long life and claims to have a "restoring nature even at the point of death...effectively removing away the seeds of all diseases."

This portrait of Osmar Waller was taken when Waller was Vice-President of Washington State College. Waller taught mathematics and civil engineering at WSC and was Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Waller was also a proponent of the Gravity…

This satellite photograph from 1973 shows the braided pathways of the Channeled Scablands. While aerial photography helped illustrate Bretz's theory that a giant flood formed the Scablands, satellite images such as this provided a broader overhead…

In 1708 a London magazine, The Monthly Miscellany, published a letter signed by Admiral Bartholomew de Fonte. He claimed to have crossed North American from the Pacific to Hudson Bay through the legendary northwest passage. Joseph-Nicholas de l'Isle…

This chart from William Derham's Astro-theology displays a model of the geocentric universe, including the orbit of the planets, the stars, and the "coclum empyreum," which was essentially heaven. In this model, as in all geocentric models, Earth is…

This map taken from a 1925 brochure illustrates the series of tunnels and dams designed to channel water from the Pend Oreille River to the Columbia Basin. By maintaining a path that moved water downhill, the Gravity Plan proposed to irrigate the…

This diagram illustrates Thomas Burnet's theory that the lack of sufficient surface water to account for Noah's flood could be explained if the Earth were hollow.

This photograph of the Dry Falls system in Washington State illustrates the sort of gouging that Bretz felt could only be caused by a catastrophic flood.

This map was in The Grand Coulee by Bretz to illustrate his belief that the coulees in the region were created by a cataclysmic flood, as opposed to gradual processes, such as glaciation or wind erosion. The pink areas on the map illustrate a series…

This cartoon presents the story of the Grand Coulee Dam from conception to the eventual decision by the United States Congress to fund construction of the dam. This narrative emphasizes the role of advocates of the Gravity Plan, like Governor Ernest…

This chart printed in a Dutch book on astronomy depicts a geocentric universe, with the Earth at its center and the planets, sun, and stars orbiting around the Earth. In this chart, Mercury and Venus orbit around the sun, which would help explain…

This page features two etchings illustrating worms supposedly extracted from a person's nose. The example on the bottom of the page is noteworthy for its depiction of a smiling, horned organism that can invade human nasal passages.