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Interposed between the natural world in all its diversity and the edited form in which we encounter it in literature, imagery and the museum, lie the multiple practices of the naturalists in selecting, recording and preserving the specimens from which our world view is to be reconstituted. The factors that weigh at every stage are here dissected, analysed and set within a historical narrative that spans more than five centuries. During that era, every aspect evolved and changed, as engagement with nature moved from a speculative pursuit heavily influenced by classical scholarship to a systematic science, drawing on advanced theory and technology. Far from being neutrally objective, the process of representing nature is shown as fraught with constraint and compromise.
With a Foreword by Sir David Attenborough
Contributors are: Marie Addyman, Peter Barnard, Paul D. Brinkman, Ian Convery, Peter Davis, Felix Driver, Florike Egmond, Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, Geoff Hancock, Stephen Harris, Hanna Hodacs, Stuart Houston, Dominik Huenniger, Rob Huxley, Charlie Jarvis, Malgosia Nowak-Kemp, Shepard Krech III, Mark Lawley, Arthur Lucas, Marco Masseti, Geoff Moore, Pat Morris, Charles Nelson, Robert Peck, Helen Scales, Han F. Vermeulen, and Glyn Williams.
With a Foreword by Sir David Attenborough
Contributors are: Marie Addyman, Peter Barnard, Paul D. Brinkman, Ian Convery, Peter Davis, Felix Driver, Florike Egmond, Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, Geoff Hancock, Stephen Harris, Hanna Hodacs, Stuart Houston, Dominik Huenniger, Rob Huxley, Charlie Jarvis, Malgosia Nowak-Kemp, Shepard Krech III, Mark Lawley, Arthur Lucas, Marco Masseti, Geoff Moore, Pat Morris, Charles Nelson, Robert Peck, Helen Scales, Han F. Vermeulen, and Glyn Williams.
Price: $372.00
Pages: 1000
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Emergence of Natural History
Publication Date:
26 April 2018
ISBN: 9789004323834
Format: Hardcover
"Aus der Vielzahl der Fallstudien zu Protagonisten und Expeditionen resultiert ein epochenübergreifendes Entwicklungsnarrativ, das sich erfolgreich uber die gewöhnlich ku rzer gefassten Phasen akademischer Periodisierung hinwegsetzt. So können langfristige Entwicklungen sichtbar werden, wie beispielsweise die vom Sammeln physischer Objekte zunächst einzelner Repräsentanten möglichst vieler Arten bzw. später repräsentativer Sample hin zum Sammeln von Daten."
- Bettina Dietz, Hongkong, in: Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 47 (2020) 1:106-107
"The act of collecting specimens and its corollariesthe preservation, description, analysis and arrangement of those specimensis fundamental to all natural history research. Naturalists in the Field offers a comprehensive and engaging overview of the various ways in which such specimens were acquired, preserved and transported over the past seven centuries."
- John McAleer, Archives of Natural History, Volume 46, Issue 2, Page 362-363. Published online September 2019
"Two themes run strongly through this assortment. The first is attention to naturalists practice, the details of the day-to-day life of collecting in the field, as well as documentation and preservation. [...] The other rich seam is the visual culture of natural history. [...] it is an expansive and lively overview of a topic in the history of science that keeps rewarding those who study it. A great time to be a historian of natural history, indeed.
- Samuel J. M. M. Alberti (National Museums Scotland & University of Stirling), ISIS, Volume 110, Number 3, September 2019, pp. 576-577.
[...] this is a valuable set of essays that offer a broad range of insights into the practicalities of life in the field. The inclusion of nine lengthy appendices providing transcriptions of collecting instructions from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries will be of interest to students of natural history, while the rich selection of illustrations (most colored) makes the book appealing to a wider non-academic readership.
- Helen Cowie (University of York), Journal of Jesuit Studies 6 (2019) 333-336.
Both entertaining and informative, clearly written and drawing on original research, this book is likely to be read both by scholars and by readers simply interested in natural history and field collecting. Naturalists in the Field certainly deserves a place in the libraries of tertiary institutions and in major public libraries.
- Anne Coote (University of New England), Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 30 Number 1, p. 60.
- Bettina Dietz, Hongkong, in: Zeitschrift für Historische Forschung 47 (2020) 1:106-107
"The act of collecting specimens and its corollariesthe preservation, description, analysis and arrangement of those specimensis fundamental to all natural history research. Naturalists in the Field offers a comprehensive and engaging overview of the various ways in which such specimens were acquired, preserved and transported over the past seven centuries."
- John McAleer, Archives of Natural History, Volume 46, Issue 2, Page 362-363. Published online September 2019
"Two themes run strongly through this assortment. The first is attention to naturalists practice, the details of the day-to-day life of collecting in the field, as well as documentation and preservation. [...] The other rich seam is the visual culture of natural history. [...] it is an expansive and lively overview of a topic in the history of science that keeps rewarding those who study it. A great time to be a historian of natural history, indeed.
- Samuel J. M. M. Alberti (National Museums Scotland & University of Stirling), ISIS, Volume 110, Number 3, September 2019, pp. 576-577.
[...] this is a valuable set of essays that offer a broad range of insights into the practicalities of life in the field. The inclusion of nine lengthy appendices providing transcriptions of collecting instructions from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries will be of interest to students of natural history, while the rich selection of illustrations (most colored) makes the book appealing to a wider non-academic readership.
- Helen Cowie (University of York), Journal of Jesuit Studies 6 (2019) 333-336.
Both entertaining and informative, clearly written and drawing on original research, this book is likely to be read both by scholars and by readers simply interested in natural history and field collecting. Naturalists in the Field certainly deserves a place in the libraries of tertiary institutions and in major public libraries.
- Anne Coote (University of New England), Historical Records of Australian Science, Volume 30 Number 1, p. 60.
Arthur MacGregor, D.Litt (1999), formerly a curator at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. He has published Curiosity and Enlightenment (2007), Animal Encounters (2012) and has edited some 13 other books and c.130 articles. He is editor of the Journal of the History of Collections (OUP).