History of Natural History

We are pleased to announce a call for papers for the international conference Collect & Connect: Archives and Collections in a Digital Age. The conference will be held at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden from 22-24 November 2020. More information about the call can be found here: More information about the CfP can be found here: http://cfp.makingsenseproject.org

This thesis is an inquiry into the supposed imperialistic and nationalist aspect of nineteenth century zoological societies. By comparing three of the oldest zoological societies, the aim is to get a full view on how these institutions were connected to the colonies and whether the embodiment of an imperialist ideology was an important aspect of the early zoological societies. Subject of research are the Zoological Society of London (1826), the Amsterdam society Natura Artis Magistra (1838) and The Antwerp Royal Society for Zoology (1843).
Chapter 1 serves as an introduction on the founding of each Society. From the mission statements of each Society, it is clear that they aimed to contribute to the building of collective pride, which was often related to national commercial and political successes, as well as royal patronage. The view on nature that was displayed was utilitarian, with the acclimatisation project of the Zoological Society of London as the clearest example.
Chapter 2 explores the ways in which these societies gained their collections and whether a colonial network existed. In general, the animals were donated by members or benefactors. These can be divided into three categories: members of the respective royal houses, foreign politicians or nobility and gifts by colonial officials who were members of the societies. The majority of animals in each garden came from the colonies of the respective country. The act of giving helped constructing a sense of collectivity. Together with the status of the animals as a colonial commodity, this helped strengthen the ideological element of these institutions.
Chapter 3 concerns the way the collections were presented and experienced in the gardens of the societies. Attention is paid to four different topics: architecture, the animals, cases in which exotic humans were showcased and the people who visited these early zoological gardens. Zoo buildings often had a strong exotic influences. The animals were seen and presented as representatives of their colonized homelands. The presence of indigenous handlers, albeit in a working and paid position, helped adding an exotic dimension to a zoo visit. Experiencing all this colonial splendour in the city, provided self-affirming pride to the spectators, most importantly the paying and contributing members and royals.
The conclusion is that there was definitely an imperialist element to these institutions, at least because of the way animals were brought to the zoo either as diplomatic gifts or gifts from colonial officials. However, it was one of many aspects. Zoos were not purely a ‘tool of the empire’, but this aspect of their history is not be ignored

Lukas Rieppel 2019: Assembling the Dinosaur. Fossil Hunters,
Tycoons, and the Making of a Spectacle.
Ilja Nieuwland 2019: American Dinosaur Abroad. A Cultural History
of Carnegie’s Plaster Diplodocus.
Ina Heumann, Holger Stoecker, Marco Tamborini und Mareike
Vennen (Hg.) 2018: Dinosaurierfragmente. Zur Geschichte
der Tendaguru-Expedition und ihrer Objekte,1906-2018.

Türkiye’de 19. yüzyılın ikinci yarısında kurulmuş olan yabancı okullarda yerel doğa tarihi müzeleri kurma girişimleri olmuş; İstanbul çevresinden, Anadolu’dan ve dünyanın farklı bölgelerinden örnekler, arazi çalışmaları, takas ve satın alma yoluyla toplanarak zengin koleksiyonlar oluşturulmuştur. Bu koleksiyonlardan biri 1886’da Merzifon’da kurulan Anadolu Amerikan Koleji’nde bulunmakta idi. Özel bir müze binasına yerleşmiş olan doğa müzesinin küratörlüğünü botanik araştırmaları ile tanınan Prof. Ohannes Agop Manisacıyan, MSc (J.J. Manissadjian, Niksar/Tokat 1862 – Detroit MI/ABD 1942) yapmıştır. Anadolu Koleji’nin 1938 yılında kapanışından sonra, bu koleksiyon Tarsus Amerikan Koleji’ne gönderilmiştir. Daha sonra koleksiyonun bazı kaya-mineral ve fosil örnekleri sergilenmek üzere Robert Kolej’e verilmiştir. Aynı koleksiyondan örnekler halen İstanbul’da Saint Joseph Lisesi Doğa Bilimleri Merkezi’nde de bulunmaktadır. Anadolu Koleji Doğa Tarihi Müzesi’nin Prof. Manisacıyan tarafından toplanan botanik örnekleri ise, Ankara Üniversitesi Fen Fakültesi Herbaryum’unda (Herbarium Turcica – ANK, J.J. Manissadjian) korunmaktadır. Anadolu Koleji koleksiyonunun Tarsus’ta kalan örnekleri, Tarsus Amerikan Koleji’nin mezunları tarafından, ilgili dalların uzmanlarının danışmanlığında yeniden düzenlenerek 2018 yılında kurulan TAC Doğa Bilimleri Araştırma Merkezi’ne kazandırılmıştır. Anadolu Koleji’ndeki doğa tarihi müzesinin original vitrinleri içinde sergilenen koleksiyon, restorasyonu tamamlanan Sadık Paşa Konağı’na yerleşmiştir. Bildiri kapsamında Merzifon Anadolu Koleji Müzesinin bitki, böcek, kelebek, fosil, kaya ve mineral örneklerin genel özellikleri, koleksiyonun oluşturulma yöntemi ve aşamaları, Türkiye’deki doğa tarihi koleksiyonları içindeki önemi, Müzenin 1918’de küratörü tarafından hazırlanan kataloğunun ışığında değerlendirilecektir. Ayrıca, Tarsus Amerikan Koleji’nin Doğa Bilimleri Araştırma Merkezi’ndeki tarihsel koleksiyonundan bilimsel çalışmalarda kaynak olarak yararlanılması, yörede yapılacak yeni araştırmalarla zenginleştirilmesi ve doğa bilimleri merkezleri arasında ağ kurulması konusundaki projelere değinilecektir.

The construction and distribution of books containing large copperplate images was of great importance to practitioners of natural history during the eighteenth century. This article examines the case of the botanist and president of the Royal Society Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820), who attempted to publish a series of images based on the botanical illustrations produced by Georg Forster (1754–94) on Cook’s second voyage of exploration (1772–5) during the 1790s. The analysis reveals how the French Revolution influenced approaches to constructing and distributing works of natural history in Britain, moving beyond commercial studies of book production to show how Banks’s political agenda shaped the taxonomic content and distribution of this publication. Matters were complicated by Forster’s association with radical politics and the revolutionary ideologies attached to materials collected in the Pacific by the 1790s. Banks’s response to the Revolution influenced the distribution of this great work, showing how British loyalist agendas interacted with scientific practice and shaped the diffusion of natural knowledge in the revolutionary age.

Breves consideraciones sobre la estrechez en la relación entre arte, técnica y tecnología Por: Sergio Alberto Tarazona Cristancho 2 de abril de 2020 Resumen El objetivo del presente texto intenta exponer las relaciones fundamentales que llevaron, principalmente, al desarrollo de la técnica, y luego, posterior tecnología, tomando como esenciales y primarias las conductas fabricadoras y creadoras en el sentido de entenderlas que son la base del desarrollo y conservación de la especie humana en el planeta. Asimismo señalar varias conjeturas interesantes postuladas por varios pensadores y estudiosos del tema que nos ayudan a ampliar el conocimiento sobre dicha cuestión, generar nuevo conocimiento y por consiguiente, de la misma manera, proponer entre líneas una posición crítica independiente que lleve a exhortar a sus participantes: a los participantes del estudio de la filosofía del arte, de la técnica y de la tecnología: profesores y alumnos y abocados en las ciencias del saber, a la práctica rigurosa que motive la indagación filosófica pura, esto es, que el inquirir de la razón se desenvuelva a partir de sí misma (Kant, p. 44) para evitar su degradación mezclándola con los asuntos de orden ético- sociales y políticos morales específicos topográficos que son fuente de la génesis de los conceptos morales determinados de los individuos, que si bien son de naturaleza importante para el transcurrir filosófico y una parte esencial de su actividad, también son diferentes de las condiciones políticas y sociales naturales del hombre.

This is a pdf of the whole monograph.
The World of Carolus Clusius. Natural History in the Making, 1550-1610 explores how natural history in Europe, and in particular the knowledge of plants, was transformed during the late 16th and very early 17th centuries into a field of professional expertise, a budding scientific discipline. This book presents not a history of ideas, publications or institutions, however, but a cultural and social history of people’s fascination with nature and the transformation of knowledge during this period. The formation of expertise is studied through its practical manifestations – gardening, collecting plants and animals, botanical field research, and exchanging knowledge – and the personalities involved in them.

Variorum das obras de Georges Cuvier: Discurso Preliminar do Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles 1812, contendo a Memória sobre a íbis dos antigos egípcios, e o Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du Globe (Discurso sobre as revoluções da superfície do Globo) 1825, contendo a Determinação das aves denominadas íbis pelos antigos egípcios.