Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads
Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads
Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads
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Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads

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This book will trace the cultural history of natural history museums from their origins in the 18th century through to the present day, by tracing the changing attitudes and philosophies that influence the public displays of major natural history museums. The author will make his points with many anecdotes and stoies, showing the development over time from displays of individual collectors' curios and occasionally gruesome oddities, to the more politically sensitive and intellectually ambitious exercises in public education that constitute the modern day perminent exhibitions at museums. This book makes an entertaining and thoughtful contribution to recent comparative cultural and intellectual history, the history of public education, and the popularisation of science. The dichotomy between the front window, exhibit portion of natural history museums, and the backstage areas where scientific work goes forward, and the dual roles and missions served by this cultural institution, are well portrayed here.
Paperback / softback
01-June-2003
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The natural history museum is a place where the line between "high" and "low" culture effectively vanishes--where our awe of nature, our taste for the bizarre, and our thirst for knowledge all blend happily together. But as Stephen Asma shows in Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads, there is more going on in these great institutions than just smart fun. Asma takes us on a wide-ranging tour of natural history museums in New York and Chicago, London and Paris, interviewing curators, scientists, and exhibit designers, and providing a wealth of fascinating observations. We learn how the first museums were little more than high-toned side shows, with such garish exhibits as the pickled head of Catherine the Great's lover. In contrast, today's museums are hot-beds of serious science, funding major research in such fields as anthropology and archaeology. "Rich in detail, lucid explanation, telling anecdotes, and fascinating characters.... Asma has rendered a fascinating and credible account of how natural history museums are conceived and presented. It's the kind of book that will not only engage a wide and diverse readership, but it should, best of all, send them flocking to see how we look at nature and ourselves in those fabulous legacies of the curiosity cabinet."--The Boston Herald.
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RRP: $83.95
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Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads

RRP: $83.95
$75.00

Description

The natural history museum is a place where the line between "high" and "low" culture effectively vanishes--where our awe of nature, our taste for the bizarre, and our thirst for knowledge all blend happily together. But as Stephen Asma shows in Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads, there is more going on in these great institutions than just smart fun. Asma takes us on a wide-ranging tour of natural history museums in New York and Chicago, London and Paris, interviewing curators, scientists, and exhibit designers, and providing a wealth of fascinating observations. We learn how the first museums were little more than high-toned side shows, with such garish exhibits as the pickled head of Catherine the Great's lover. In contrast, today's museums are hot-beds of serious science, funding major research in such fields as anthropology and archaeology. "Rich in detail, lucid explanation, telling anecdotes, and fascinating characters.... Asma has rendered a fascinating and credible account of how natural history museums are conceived and presented. It's the kind of book that will not only engage a wide and diverse readership, but it should, best of all, send them flocking to see how we look at nature and ourselves in those fabulous legacies of the curiosity cabinet."--The Boston Herald.

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