Author: Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Natural history
Languages : en
Pages : 228
Book Description
Manual of the Practical Naturalist
Author: Useful Objects
Author: Reed GochbergPublisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197553508
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 266
Book Description
Useful Objects examines the history of American museums during the nineteenth century through the eyes of visitors, writers, and collectors. Museums of this period included a wide range of objects, from botanical and zoological specimens to antiquarian artifacts and technological models. Intended to promote "useful knowledge," these collections generated broader discussions about how objects were selected, preserved, and classified. In guidebooks and periodicals, visitors described their experiences within museum galleries and marveled at the objects they encountered. In fiction, essays, and poems, writers embraced the imaginative possibilities represented by collections and proposed alternative systems of arrangement. These conversations interrogated many aspects of American culture, raising deep questions about how objects are interpreted--and who gets to decide their value. Combining literary criticism, the history of science, and museum studies, Useful Objects examines the dynamic and often fraught debates that emerged during a crucial period in the history of museums by drawing on a wide range of archival materials and accounts in fiction, guidebooks, and periodicals. As museums gradually transformed from encyclopedic cabinets to more specialized public institutions, many writers, including J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, William Wells Brown, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau, questioned who would have access to collections and the authority to interpret them. Throughout this period, they considered loss and preservation, raised concerns about the place of new ideas, and resisted increasingly fixed categories. Their reflections shaped broader debates about the scope and purpose of museums in American culture that continue to resonate today.
Natural Things in Early Modern Worlds
Author: Mackenzie CooleyPublisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000873021
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 557
Book Description
The essays and original visualizations collected in Natural Things in Early Modern Worlds explore the relationships among natural things - ranging from pollen in a gust of wind to a carnivorous pitcher plant to a shell-like skinned armadillo - and the humans enthralled with them. Episodes from 1500 to the early 1900s reveal connected histories across early modern worlds as natural things traveled across the Indian Ocean, the Ottoman Empire, Pacific islands, Southeast Asia, the Spanish Empire, and Western Europe. In distant worlds that were constantly changing with expanding networks of trade, colonial aspirations, and the rise of empiricism, natural things obtained new meanings and became alienated from their origins. Tracing the processes of their displacement, each chapter starts with a piece of original artwork that relies on digital collage to pull image sources out of place and to represent meanings that natural things lost and remade. Accessible and elegant, Natural Things is the first study of its kind to combine original visualizations with the history of science. Museum-goers, scholars, scientists, and students will find new histories of nature and collecting within. Its playful visuality will capture the imagination of non-academic and academic readers alike while reminding us of the alienating capacity of the modern life sciences.
Natural History Dioramas – Traditional Exhibits for Current Educational Themes
Author: Annette ScheersoiPublisher: Springer
ISBN: 303000175X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 218
Book Description
This book presents the history of natural history dioramas in museums, their building and science learning aspects, as well as current developments and their place in the visitor experience. From the early 1900s, with the passage of time and changes in cultural norms in societies, this genre of exhibits evolved in response to the changes in entertainment, expectations and expressed needs of museum visitors. The challenge has always been to provide meaningful, relevant experiences to visitors, and this is still the aim today. Dioramas are also increasingly valued as learning tools. Contributions in this book specifically focus on their educational potential. In practice, dioramas are used by a wide range of educational practitioners to assist learners in developing and understanding specific concepts, such as climate change, evolution or or conservation issues. In this learning process, dioramas not only contribute to scientific understanding and cultural awareness, but also reconnect wide audiences to the natural world and thereby contribute to the well-being of societies. In the simultaneously published book: “Natural History Dioramas – Traditional Exhibits for Current Educational Themes, Socio-cultural Aspects” the editors focus on socio-cultural issues and the potential of using dioramas to engage various audiences with – and in – contemporary debates and big issues, which society and the natural environment are facing.
Catalogue of a Collection of Books on Ornithology in the Library of John E. Thayer
Author: John Eliot ThayerPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Birds
Languages : en
Pages : 208
Book Description
The Practical Naturalist's Guide, Containing Instructions for Collecting, Preparing, and Preserving Specimens of All Departments of Zoology, Etc
Author: James Boyd DAVIESTransactions of the Albany Institute
Author: Albany InstitutePublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Albany (N.Y.)
Languages : en
Pages : 480
Book Description
Catalogue of a Collection of Books, Mostly Printed in London and on the Continent of Europe ... Forming the Library of Mr. Richard Grant White
Author: Richard Grant WhiteThe Menageries
Author: James RenniePublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Quadrupeds
Languages : en
Pages : 452
Book Description
Lectures on Natural and Difficult Parturition
Author: Edward William MurphyPublisher:
ISBN:
Category : Childbirth
Languages : en
Pages : 344
Book Description