{"title":"NIXON, Sean. Passions for birds. Science, sentiment, and sport","authors":"T. Birkhead","doi":"10.3366/anh.2023.0841","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0841","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49106,"journal":{"name":"Archives of Natural History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45013509","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"SHEPARD, Lansing, LUCE, Don, COFFIN, Barbara and SCHAGRIN, Gwen. A natural curiosity: the story of the Bell Museum","authors":"Maggie Reilly","doi":"10.3366/anh.2023.0851","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0851","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49106,"journal":{"name":"Archives of Natural History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45700025","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"SCHLOSSMAN, Marc. Extinction: our fragile relationship with life on Earth","authors":"David Elliott","doi":"10.3366/anh.2023.0848","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0848","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49106,"journal":{"name":"Archives of Natural History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46439106","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Three botanical watercolours by Richard Bradley (<i>c</i>.1688–1732) including of coffee and cinnamon (<i>Archives of Natural History</i> 49 (2): 341–346)","authors":"J. A. Edgington","doi":"10.3366/anh.2023.0839","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0839","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":49106,"journal":{"name":"Archives of Natural History","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135671945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 1555, Leonhard Thurneysser zum Thurn (1531–1596), a young apothecary, alchemist, astrologer and healer from Basle in Switzerland, travelled to Portugal and stayed in Lisbon with Damião de Góis (1502–1574), the Portuguese humanist and diplomat. The principal purpose of Thurneysser’s visit was the study of natural history and the observations and information that he collected then and during a second trip about 1562. These observations were recorded in a manuscript that remained unnoticed until the twenty first century. Thurneysser’s manuscript, now held in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, contains descriptions of animals, plants and of two economically important dyestuffs, kermes and dragon’s blood, the first obtained from the scale insect, Kermes vermilio (associated with Quercus coccifera, kermes oak), and the second from Dracaena draco (dragon tree). Thurneysser’s contributions to knowledge of these two products and their associated plants were innovative and reveal an observer endowed with exceptional insight. His main sources of information, in addition to his personal fieldwork, observation of goods sold in Lisbon markets and conversations with vendors and merchants, were the classics of Antiquity and contemporary works including two of Damião de Góis’s works, Hispania (1542) and Urbis Olisiponis descriptio (1554).
1555年,来自瑞士巴塞尔的年轻药剂师、炼金术士、占星家和治疗师Leonhard Thurneysser zum Thurn(1531–1596)前往葡萄牙,与葡萄牙人文主义者和外交官Damião de Góis(1502–1574)一起住在里斯本。瑟内瑟此行的主要目的是研究自然历史以及他在1562年左右的第二次旅行中收集的观察和信息。这些观察结果被记录在一份手稿中,直到二十一世纪才被注意到。Thurneysser的手稿现在保存在柏林国家图书馆,其中包括对动物、植物和两种经济上重要的染料kermes和龙血的描述,第一种是从介壳虫kermes朱(与Quercus coccifera、kermes oak有关)获得的,第二种是从龙血树Dracaena draco(龙树)获得的。瑟内瑟对这两种产品及其相关植物的知识贡献是创新的,展现了一位具有非凡洞察力的观察者。除了个人实地考察、对里斯本市场上出售的商品的观察以及与小贩和商人的对话外,他的主要信息来源是古董和当代作品的经典,包括达米昂·德·戈伊斯的两部作品《伊斯帕尼亚》(1542年)和《乌尔比斯·奥利西波尼斯描述》(1554年)。
{"title":"Observations on Portuguese natural history by Leonhard Thurneysser zum Thurn (1531–1596), including the dyes derived from Kermes vermilio and Dracaena draco","authors":"Bernardo Jerosch Herold, João Paulo Cabral","doi":"10.3366/anh.2023.0833","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0833","url":null,"abstract":"In 1555, Leonhard Thurneysser zum Thurn (1531–1596), a young apothecary, alchemist, astrologer and healer from Basle in Switzerland, travelled to Portugal and stayed in Lisbon with Damião de Góis (1502–1574), the Portuguese humanist and diplomat. The principal purpose of Thurneysser’s visit was the study of natural history and the observations and information that he collected then and during a second trip about 1562. These observations were recorded in a manuscript that remained unnoticed until the twenty first century. Thurneysser’s manuscript, now held in the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, contains descriptions of animals, plants and of two economically important dyestuffs, kermes and dragon’s blood, the first obtained from the scale insect, Kermes vermilio (associated with Quercus coccifera, kermes oak), and the second from Dracaena draco (dragon tree). Thurneysser’s contributions to knowledge of these two products and their associated plants were innovative and reveal an observer endowed with exceptional insight. His main sources of information, in addition to his personal fieldwork, observation of goods sold in Lisbon markets and conversations with vendors and merchants, were the classics of Antiquity and contemporary works including two of Damião de Góis’s works, Hispania (1542) and Urbis Olisiponis descriptio (1554).","PeriodicalId":49106,"journal":{"name":"Archives of Natural History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45583523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The “Bodleian Plate”, an early eighteenth-century engraved copper printing plate, bears a series of images of buildings erected in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA, as well as depictions of plants and animals. Four of these natural history images portray fragments of marine algae here identified as Sargassum spp. (Sargassaceae) and Ascophyllum nodosum (Fucaceae). A fifth botanical subject is identified as fragments of the inflorescences of Tilia sp. (Malvaceae). Two of the Sargassum fragments show commensal marine organisms, a bryozoan (probably Jellyella tuberculata (Membraniporidae)) and goose barnacles ( Lepas sp. (Crustacea; Cirripedia)). A seahorse ( Hippocampus sp. (Syngnathidae)), a ground beetle and a spider are also depicted. These new identifications contradict the hypothesis that the illustrations portray agricultural or other commodities of financial importance in Virginia during the early 1700s. A putative link with William Byrd II of Westover, Virginia, is not supported by the natural history images.
{"title":"New identifications of natural history images on the “Bodleian Plate”, an early eighteenth-century engraved copperplate","authors":"E. Nelson","doi":"10.3366/anh.2023.0829","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0829","url":null,"abstract":"The “Bodleian Plate”, an early eighteenth-century engraved copper printing plate, bears a series of images of buildings erected in Williamsburg, Virginia, USA, as well as depictions of plants and animals. Four of these natural history images portray fragments of marine algae here identified as Sargassum spp. (Sargassaceae) and Ascophyllum nodosum (Fucaceae). A fifth botanical subject is identified as fragments of the inflorescences of Tilia sp. (Malvaceae). Two of the Sargassum fragments show commensal marine organisms, a bryozoan (probably Jellyella tuberculata (Membraniporidae)) and goose barnacles ( Lepas sp. (Crustacea; Cirripedia)). A seahorse ( Hippocampus sp. (Syngnathidae)), a ground beetle and a spider are also depicted. These new identifications contradict the hypothesis that the illustrations portray agricultural or other commodities of financial importance in Virginia during the early 1700s. A putative link with William Byrd II of Westover, Virginia, is not supported by the natural history images.","PeriodicalId":49106,"journal":{"name":"Archives of Natural History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44756266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842, in some ways, represents the beginning of American marine mammal biology. The expedition returned home with information on at least twelve marine mammal specimens (mostly small cetaceans or pinnipeds), seven of which were considered new species at the time. Commanded by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, the expedition covered over 80,000 miles, surveyed new waters and lands, and brought back thousands of scientific specimens. Official publications of the expedition by Titian Peale and John Cassin cover the birds and mammals collected. The squadron’s publications, and the journals of its officers and scientists also contain a good deal of information about sightings of marine mammals. Of particular interest were whaling operations and grounds, and the expedition did much to help expand the whaling prospects of the United States around the globe, with a focus on the South Pacific islands. Though largely forgotten today, the “U. S. Ex. Ex.” played an important early role in establishing American influence in marine mammal biology and global whaling operations.
{"title":"Marine mammals of the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838–1842: history and taxonomy","authors":"T. Jefferson","doi":"10.3366/anh.2023.0831","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0831","url":null,"abstract":"The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842, in some ways, represents the beginning of American marine mammal biology. The expedition returned home with information on at least twelve marine mammal specimens (mostly small cetaceans or pinnipeds), seven of which were considered new species at the time. Commanded by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, the expedition covered over 80,000 miles, surveyed new waters and lands, and brought back thousands of scientific specimens. Official publications of the expedition by Titian Peale and John Cassin cover the birds and mammals collected. The squadron’s publications, and the journals of its officers and scientists also contain a good deal of information about sightings of marine mammals. Of particular interest were whaling operations and grounds, and the expedition did much to help expand the whaling prospects of the United States around the globe, with a focus on the South Pacific islands. Though largely forgotten today, the “U. S. Ex. Ex.” played an important early role in establishing American influence in marine mammal biology and global whaling operations.","PeriodicalId":49106,"journal":{"name":"Archives of Natural History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42660758","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The study of fauna in South Sudan during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century relied on a web of collection stations, a vast field network of observers, the assembly of many disparate facts, and the collection of animals to be sold for display and study in zoos and museums in Sudan and other countries. This work of zoological study and the trade in animals mobilized great numbers of South Sudanese, relying on their labour, observations, and knowledge about how to capture and care for animals. These participants have rarely been credited for their own contributions to knowledge about the natural history of their country. This paper examines the work of Solomon Col Adol who was based at the zoological collection station in Bor, a small town on the White Nile, where he was a Game Ranger.
{"title":"Solomon Col Adol (1909–1971), Game Ranger and animal collector in Bor, South Sudan","authors":"Brendan Tuttle","doi":"10.3366/anh.2023.0827","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0827","url":null,"abstract":"The study of fauna in South Sudan during the first two-thirds of the twentieth century relied on a web of collection stations, a vast field network of observers, the assembly of many disparate facts, and the collection of animals to be sold for display and study in zoos and museums in Sudan and other countries. This work of zoological study and the trade in animals mobilized great numbers of South Sudanese, relying on their labour, observations, and knowledge about how to capture and care for animals. These participants have rarely been credited for their own contributions to knowledge about the natural history of their country. This paper examines the work of Solomon Col Adol who was based at the zoological collection station in Bor, a small town on the White Nile, where he was a Game Ranger.","PeriodicalId":49106,"journal":{"name":"Archives of Natural History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46490634","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Archival and other historical evidence, including digitized issues of The Radio Times and files from the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Written Archives Centre, reveal the pivotal importance that natural history played in the BBC’s programming during the 1920s and 1930s. Beyond merely replicating the forms and styles that could be found across other forms of mass media, natural history broadcasts demonstrated to the British public what radio technology was capable of. At the same time, radio was not isolated from the media landscape of the period, and natural history broadcasts made full use of visual accompaniments such as magazines and pamphlets. Examining a variety of different broadcasts, this paper focuses on how expertise was fashioned behind the microphone, on “stunts” such as broadcasting the live sounds of animals, on audience participation, and on broadcasts aimed at young audiences. Broadcast lessons for schools, which are generally overlooked by historians, offer a rich opportunity for examining how natural history radio developed over the years. Children’s hour characters like the “Zoo Man” modelled an intimate, direct way of engaging with young audiences. Moreover, experiments in field ecology involving listeners in the collection of data showed that radio could act as a two-way medium. These broadcasts helped to shape the modern phenomenon of the nature documentary that would take off after 1945. While the origins of this phenomenon are usually traced either to the establishment of the BBC’s Natural History Unit in 1957, or in some cases to early nature films, there is a strong case for considering the BBC’s interwar broadcasts (1922–1939) as part of this trajectory.
{"title":"Nature on the airwaves: natural history and the BBC in interwar Britain, 1922–1939 (William T. Stearn Student Essay Prize 2021)","authors":"M. Long","doi":"10.3366/anh.2023.0824","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0824","url":null,"abstract":"Archival and other historical evidence, including digitized issues of The Radio Times and files from the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Written Archives Centre, reveal the pivotal importance that natural history played in the BBC’s programming during the 1920s and 1930s. Beyond merely replicating the forms and styles that could be found across other forms of mass media, natural history broadcasts demonstrated to the British public what radio technology was capable of. At the same time, radio was not isolated from the media landscape of the period, and natural history broadcasts made full use of visual accompaniments such as magazines and pamphlets. Examining a variety of different broadcasts, this paper focuses on how expertise was fashioned behind the microphone, on “stunts” such as broadcasting the live sounds of animals, on audience participation, and on broadcasts aimed at young audiences. Broadcast lessons for schools, which are generally overlooked by historians, offer a rich opportunity for examining how natural history radio developed over the years. Children’s hour characters like the “Zoo Man” modelled an intimate, direct way of engaging with young audiences. Moreover, experiments in field ecology involving listeners in the collection of data showed that radio could act as a two-way medium. These broadcasts helped to shape the modern phenomenon of the nature documentary that would take off after 1945. While the origins of this phenomenon are usually traced either to the establishment of the BBC’s Natural History Unit in 1957, or in some cases to early nature films, there is a strong case for considering the BBC’s interwar broadcasts (1922–1939) as part of this trajectory.","PeriodicalId":49106,"journal":{"name":"Archives of Natural History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44881596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper examines the history of discovery, early research and description of Anabas testudineus ( Bloch, 1792 ) (Anabantidae), an amphibious fish from southern India that was said to climb palm trees and so has been dubbed the “climbing perch”. Amphibious fishes constitute one of the most unusual groups of aquatic creatures since they can spend part of their life in terrestrial habitats. The first reports of such fishes date back to Antiquity, but with the onset of the Age of Discovery, naturalists were able to find actual examples of tropical amphibious fishes and send preserved specimens to Europe. A fish which could move overland and was rumoured to clamber up tree trunks became known to European naturalists through the efforts of a variety of people. Many of them were amateur naturalists whose main activities included politics, commerce and missionary work. The species was described by Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723–1799) in 1792, but this would not have been possible if the Reverend Christoph Samuel John (1747–1813) had not obtained specimens in India and sent them to Berlin. Around the same time, Lieutenant Dagobert Karl Daldorff ( fl. 1790–1802) documented the unusual amphibious behaviour of this fish. Thanks to others, Anabas testudineus was illustrated (albeit inaccurately) and the first scientific description published.
{"title":"Anabas testudineus (Bloch, 1792), climbing perch (Anabantidae), and its discovery in India","authors":"Dmitry D. Zworykin","doi":"10.3366/anh.2023.0825","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2023.0825","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines the history of discovery, early research and description of Anabas testudineus ( Bloch, 1792 ) (Anabantidae), an amphibious fish from southern India that was said to climb palm trees and so has been dubbed the “climbing perch”. Amphibious fishes constitute one of the most unusual groups of aquatic creatures since they can spend part of their life in terrestrial habitats. The first reports of such fishes date back to Antiquity, but with the onset of the Age of Discovery, naturalists were able to find actual examples of tropical amphibious fishes and send preserved specimens to Europe. A fish which could move overland and was rumoured to clamber up tree trunks became known to European naturalists through the efforts of a variety of people. Many of them were amateur naturalists whose main activities included politics, commerce and missionary work. The species was described by Marcus Elieser Bloch (1723–1799) in 1792, but this would not have been possible if the Reverend Christoph Samuel John (1747–1813) had not obtained specimens in India and sent them to Berlin. Around the same time, Lieutenant Dagobert Karl Daldorff ( fl. 1790–1802) documented the unusual amphibious behaviour of this fish. Thanks to others, Anabas testudineus was illustrated (albeit inaccurately) and the first scientific description published.","PeriodicalId":49106,"journal":{"name":"Archives of Natural History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46328500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}