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New Worlds, New Animals: From Menagerie to Zoological Park in the Nineteenth Century

by R.J. Hoage

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Allison said: " Asma, Stephen T. Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads; The Culture and
Evolution of Natural History Museums. 1st ed.,. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001. Isbn: 0-19-516336-2 (pbk.)

Stephen T. Asma, PH.D. is a Professor of Philosophy and Interdiscipli Asma, Stephen T. Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads; The Culture and
Evolution of Natural History Museums. 1st ed.,. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001. Isbn: 0-19-516336-2 (pbk.)

Stephen T. Asma, PH.D. is a Professor of Philosophy and Interdisciplinary Humanities at Columbia College Chicago . His area of Specialization includes Philosophy (ancient and modern) and History of Life sciences, Eastern Philosophy ( esp. Buddhism), Religion and Science, Philosophy of Religion, Museum Studies, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics and Cultural Studies Theory. Stephen is the author of multifarious books and articles. He has had an impressive series of public lectures including: an Invited Keynote lecture “Natural History and Truth” at the Field Museum (Chicago) “Field Ambassador Program” August 23, 2003, to note one of many. Interestingly Stephen is an illustrator and a musician. You can find more about him by following this link: www.stephenasma.com

I loaned Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads; The culture and Evolution of Natural History Museums from the Morbid Anatomy Library. The book is well worn with underlined text throughout. To me this is a sign of a book being a popular read.
Stephen T. Asma's book brings us through a stimulating narrative of the museology of natural history museums. In the first chapter Asma lured me in with grotesque details, for instance his description of "Flesh Eating beetles and the Art of Taxidermy" ( the title of the first chapter). This first chapter gives us a behind the scenes look at the art of specimen preservation and of science museums such as The American Museum of Natural History, Chicago Field Museum and The Hunterian Museum to name a few.
Asma traces the history of science museums focusing on how and why specimens were collected and displayed and who pioneered this. He introduces pivotal characters: the collector, anatomist, medical illustrator, curator and the observer to frame an, "intellectual memoir of the specimens themselves and the collection cultures that managed them."-Asma. The book shows historical progression of culture, entertainment, scientific knowledge and how all of this was affected by Darwin, and his contemporaries, discoveries (evolution). These discoveries directly affected the way in which specimens were investigated, displayed, collected, preserved and used for education. ( write sentence about what were the huge cultural shifts that changed< what was important; culturally and what changed in natural history museums.) Asma stresses how important modes of classification and display are; in fact, they are the spine of our natural historic knowledge. "The odd thing about a specimen is that it's a kind of cipher when considered in isolation. Specimens are a lot like words: They don't mean anything unless they're in the context of a sentence or a system, and their meanings are extremely promiscuous." - Asma.
The wealth of information in each chapter is delivered like an essay, with copious amounts of quotable lines on every other page that creates a desire to read the book a second time. I have already re-read my favorite, chapter 3 titled " Taxonomic Intoxication Part 1: Visualizing the Invisible and Part 2 In Search of the Engine room." Which is about the act of classification in modern european taxonomy. Asma's 12 pages of notes for further reading, that include supporting details for all seven chapters, lend credibility to his curious research. I think this quote is an encouraging message that his book proclaims, "If we learn the skill of reading between the lines at natural history museums, we begin to see deep ideological commitments quietly happening and edition the sorts of things different cultures and different historical epochs consider to be knowledge." - Asma ...more "

Apr 10, 2010 02:49PM · see review