Joseph Henry's Record of Experiments Book 1, August 15, 1834, to September 1839, Smithsonian Archives - History Div, Joseph Henry's Record of Experiments book 1. Joseph Henry, first Smithsonian Secretary, kept this record of his scientific work from 1834 to 1839 while he was a professor of natural philosophy, the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. Henry, a physicist, included notes on his experiments dealing with electromagnetism and other scientific topics., Henry reused a ledger for his notes. Book 1 begins with a set of accounts in an unknown neat clerical hand. In this book, Henry's entries begin in the middle of the volume, continue to the end, and then pick up again at the beginning of the book, ending in the middle..