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Book Cover
E-book
Author Irmscher, Christoph, author

Title The poetics of natural history / by Christoph Irmscher ; with foreword and photographs by Rosamond Purcell
Edition Second edition
Published New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2019]

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Description 1 online resource (xxii, 379 pages) : color illustrations
Contents Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Foreword / Purcell, Rosamond -- Notes on the Photographs -- Preface to the Second Edition / Irmscher, Christoph -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Part One. Displaying -- Chapter 1. "America Transplanted" / Bartram, John / Bartram, William -- Chapter 2. Collection and Recollection / Peale, Charles Willson -- Chapter 3. Collecting Human Nature / Barnum, P. T. -- Part Two. Representing -- Chapter 4. The Power of Fascination -- Chapter 5. Audubon at Large -- Chapter 6. Agassiz Agonistes -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index
Summary Early American naturalists assembled dazzling collections of native flora and fauna, from Joihn Bartram's botanical garden in Philadelphia and the artful display of animals in Charles Willson Peale's museum to P. T. Barnum's American Museum, infamously characterized by Henry James as "halls of humbug." Yet physical collections were only one of the myriad ways that these naturalists captured, catalogued, and commemorated America's rich biodiversity. They also turned to writing and art, from John Edward Holbrook's forays into the fascinating world of herpetology to John James Audubon's masterful portraits of American birds. In this groundbreaking, now classic book, Christoph Irmscher argues that early American natural historians developed a distinctly poetic sensibility that allowed them to imagine themselves as part of, and not apart from, their environment. He also demonstrates what happens to such inclusiveness in the hands of Harvard scientist-turned Amazonian explorer Louis Agassiz, whose racist pseudoscience appalled his student William James. This expanded, full-color edition of The Poetics of Natural History features a preface and art from award-winning artist Rosamond Purcell and invites the reader to be fully immersed in an era when the boundaries between literature, art, and science became fluid
Notes Revised edition of: The poetics of natural history : from John Bartram to William James. ©1999
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Natural history -- United States -- History -- 18th century
Natural history -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Naturalists -- United States
Natural history -- Catalogs and collections -- United States -- History -- 18th century
Natural history -- Catalogs and collections -- United States -- History -- 19th century
Natural history literature -- United States
Poetics -- History -- 18th century
Poetics -- History -- 19th century
Natural history
Natural history -- Catalogs and collections
Natural history literature
Naturalists
Poetics
United States
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781978805903
197880590X