Preserved in Print: Victorian Books with Mounted Natural History Specimens

This essay investigates the use of mounted natural history specimens as “natural illustrations” in Victorian books. These published collections of specimens, framed by literary and biblical extracts, differed from both scientific exsiccatae (published collections of dried specimens) and from albums...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Victorian studies 2018-01, Vol.60 (2), p.185-200
Main Author: Zytaruk, Maria
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
19th century
Algae
Analysis
Appreciation
ARRESTED MOTION
Bible
Biological specimens
Book publishing
Collections and collecting
English literature, 1837-1901 (Victorian age)
Flowers & plants
Grasses
Illustration
Illustrations
Library collections
Literary canon
Logic
Mosses
Natural history
Oceans
Plants
Political discourse
Publishing industry
Rare book libraries
Rare books
Seaweeds
Specimens
Victorian period
Victorian period literature, 1832-1901
Wild flowers
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Description
Summary:This essay investigates the use of mounted natural history specimens as “natural illustrations” in Victorian books. These published collections of specimens, framed by literary and biblical extracts, differed from both scientific exsiccatae (published collections of dried specimens) and from albums compiled by private individuals in the nineteenth century. Advancing the tenets of natural theology, these volumes became implicated in charitable, consumerist, and political discourses. Though they resemble scientific specimens and the sea-side souvenirs of the Victorian period, natural illustrations, in their almost startling materiality, resist the logic of both the specimen and the souvenir.
ISSN:0042-5222
1527-2052
DOI:10.2979/victorianstudies.60.2.04