In 2002, I published a very short "Brief history of systematic collections and specimen preservation" (7 pp) in Herpetological Collecting and Collections Management (Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles Herpetological Circular 31:1-153).  I have pasted a short bibliography below that may be of use. Of the items listed below, for the history of natural history museums, I particularly recommend Ashworth (1991), Asma (2001), Barber (1980), Conn (1998), Impey and MacGregor (1985), Mauries (2002), and especially the somewhat dated but still delightful Whitehead (1970, 1971).

Hope this helps,
John

John E. Simmons
Collections Manager, Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Research Center
and
Director, Museum Studies Program
University of Kansas
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard
Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7561
Telephone 785-864-4508
FAX 785-864-5335
[log in to unmask]
www.nhm.ku.edu/herpetology
www.ku.edu/~museumst
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE HISTORY OF NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS

Alberch, A.  1985.  Museum collections and the evolutionary study of growth and development. Pp. 29-41 in Miller, E. H. (ed.).  Museum Collections: Their Roles and Future in Biological Research. British Colombia Provencial Museum Occasional Papers no. 25:1-222.  

Alderson, W.T. (editor).  1992.  Mermaids, Mummies, and Mastodons.  The Emergence of the American Museum.  American Association of Museums, Washington, D.C. 104 pp.

Alexander, E. P.  1979.  Museums in Motion: An Introduction to the History and Function of Museums.  American Association for State and Local History, Nashville.  xii + 308 pp.

Alexander, E.P.  1987.  Early American museums.  From collection of curiosities to popular education. International Journal of Museum Management and Curatorship 6:337-351

Ashworth, W.B.  1991.  Remarkable humans and singular beasts.  Pp. 113-144 in J. Kenseth (ed.).  The Age of the Marvelous.  Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover.  485 pp.

Asma, S.T.  2001.  Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads.  The Culture and Evolution of Natural History Museums.  Oxford University Press, Oxford.  xv + 302 pp.

Barber, L.  1980.  The Heyday of Natural History, 1820-1870.    Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City.  320 pp. 

Birch, T.  1968.  The History of the Royal Society of London for Improving of Natural Knowledge from Its First Rise.  [Reprint of 1756-1757 edition published by A. Millar, London].   Johnson Reprint Corporation, New York.  4 volumes.

Blunt, W.  2001.  Linnaeus.  The Compleat Naturalist.  Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.  264 pp.

Boswall, J.  1969.  Some major events in the world history of bird sound recording.  Recorded Sound 34:469-470.

Brier, B.  1998.  The Encyclopedia of Mummies.  Checkmark Books, New York.  vii + 248 pp.

Brock, W.H.  1993.  The Norton History of Chemistry.  W.W. Norton and Company, New York.  xxvii + 744 pp.

Burton, P. T. K.  1969.  Two birds specimens probably from Cook's voyages.  Ibis 111:388-390.  

Cole, F.J.  1944.  A History of Comparative Anatomy from Aristotle to the Eighteenth Century.  MacMillan and Company, London.  viii + 524 pp.

Conn, S.  1998.  Museums and American Intellectual Life, 1876-1926.  University of Chicago Press, Chicago.  viii + 305 pp.

de Borhegyi, S.F. and I.A. Hanson.  1982.  Museums of the world.  Pp. 722-735 in Collier's Encyclopedia, Volume 16.  Macmillan Educational Company, New York.

Duckworth, W.D., H.H. Genoways & C.L. Rose.  1993.  Preserving Natural Science Collections: Chronicle of Our Environmental Heritage.  National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property, Inc., Washington, D.C.  iii + 140 pp.  

Flower, W.H.  1898.  Essays on Museums and Other Subjects Connected with Natural History.  MacMillian and Company, Ltd.  London.  xv + 394 pp

Forbes, R.J.  1948.  Short History of the Art of Distillation from the Beginnings up to the Death of Cellier Blumenthal.  E.J. Brill, Leiden.  405 pp.

Ford, L.S. and J.E. Simmons.  1997.  The diffusion of knowledge:  Agassiz (1807-1872), Ruthven (1882-1971), and the growth of Herpetological collections.  Pp. 577-593 in Pietsch, T.W. and W.D. Anderson (eds.).  Collection Building in Ichthyology and Herpetology.  American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists Special Publication Number 3.  xiii + 593 pp.

Frank, S.  1982.  Glass and Archaeology.  Academic Press, London.  xi + 155.

French, R.  1994.  Ancient Natural History.  Routledge, London.  xxii + 357 pp.

Goode, G.B.  1889.  Museum-history and museums of history.  Papers of the American Historical Association 3(2):253-275.

Herrick, F.H.  1917.  Audubon the Naturalist.  A History of his Life and Time.  Volume II.  D. Appleton and Company, New York.  xiii + 494 pp.

Hooper-Greenhill, E.  1992.  Museums and the Shaping of Knowledge.  Routledge, London.  ix + 232 pp.

Hornaday, W.T.  1905.  Taxidermy and Zoological Collecting.  Eighth edition.  Charles Scribner's Sons, New York.  xxi + 364 pp.

Impey, O. and A. MacGregor (eds.).  1985.  The Origins of Museums:  the Cabinet of Curiosities in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century Europe.  Clarendon Press, Oxford.  xiii + 335 pp. 

Krishtalka, L. and P. S. Humphrey.  2000.  Can natural history museums capture the future?  BioScience 50(7):611-617.  

Lewis, G.  1992.  Museums and their precursors: a brief world survey.  Pp 5-21 in Thompson, J.M.A. (editor).  Manual of Curatorship.  A Guide to Museum Practice.  Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford.  vii + 756 pp.

Mares, M.A.  1993.  Natural history museums:  bridging the past and the future.  Pp. 367-404 in C.L. Rose, S.L. Williams, & J. Gisbert (eds.). Current Issues, Initiatives, and Future Directors for the Preservation and Conservation of Natural History Collections.  Volume 3, International Symposium and First World Congress on the Preservation and Conservation of Natural History Collections, Madrid.   Dirección General de Bellas Artes y Archivos, Ministero de Cultura, Madrid.  xxiii + 439 pp.

Murray, D.  2000.  Museums.  Their History and Their Uses.  Volume 1. [Reprint of the 1904 James L. MacLehose and Sons, Glascow edition]. Pober Publishing, Staten Island xiv + 339 pp.

Mauriès, P.  2002.  Cabinets of Curiosities.  Thames and Hudson Ltd,. London.

Nordenskiöld, E.  1949.  The History of Biology.  A Survey.  Tudor Publishing Company, New York.  x + 629 + xv pp.

Orosz, J.J.  1990.  Curators and Culture.  The Museum Movement in America, 1740-1870.  University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.  xii + 304 pp.

Pearce, S. M.  1992.  Museums, Objects, and Collections: A Cultural Study.  Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. xi +296 pp.

Pyenson, L. and S. Sheets-Pyenson.  1999.  Servants of Nature.  A History of Scientific Institutions, Enterprises, and Sensibilities.  W.W. Norton and Company, New York.  xiv + 496 pp. 

Rigby, D. and E. Rigby.  1944.  Lock, Stock and Barrel.  The Story of Collecting.  J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.  xix + 570 pp.

Sellers, C.C.  1980.  Mr. Peale's Museum.  Charles Willson Peale and the First Popular Museum of Natural Science and Art.  W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., New York.  xiv + 329 pp.

Simpson, T. K.  1998.  Abode of the modern muse: the science museum.  Pp 4-67 in Hutchins, R.M. and M.J. Adler (eds.).  The Great Ideas Today 1998. Encyclopaedia Britannica Yearbook.

Singer, C.  1959.  A History of Biology to about the year 1900.    Abelard-Schuman, London.  xxxvi + 580 pp.

Singer, C.  1997.  A Short History of Science to the Nineteenth Century. Dover Publications, Inc., Mineola [Reprint of the 1941 Oxford University Press edition].  xiv + 399 pp.  

Stearns, R.P.  1953.  James Petiver.  Promoter of natural science, c. 1663-1718.  Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 62:243-365.

Swann, M.  2001.  Curiosities and Texts.  The Culture of Collecting in Early Modern England.  University of Pennsylvania Press, 272 pp.

Whitehead, P.J.P.  1970.  Museums in the history of zoology.  Museums Journal 70(2):50-57.

Whitehead, P.J.P.  1971.  Museums in the history of zoology.  Museums Journal 70(4):155-160.

 
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Gale
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 4:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: History of Natural Science Museums

I have a number of references for the history of museums in general and a=
m
wondering if there are any specifically on natural science museums that y=
ou
could recommend.
Thanks.

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