The Poetics of Natural History: From John Bartram to William James

by Christoph Irmscher

The Poetics of Natural History is about the “daydreams” of early American naturalists (from 1730 to 1868) and the collections they created around these dreams. Christoph Irmscher explores how, through the acts of organizing physical artifacts and reflecting upon their collections through writings and images, naturalists from John Bartram to Louis Agassiz were making sense of themselves and their world. These collections allowed them, in a way, to collect themselves.

In the first part of his book, Irmscher offers us a guided tour of the actual collections, beginning in Bartram’s disorderly botanical garden in Philadelphia and taking us through the artful display of animals in Charles Wilson Peale’s collections and, finally, to the “halls of humbug” of P. T. Barnum’s American Museum. The second part of the book moves away from the collections, and explores natural history words and images. Irmscher unforgettably describes American collectors’ fascination and horror with the American rattlesnake, and invokes the violent and beautiful world of American birds as described in John James Audubon’s paintings and writings.  His book ends with a description of Louis Agassiz’s 1865 expedition to Brazil as seen through the eyes of the young William James, who reluctantly gathered Brazilian fish while his mentor assembled “proof” that some human beings were less human than others.

Genres: Natural History

354 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

Christoph Irmscher is Professor of English and Adjunct Professor of History and Philosophy of Science and American Studies at Indiana University in Bloomington. He is the author of Longfellow Redux, The Poetics of Natural History, and Public Poet, Private Man.

Reviews

[Lauren Albert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed with this and the other book I've been reading (see next review). It is made up of narrative histories of famous American natural historians up to the 19th century. I thought it would have more of a philosophical turn to it--I thought it would be more of a look at the cultural implications of natural histories. It had some of that. It might rate higher for someone who is unfamiliar with the people discussed. They are not bad as mini intellectual biographies. If you haven't read about P.T. Barnum's "natural history" work for instance (the "Feejee Mermaid," etc.) the chapter on Barnum is a pretty good overview. I'm going to paste some of the more interesting quotes into my notes section. 4/09

[Dreamersemporium]

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