Another edition for the growing list is "The Pleistocene Vertebrate
Collection of the Indiana State Museum..." in Proceedings of the Indiana
Academy of Science, Volume 93, 1984. It contains extensive details,
tables and citations about the said collection, and begins with a
history of the Indiana State Museum itself and how it began as a
"cabinet for the collection, identification and exhibition" of natural
history specimens.
Jeff Tenuth
Indiana State Museum
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Karen Reeds
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 8:42 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] references on early history of natural science
museums
For the early history of natural science museums, cabinets of natural
curiosities, and the like, these two are essential:
Paula Findlen, Possessing Nature: Museums, collecting, and scientific
culture in early modern Italy (U California Press, 1994).
Patrick Mauries, Cabinets of Curiosities (Thames and Hudson, 2002)--a
spectacularly illustrated and designed book
Less directly focused on museums, but lots of wonderful relevant
material:
Brian Ogilvie, The Science of Describing: Natural History in
Renaissance Europe (U Chicago Press, 2006)
In teaching a seminar last spring on "Public History and Enlightenment
Science" at the University of Pennsylvania (mostly field trips to
Franklin Tercentenary exhibitions), I found this celebration of the
British Museum's 250th birthday invaluable:
Kim Sloan, ed., Enlightenment: Discovering the World in the Eighteenth
Century (British Museum/Smithsonian Books, 2003).
Thanks, John Simmons, for mentioning Wilfrid Blunt's classic biography
of Linnaeus in your great list of references. Linnaeus helped the King
and Queen of Sweden assemble natural history collections. I just
discovered an 18th C English translation of Linnaeus's introduction to
his catalogue of the museum of King Adolph Fredrik and can't resist
sharing this passage comparing natural history museums to the Garden of
Eden:
"...the chief enjoyment of the first man, in this garden or museum of
delights, was to examine the admirable works of his Creator.
Among the luxuries therefore of the present age, the most pure and
unmixed is that afforded by collections of natural productions. In them
we behold offerings as it were from all the inhabitants of the earth;
and the productions of the most distant shores of the world are
presented to our sight and consideration....can any thing afford us a
more innocent pleasure, a more noble or refined luxury, or one that
charms us with greater variety?"
Carolus Linnaeus, Reflections on the study of nature [English
translation by Sir James Edward Smith of the preface Musaeum Regis
Adolphi Friderici], Dublin, 1786
Karen Reeds
Guest Curator, Linnaeus and America (Feb. 15-June 30, 2007) American
Swedish Historical Museum, Philadelphia
http://www.americanswedish.org/linnaeus.html
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