Cultures of Natural History
Cultures of Natural History
J. A. Secord , University of Cambridge
E. C. Spary , University of Warwick
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USDThis lavishly illustrated volume is the first systematic general work to do justice to the fruits of recent scholarship in the history of natural history. Public interest in this lively field has been stimulated by environmental concerns and through links with the histories of art, collecting and gardening. Twenty-four specially commissioned essays cover the period from the sixteenth century, when the first institutions of natural history were created, to its late nineteenth-century transformation by practitioners of the new biological sciences. An introduction discusses novel approaches that have made this a major focus for research in cultural history. The essays, which include suggestions for further reading, offer a coherent and accessible overview of a fascinating subject. An epilogue highlights the relevance of this wide-ranging survey for current debates on museum practice, the display of ecological diversity, and concerns about the environment.
- A lavishly illustrated compendium of recent research into the history of the history of science
- Relevant to a wide range of contemporary concerns, in history, ecology and the environment
- Includes material from the 'birth' of natural history to the nineteenth century, and many rare or unpublished illustrations
Reviews & endorsements
"The 26 papers in this remarkable collection study, without jargon and very little special pleading, some of the principal liaisons contracted by natural history during the past five centuries....contains fresh, vigorous essays on the tried and true topics..." American Scientist
"...an authoritative new book which reviews the progress of European natural history from the 16th century...to the late 19th century...represents much of the recent research and scholarship in the field of natural history...abundantly illustrated with relevant diagrams, engravings and drawings from many classical sources." The Times Higher Education Supplement
"...this book provides an excellent basis for new explorations of natural history as overlapping and changing cultures." Joy Harvey, Journal of the History of Biology
Product details
January 1996Paperback
9780521558945
524 pages
246 × 189 × 27 mm
0.93kg
136 b/w illus.
Available
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Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Notes on contributors
- Introduction:
- 1. The natures of cultural history Nicholas Jardine and Emma Spary
- Part I. Curiosity, Erudition and Utility:
- 2. Emblematic natural history William B. Ashworth Jr
- 3. The culture of gardens Andrew Cunningham
- 4. Courting nature Paula Findlen
- 5. The culture of curiosity Katie Whitaker
- 6. Physicians and natural history Harold J. Cook
- 7. Natural history as print culture Adrian Johns
- Part II. Virtuosity, Improvement and Sensibility:
- 8. Natural history in the academies Daniel Roche
- 9. Carl Linnaeus and his time and place Lisbet Koerner
- 10. Gender in natural history Londa Schiebinger
- 11. Political natural and bodily economics Emma Spary
- 12. The science of man Paul B. Wood
- 13. The natural history of the earth Martin Guntau
- 14. Naturphilosophie and the kingdoms of nature Nicholas Jardine
- Part III. Discipline, Discovery and Display:
- 15. New spaces in natural history Dorinda Outram
- 16. Minerals strata and fossils Martin Rudwick
- 17. Humboldtian science Michael Dettelbach
- 18. Biogeography and empire Janet Browne
- 19. Travelling the other way Gillian Beer
- 20. Ethological encounters Michael T. Bravo
- 21. Equipment for the field Anne Larsen
- 22. Artisan botany Anne Secord
- 23. Tastes and crazes David Allen
- 24. Nature for the people Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent and Jean-Marc Drouin
- 25. Natural history and the 'new' biology Lynn K. Nyhart
- Epilogue:
- 26. The crisis of nature James A. Secord.
