Mycology, the study of fungi, is a relatively young and underexplored discipline with a strong culture of field collection and study. The Yorkshire Mycological Committee (YMC) of the Yorkshire Naturalist's Union, formed in 1892, became the first permanent mycological organization within Great Britain. Well renowned and highly competent, the members of the YMC espoused a distinctive philosophy and practice of science that led them into a drawn-out conflict with the newly established British Mycological Society that continues to impact the practice of British field mycology today. This paper explores the philosophy, practice, and hierarchy of the Yorkshire mycologists and fungal collectors through the lens of their regional identity. To do so, it examines similarities and differences between the Yorkshire expressions of mycology and cricket around the turn of the twentieth century, with the latter already well established as a major vehicle for expressions of the region's identity. It argues that both activities stem from a distinct Yorkshire identity and culture that both superseded and intersected with other factors such as class and authority. In doing so, it highlights the importance of provincial identities and scientific movements in informing and influencing wider disciplinary philosophies and practices.
{"title":"Of stumps and stipes: comparisons between the cultures and identities of Yorkshire cricket and mycology at the turn of the twentieth century","authors":"N. Smith","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2021.0036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2021.0036","url":null,"abstract":"Mycology, the study of fungi, is a relatively young and underexplored discipline with a strong culture of field collection and study. The Yorkshire Mycological Committee (YMC) of the Yorkshire Naturalist's Union, formed in 1892, became the first permanent mycological organization within Great Britain. Well renowned and highly competent, the members of the YMC espoused a distinctive philosophy and practice of science that led them into a drawn-out conflict with the newly established British Mycological Society that continues to impact the practice of British field mycology today. This paper explores the philosophy, practice, and hierarchy of the Yorkshire mycologists and fungal collectors through the lens of their regional identity. To do so, it examines similarities and differences between the Yorkshire expressions of mycology and cricket around the turn of the twentieth century, with the latter already well established as a major vehicle for expressions of the region's identity. It argues that both activities stem from a distinct Yorkshire identity and culture that both superseded and intersected with other factors such as class and authority. In doing so, it highlights the importance of provincial identities and scientific movements in informing and influencing wider disciplinary philosophies and practices.","PeriodicalId":82881,"journal":{"name":"Tanzania notes and records","volume":"40 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82315935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The popularizer of astronomy Mary Proctor was well known in her days but has been little remembered since. A prominent lecturer and author, Proctor was trained in the craft of science writing by her father, Richard Proctor. She ‘held the very first place in the profession as a woman’ and promoted the role of women in science throughout her career. Her life illuminates many themes. Mary Proctor spanned the period between entrepreneurial science popularizers and professional science communicators. I suggest that one of her most important legacies is as an early pioneer of the practices of science journalism in the early twentieth century when the relations between science and society were in flux. Yet her legacy has been largely overlooked. A study of Proctor's life reveals multiple interests, diverse opportunities and the way that people are differently remembered.
{"title":"Mary Proctor: An astronomical popularizer in the shadows","authors":"M. Bush","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2021.0042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2021.0042","url":null,"abstract":"The popularizer of astronomy Mary Proctor was well known in her days but has been little remembered since. A prominent lecturer and author, Proctor was trained in the craft of science writing by her father, Richard Proctor. She ‘held the very first place in the profession as a woman’ and promoted the role of women in science throughout her career. Her life illuminates many themes. Mary Proctor spanned the period between entrepreneurial science popularizers and professional science communicators. I suggest that one of her most important legacies is as an early pioneer of the practices of science journalism in the early twentieth century when the relations between science and society were in flux. Yet her legacy has been largely overlooked. A study of Proctor's life reveals multiple interests, diverse opportunities and the way that people are differently remembered.","PeriodicalId":82881,"journal":{"name":"Tanzania notes and records","volume":"84 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75729402","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In 1758, Carl von Linné (Linnaeus) published the tenth edition of Systema Naturae, in which he formally described the most unique group of primates: lemurs. The story of the early human-mediated dispersal of lemurs from Madagascar, prior to their formalized descriptions, is a complex one. It touches on the birth of the standardization of modern zoology, empire building, and the growth of international trade and commerce, with many Fellows of the Royal Society contributing to the earliest observations of these animals in captive settings. Through the use of historical documents and artwork, we present this history in four parts: ‘Part I: The lemurs that became ‘lemurs’ (1746–1756)’, discusses the specific lemurs that Linnaeus used to describe the genera in the tenth and twelfth editions of Systema Naturae; ‘Part II: Establishing the trade routes (1500–1662)’, examines seventeenth century captive lemurs and the role of the trade routes of the East India Companies in the transportation of lemurs from Madagascar; ‘Part III: Tracing the Bugée (1693–1732)’, reviews the lemurs identified by late seventeenth and early eighteenth century pre-Linnaean naturalists; and ‘Part IV: The chained lemur (1732–1761)’, concludes with eighteenth century lemurs in menageries and as luxury goods.
{"title":"Lemurs before lemur: depictions of captive lemurs prior to Linnaeus","authors":"Ethan S. Rogers, Stephanie L. Canington","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2021.0039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2021.0039","url":null,"abstract":"In 1758, Carl von Linné (Linnaeus) published the tenth edition of Systema Naturae, in which he formally described the most unique group of primates: lemurs. The story of the early human-mediated dispersal of lemurs from Madagascar, prior to their formalized descriptions, is a complex one. It touches on the birth of the standardization of modern zoology, empire building, and the growth of international trade and commerce, with many Fellows of the Royal Society contributing to the earliest observations of these animals in captive settings. Through the use of historical documents and artwork, we present this history in four parts: ‘Part I: The lemurs that became ‘lemurs’ (1746–1756)’, discusses the specific lemurs that Linnaeus used to describe the genera in the tenth and twelfth editions of Systema Naturae; ‘Part II: Establishing the trade routes (1500–1662)’, examines seventeenth century captive lemurs and the role of the trade routes of the East India Companies in the transportation of lemurs from Madagascar; ‘Part III: Tracing the Bugée (1693–1732)’, reviews the lemurs identified by late seventeenth and early eighteenth century pre-Linnaean naturalists; and ‘Part IV: The chained lemur (1732–1761)’, concludes with eighteenth century lemurs in menageries and as luxury goods.","PeriodicalId":82881,"journal":{"name":"Tanzania notes and records","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80823872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article presents a hitherto unpublished account of a magical séance conducted by the virtuoso Thomas Henshaw (1618–1700), later Fellow of the Royal Society, while travelling in Venice ca 1648. The episode had previously been known through an account of it given by Robert Boyle, but in Boyle's version its protagonist was unclear. It is now for the first time revealed as Henshaw on the basis of a further record of it among the papers of John Sharp, Archbishop of York (1645?–1714). The discrepancies between the ‘new’ version of the story and that given by Boyle are here elucidated and the opportunity is taken to outline the background to the séance in terms of the history of magic in early modern Venice. In addition, broader comments are included on the implications of the episode for attitudes towards alchemy and magic in the period.
{"title":"Thomas Henshaw's strange séance in Venice, circa 1648: A coda to Robert Boyle by himself and his friends","authors":"Michael Hunter","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2021.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2021.0019","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents a hitherto unpublished account of a magical séance conducted by the virtuoso Thomas Henshaw (1618–1700), later Fellow of the Royal Society, while travelling in Venice ca 1648. The episode had previously been known through an account of it given by Robert Boyle, but in Boyle's version its protagonist was unclear. It is now for the first time revealed as Henshaw on the basis of a further record of it among the papers of John Sharp, Archbishop of York (1645?–1714). The discrepancies between the ‘new’ version of the story and that given by Boyle are here elucidated and the opportunity is taken to outline the background to the séance in terms of the history of magic in early modern Venice. In addition, broader comments are included on the implications of the episode for attitudes towards alchemy and magic in the period.","PeriodicalId":82881,"journal":{"name":"Tanzania notes and records","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83699312","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS, established in 1825), similar to the academies of the old Soviet bloc, ran a research network from 1950 until 2019 when it was detached from the Academy. The first research institute of the HAS was the Institute of Biochemistry, which started its operation in 1950. Its first director was Imre Szörényi (1905–1959) who lived in emigration in Kiev until he was called back to Hungary in 1950 by the Secretariat of the Hungarian Workers Party. Initially, for a few years research in the Institute was partly influenced by Lepeshinskaya's ‘New Cell Theory’ and Szörényi himself became the chair of the ‘Living Protein’ Committee of the HAS. He returned for more than two years to Kiev where he received a shared Stalin Prize in 1952 for the development of the antibiotic, Microcid. After his final return to Hungary in 1953, he was able to shape the characteristic image of the Institute of Biochemistry, making it one of the leading workshops of Hungarian biochemistry. From 1956 onwards, ideological considerations no longer interfered with the choice of research topics. The relationship between the chemical structure and the specific biological function of enzymes became the main profile of the Institute. In spite of his untimely death, Szörényi exerted a long-lasting influence on Hungarian biochemistry through his disciples.
{"title":"The first ‘Soviet type’ research institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and its Stalin Prize-awarded director, Imre Szörényi","authors":"F. Orosz, Miklós Müller","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2021.0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2021.0010","url":null,"abstract":"The Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS, established in 1825), similar to the academies of the old Soviet bloc, ran a research network from 1950 until 2019 when it was detached from the Academy. The first research institute of the HAS was the Institute of Biochemistry, which started its operation in 1950. Its first director was Imre Szörényi (1905–1959) who lived in emigration in Kiev until he was called back to Hungary in 1950 by the Secretariat of the Hungarian Workers Party. Initially, for a few years research in the Institute was partly influenced by Lepeshinskaya's ‘New Cell Theory’ and Szörényi himself became the chair of the ‘Living Protein’ Committee of the HAS. He returned for more than two years to Kiev where he received a shared Stalin Prize in 1952 for the development of the antibiotic, Microcid. After his final return to Hungary in 1953, he was able to shape the characteristic image of the Institute of Biochemistry, making it one of the leading workshops of Hungarian biochemistry. From 1956 onwards, ideological considerations no longer interfered with the choice of research topics. The relationship between the chemical structure and the specific biological function of enzymes became the main profile of the Institute. In spite of his untimely death, Szörényi exerted a long-lasting influence on Hungarian biochemistry through his disciples.","PeriodicalId":82881,"journal":{"name":"Tanzania notes and records","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88606005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
For almost 40 years, the British jurist and Fellow of the Royal Society Taylor White (1701–1772) actively engaged in commissioning artists to paint plants and animals for his ‘paper museum’. White amassed a collection of almost 1000 drawings of birds, mammals, fish, amphibians and reptiles, acquired by McGill University in 1927. His first recorded purchase was a watercolour by George Edwards (1694–1773). He also acquired works from Eleazar Albin (fl. 1690–ca 1742) and Jacob van Huysum (ca 1687–1740), but the majority of the watercolours were painted by two artists, Charles Collins (ca 1680–1744) and Peter Paillou (ca 1712–1782). In 2018 a research group at McGill University Library received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the project ‘Undescrib'd: Taylor White's paper museum’. The project produced a complete catalogue of the White collection, including attribution of all unsigned works, and digitized all paintings and notes. This paper documents the process surrounding the original creation of the collection, reviewing the careers of the artists and White's relationship with them, the value of the commissions and the challenges of painting natural history subjects. It also describes the mechanics of painting, including pigments, papers used and artists' techniques.
{"title":"Taylor White's ‘paper museum’","authors":"Victoria Dickenson, Jennifer Garland","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2021.0020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2021.0020","url":null,"abstract":"For almost 40 years, the British jurist and Fellow of the Royal Society Taylor White (1701–1772) actively engaged in commissioning artists to paint plants and animals for his ‘paper museum’. White amassed a collection of almost 1000 drawings of birds, mammals, fish, amphibians and reptiles, acquired by McGill University in 1927. His first recorded purchase was a watercolour by George Edwards (1694–1773). He also acquired works from Eleazar Albin (fl. 1690–ca 1742) and Jacob van Huysum (ca 1687–1740), but the majority of the watercolours were painted by two artists, Charles Collins (ca 1680–1744) and Peter Paillou (ca 1712–1782). In 2018 a research group at McGill University Library received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for the project ‘Undescrib'd: Taylor White's paper museum’. The project produced a complete catalogue of the White collection, including attribution of all unsigned works, and digitized all paintings and notes. This paper documents the process surrounding the original creation of the collection, reviewing the careers of the artists and White's relationship with them, the value of the commissions and the challenges of painting natural history subjects. It also describes the mechanics of painting, including pigments, papers used and artists' techniques.","PeriodicalId":82881,"journal":{"name":"Tanzania notes and records","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80301770","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper discusses heightened interest in the potential audibility of the aurora borealis during the First and Second International Polar Years (IPYs) of 1882–3 and 1932–3. Galvanized by a growing volume of local accounts expressing belief in the elusive noises, written by the inhabitants of the Shetland Islands, northern Canada, and Norway, auroral researchers of each era were determined to establish the objectivity of auroral sound. There was considerable speculation within the auroral research community as to whether the apparent noises were imagined or illusory, connected to discussions about the possibility of low-altitude aurorae. The anglophone auroral sound debate primarily played out within the official reports of IPY expeditions, the journal Nature, and a Shetland Island newspaper. I argue that the embodied senses were used exclusively to register the liminal sounds of the aurora across the two periods, despite developments in sound recording technologies, the primacy of mechanical objectivity, and instruments transported to the polar regions for the investigation of visual features of the phenomenon. This overlooked episode complicates narratives of polar science in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by revealing a faith in the corporeal senses and the significant role of amateur observers.
{"title":"The disputed sound of the aurora borealis: sensing liminal noise during the First and Second International Polar Years, 1882–3 and 1932–3","authors":"Fiona Amery","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2021.0031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2021.0031","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discusses heightened interest in the potential audibility of the aurora borealis during the First and Second International Polar Years (IPYs) of 1882–3 and 1932–3. Galvanized by a growing volume of local accounts expressing belief in the elusive noises, written by the inhabitants of the Shetland Islands, northern Canada, and Norway, auroral researchers of each era were determined to establish the objectivity of auroral sound. There was considerable speculation within the auroral research community as to whether the apparent noises were imagined or illusory, connected to discussions about the possibility of low-altitude aurorae. The anglophone auroral sound debate primarily played out within the official reports of IPY expeditions, the journal Nature, and a Shetland Island newspaper. I argue that the embodied senses were used exclusively to register the liminal sounds of the aurora across the two periods, despite developments in sound recording technologies, the primacy of mechanical objectivity, and instruments transported to the polar regions for the investigation of visual features of the phenomenon. This overlooked episode complicates narratives of polar science in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by revealing a faith in the corporeal senses and the significant role of amateur observers.","PeriodicalId":82881,"journal":{"name":"Tanzania notes and records","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80125911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Taylor White (1701–1772) was by profession a barrister and judge, active in public life in London. His life as a jurist and as the long-serving treasurer of the Foundling Hospital is documented in the records of his public appointments and in his own official correspondence. This article reveals the other Taylor White, a Fellow of the Royal Society (1725), and an active participant in the practice of science in the mid eighteenth century. White accumulated a significant collection of specimens and drawings of plants, insects, birds and mammals. Over 900 of the zoological drawings are preserved in the Blacker Wood Natural History Collection at McGill University in Montreal. White's passions for natural history and collecting are revealed tangentially through the very few letters in his hand, the notes he made about his own collection, and infrequent references in the books and letters of his friends and fellow naturalists. This article seeks not only to document the sources of White's collection, but also to extract a narrative of acquisition, transport and exchange of specimens that reveals the informal networks of eighteenth-century naturalists, which included not only scientists but also sailors, merchants and curious lawyers. It also explores the work and motivations of the collector engaged in building a reference collection of animal portraits, painted in their true colours and ‘the size of life’. Close study of this collection positions Taylor White within the community of eighteenth-century naturalists and provides a deeply textured exploration of natural history and collecting in the age of Linnaeus.
{"title":"‘Obliging and curious’: Taylor White (1701–1772) and his remarkable collections","authors":"Victoria Dickenson","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2020.0073","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2020.0073","url":null,"abstract":"Taylor White (1701–1772) was by profession a barrister and judge, active in public life in London. His life as a jurist and as the long-serving treasurer of the Foundling Hospital is documented in the records of his public appointments and in his own official correspondence. This article reveals the other Taylor White, a Fellow of the Royal Society (1725), and an active participant in the practice of science in the mid eighteenth century. White accumulated a significant collection of specimens and drawings of plants, insects, birds and mammals. Over 900 of the zoological drawings are preserved in the Blacker Wood Natural History Collection at McGill University in Montreal. White's passions for natural history and collecting are revealed tangentially through the very few letters in his hand, the notes he made about his own collection, and infrequent references in the books and letters of his friends and fellow naturalists. This article seeks not only to document the sources of White's collection, but also to extract a narrative of acquisition, transport and exchange of specimens that reveals the informal networks of eighteenth-century naturalists, which included not only scientists but also sailors, merchants and curious lawyers. It also explores the work and motivations of the collector engaged in building a reference collection of animal portraits, painted in their true colours and ‘the size of life’. Close study of this collection positions Taylor White within the community of eighteenth-century naturalists and provides a deeply textured exploration of natural history and collecting in the age of Linnaeus.","PeriodicalId":82881,"journal":{"name":"Tanzania notes and records","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78422973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
As part of a themed print issue of Notes and Records dedicated to a research project surrounding the eighteenth-century Taylor White collection of animal paintings, this article provides context by describing the initial acquisition of the collection, and by situating it within the larger Blacker Wood Natural History Collection held at McGill University Library. Highlights of the Blacker Wood Collection are discussed, along with the collection's founder, Dr Casey Wood. The second part of the article provides a brief examination of the movement, in some academic administrative circles, towards the ‘de-professionalization’ of librarian work within academic libraries, and offers an outline of the specialized skills that librarians bring to the description, analysis and preservation of special collections. The Taylor White Project is then offered as an example of research collaborations between scholars and librarians; a description of the advantages of embedding a scholar within specific library collections to work with, rather than replace, a librarian is provided. The author suggests this strategy as one potential answer to the question of ‘de-professionalization’, to move away from divisive discussions towards a more symbiotic relationship between scholars and librarians.
{"title":"Fruitful collaborations: the Taylor White project in the Blacker Wood Natural History Collection","authors":"Lauren Williams","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2021.0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2021.0012","url":null,"abstract":"As part of a themed print issue of Notes and Records dedicated to a research project surrounding the eighteenth-century Taylor White collection of animal paintings, this article provides context by describing the initial acquisition of the collection, and by situating it within the larger Blacker Wood Natural History Collection held at McGill University Library. Highlights of the Blacker Wood Collection are discussed, along with the collection's founder, Dr Casey Wood. The second part of the article provides a brief examination of the movement, in some academic administrative circles, towards the ‘de-professionalization’ of librarian work within academic libraries, and offers an outline of the specialized skills that librarians bring to the description, analysis and preservation of special collections. The Taylor White Project is then offered as an example of research collaborations between scholars and librarians; a description of the advantages of embedding a scholar within specific library collections to work with, rather than replace, a librarian is provided. The author suggests this strategy as one potential answer to the question of ‘de-professionalization’, to move away from divisive discussions towards a more symbiotic relationship between scholars and librarians.","PeriodicalId":82881,"journal":{"name":"Tanzania notes and records","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86191680","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sara Gutierrez, Stephanie L. Canington, A. Eller, Elizabeth S Herrelko, S. Sholts
In April 2020, the Bronx Zoo made a headline-grabbing announcement: one of their tigers tested positive for COVID-19, a striking example of zoos as microcosms of human health and medicine. Indeed, many diseases and health problems experienced by zoo animals are found in, and frequently linked to, humans. Furthermore, the veterinary care they receive often incorporates knowledge, tools and treatments used in human health care. Here, we analyse these developments across the history of non-human primate health at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZP), one of the oldest zoos in the United States. From NZP's opening in 1891, we distinguish five historical time periods within its first century based on how animal health was described, treated and understood. Concentrating on descriptions of primates in annual Smithsonian reports, we see notable changes in NZP activities focused on housing and environment (1889–1900), disease diagnosis and prevention (1901–1916), human–animal connections (1917–1940), research and collaboration (1941–1973) and conservation (1974–1989). We relate these shifts to concurrent medical events and trends in the United States, and interpret NZP's history in a broader scientific and societal context leading to a ‘One Health’ approach to animal care and welfare today.
{"title":"The intertwined history of non-human primate health and human medicine at the Smithsonian's national Zoo and conservation Biology Institute","authors":"Sara Gutierrez, Stephanie L. Canington, A. Eller, Elizabeth S Herrelko, S. Sholts","doi":"10.1098/rsnr.2021.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.2021.0009","url":null,"abstract":"In April 2020, the Bronx Zoo made a headline-grabbing announcement: one of their tigers tested positive for COVID-19, a striking example of zoos as microcosms of human health and medicine. Indeed, many diseases and health problems experienced by zoo animals are found in, and frequently linked to, humans. Furthermore, the veterinary care they receive often incorporates knowledge, tools and treatments used in human health care. Here, we analyse these developments across the history of non-human primate health at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZP), one of the oldest zoos in the United States. From NZP's opening in 1891, we distinguish five historical time periods within its first century based on how animal health was described, treated and understood. Concentrating on descriptions of primates in annual Smithsonian reports, we see notable changes in NZP activities focused on housing and environment (1889–1900), disease diagnosis and prevention (1901–1916), human–animal connections (1917–1940), research and collaboration (1941–1973) and conservation (1974–1989). We relate these shifts to concurrent medical events and trends in the United States, and interpret NZP's history in a broader scientific and societal context leading to a ‘One Health’ approach to animal care and welfare today.","PeriodicalId":82881,"journal":{"name":"Tanzania notes and records","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80851394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}