Main entry:

Yanni, Carla.

Title & Author:

Nature's museums : Victorian science and the architecture of display / Carla Yanni.

Publication:

Baltimore, Md : Johns Hopkins University Press ; London : Althone Press, ©1999.

Description:

xvi, 199 pages : illustrations ; 28 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-196) and index.
Changing definitions of nature 4 -- British Victorian architecture and natural history 4 -- Style and meaning in the architecture of display 6 -- Museums and power 8 -- Museums of art 10 -- The place of knowledge 11 -- The historiography of science and architecture 12 -- 1 Museum Vision: 'Sights Unseen Before' 14 -- The problem of classification: Adam's task 14 -- The idea of collecting: Noah's task 15 -- A way of seeing 19 -- Tradescant's Ark and the Ashmolean Museum 20 -- Hans Sloane and the founding of the British Museum 24 -- Bullock's Museum 25 -- 'The Birds and Beasts will Teach Thee': Peale's Philadelphia Museum 28 -- Science versus show 30 -- Displays of natural knowledge outside the museum 30 -- Visual serutiny: Agassiz and the fish 31 -- 2 Displays of Natural Knowledge in the 1830s and 1840s 33 -- The Jardin des Plantes and the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris 34 -- A place for natural history at Cambridge: competitions for the University Library 36 -- The Hunterian Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons 46 -- The Museum of Practical Geology: 'immense mineral riches' 51 -- 3 Nature as Creation: the Oxford University Museum 62 -- A science center for Oxford 63 -- The necessity of a museum for visual instruction about the natural world 63 -- The museum as an epitome of nature 64 -- Report of the Building Committee, February 1853: the early program 65 -- The influence of earlier museums on the Oxford patrons 66 -- The competition 66 -- Barry's classical entry 67 -- Deane and Woodward's Gothic entry 71 -- Street's 'Urgent Plea' 71 -- Ruskin's opinion 73 -- Acland's pamphlet promoting Deane and Woodward's design 74 -- The clients debate the merits of the finalists: December 12, 1854 75 -- Three votes taken 77 -- The general plan 77 -- The exterior 77 -- The interior: an iron and glass roof surmounting a cloister 78 -- 'The one in the manifold': diversity in the ornament 80 -- Engineering as distinct from Oxford science 84 -- Spiritual and material at once: the portal relief sculpture 85 -- The meeting of T.H. Huxley and Bishop Wilberforce 88 -- 4 Nature as Natural Resource: the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art 91 -- Scottish nationalism and Scottish education 91 -- The influence of the Museum of Practical Geology 93 -- The Crystal Palace: 'that prolific mother' 93 -- The problem of spectacle 94 -- The early planning of the Edinburgh Museum 97 -- Francis Fowke: engineer and exhibition architect 99 -- The museum as built 104 -- 5 Nature in Conflict: the Natural History Museum in London 111 -- The program and preliminary plans 112 -- The competition 115 -- Francis Fowke's winning competition entry 119 -- Fowke versus Kerr: the meaning of an iron and glass 'bazaar' 122 -- Alfred Waterhouse: early designs and drawings 126 -- The Thames Embankment 128 -- The Natural History Museum as built 131 -- The ornament 132 -- The contemporary reception of the Natural History Museum 139 -- The expression of antiquated science in the museum's plan and ornament 144 -- 6 Still Life: Natural History Museums Today 147 -- Display strategies, then and now 148 -- Spectacle or science, revisited 149 -- Science: product or process 152 -- 'Observing powers': visuality and interactivity 152 -- 'Dinomania' and the Natural History Museum 154 -- Environmentalism and conservation 156 -- Modern museums in Victorian places 157 -- Conclusion: the Role of Architecture in the Social Construction of Knowledge 159 -- Epilogue: Two More Arks-the Museum of creation and the Museum of Jurassic Technology 162.
Dust jacket.

Summary:

"Through careful social historical accounts of the buildings, their displays and their reception, Nature's Museums reveals how natural knowledge was locally produced. By embracing contradictory concepts of nature - from nature as resource to be capitalised by the empire, to nature as the second book of God - Nature's Museums allows the buildings themselves to act as a guide to the Victorians' understanding of the natural world. The book brings the display of nature into the light of contemporary discourse, enhancing our understanding of the nature of museums in Darwin's century."--Jacket.

ISBN:

1568984723 (alk. paper)
9781568984728 (alk. paper)
0801863260 (alk. paper)
9780801863264 (alk. paper)
0485004054
9780485004052

Subject:

Museum of the History of Science Oxford
Natural History Museum London
Museum für Naturkunde Dortmund
Natural history museums History 19th century.
Museum architecture History 19th century.
Architecture, Victorian.
Natural history.
Natural history museums Employees History 19th century.
Architecture as Topic history.
Museums history
Natural History
Sciences naturelles Musées Personnel Histoire 19e siècle.
Musées Architecture Histoire 19e siècle.
Architecture victorienne.
Sciences naturelles Musées Histoire 19e siècle.
Architecture des musées Histoire 19e siècle.
Sciences naturelles.
natural sciences.
Natural history museums Employees
Museum architecture
Natural history museums
Architektur
Natuurwetenschappelijke musea.
Museumgebouwen.
Großbritannien

Form/genre:

Bildband.
History

Holdings:

Location: Library main 213777
Call No.: NA6690 .Y3 1999
Status: Available