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Natural history museums have evolved from being little more than musty repositories of stuffed animals and pinned bugs, to being crucial generators of new scientific knowledge. They have also become vibrant educational centers, full of engaging exhibits that share those discoveries with students and an enthusiastic general public. Grande offers a portrait of curators and their research, conveying the intellectual excitement and the educational and social value of curation. He uses the personal story of his own career-- most of it spent at Chicago's Field Museum-- to explore the value of research and collections, the importance of public engagement, changing ecological and ethical considerations, and the impact of rapidly improving technology.
Singapore's collection of Southeast Asian animals–one of the world's largest–dates back to the old Raffles Museum, officially established in 1878.With the opening of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in 2015, the original Raffles Museum has "reincarnated" and the loop on its remarkable 127-year history has closed. Beneath the sleek exterior of today's modern museum building lies a saga of titanic struggles and changes. That the collections survived at all–through the multiple challenges of the nineteenth century, the disruption of World War Two, and its potential disintegration in the face of Singapore's modernization–is nothing short of miraculous. This book is not only an institutional history of the museum but also tells the story of frustrations, commitment and courage of the numerous individuals who battled officialdom, innovated endlessly and overcame the odds to protect Singapore's natural history heritage. The book features 108 historical photographs and natural history illustrations printed in full colour throughout.
We hear routinely about dinosaurs unearthed in the Gobi Desert, about new marsupials found in the forests of Madagascar, about darling deep sea squid in the polar regions. These discoveries tend to be accompanied by wondrous feats of adventuring scientists. But just as one can experience the world in a backyard, or farther reaches of the world with a good book and a comfy armchair, scientists themselves know that the natural history museums of the world contain some of the best terrain for discovering new species. In recent years scientists have found in museum drawers and cabinets a new rove beetle collected by Darwin, a tiny lungless salamander thinner than a matchstick, a monkey from the Brazilian rainforest, and a 40 million year old beardog. The Lost Species shares the thrill of spelunking in museum basements, digging in museum trays, and breathing new life in taxidermied beings--a in a days' adventure for the scientists in this book. These discoveries help tell the story of life, and the priceless collections of natural history museums.
A member of the live arachnid collection in Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History takes the reader on a tour of the museum, introducing such treasures as Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex, as well as the secret specimens of animal fossils and human artifacts hidden away in drawers, cabinets, and bins.
Located in Chicago, Illinois, the Field Museum holds one of the world’s most extensive natural history collections. The museum helps visitors understand how the natural world developed and changed over time. People can study its collection of more than 26 million items to learn more about the history of planet Earth. Discover more about this incredible museum and its collections in The Field Museum of Natural History, a Museums of the World book.
All persons involved with natural history museums--from administrators to exhibit designers--will find this work useful. The chapters in the volume provide a general overview as well as address specific topics concerning the roles and functions of natural history museums. Topics in this survey include conservation, care, use, management, and preservation of collections; the role of exhibits and other educational materials, as well as ideas and guidelines for some exciting new approaches for this facet of natural history museums; and, in addition, useful information about possible sources of funding for natural history museums.
In his introduction, author Jay Pridmore relates how the Museum was founded by Chicago businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and how it was installed in the imposing Palace of Fine Arts, an architectural monument from the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. Then, he leads an entertaining and informative tour of the Museum, featuring the incredibly diverse exhibits in five "zones" - Energy, Transportation, Space and Defense, The Human Body and Communications. Discussed and illustrated are such dramatic "icons" of the Museum's early years as the Coal Mine, a complete working mine operation installed in the basement, and the U-505, a German submarine captured during World War II. Among the many other highlights are a full-size Boeing 727 airliner; the Apollo 8 spacecraft, which circled the Moon in 1968; an early display on the prenatal development of a human baby; and the nation's first permanent exhibit on AIDS.
Life on Display traces the history of biological exhibits in American museums to demonstrate how science museums have shaped and been shaped by understandings of science and public education in twentieth-century society. Karen Rader and Victoria Cain document how public natural history and science museums’ ongoing efforts to create popular educational displays led these institutions to develop new identities, ones that changed their positions in both twentieth-century science and American culture. They describe how, pre-1945, biological exhibitions changed dramatically--from rows upon rows of specimen collections to large-scale dioramas with push-button displays--as museums attempted to ne...