Science museums in transition : cultures of display in nineteenth-century Britain and America / edited by Carin Berkowitz and Bernard Lightman.

Includes bibliographies and index.

Preface -- Introduction / Carin Berkowitz and Bernard Lightman -- part I. Sites of miscellaneity -- 1. Science in Regent's Park : the Colosseum / Bernard Lightman -- 2. The permissive precincts of Barnum's and Goodrich's museums of miscellaneity : lessons in knowing nature for new learners / Katherine Pandora -- part II. Display and expertise -- 3. This post mortem palace : accommodating the Hunterian Museum / Samuel J.M.M. Alberti -- 4. Sight and sites : the national repository and the politics of seeing in early nineteenth-century England / Iwan Rhys Morus -- part III. The scientist-showman -- 5. A lecture on Locust Street : Morton, Tyndall, Pepper, and the construction of scientific reputation / Jeremy Brooker -- 6. Albert Koch's Hydrarchos craze : credibility, identity, and authenticity in nineteenth-century natural history / Lukas Rieppel -- part IV. The National Museum -- 7. "A nursery of living thoughts" : G. Brown Goode's vision for a national museum in the late nineteenth-century United States / Pamela M. Henson -- 8. Botany behind glass : the vegetable kingdom on display at Kew's Museum of Economic Botany / Caroline Cornish -- part V. The research museum -- 9. The endless frontier : Joseph Leidy and the collaborative work of natural history in mid-nineteenth-century America / Carin Berkowitz -- 10. Academic collections : teaching and exhibition on nineteenth-century American campuses / Sally Gregory Kohlstedt -- Afterword : steps to the encyclopedic museum / John Tresch.

The nineteenth century witnessed a dramatic shift in the display and dissemination of natural knowledge across Britain and America, from private collections of miscellaneous artifacts and objects to public exhibitions and state-sponsored museums. The science museum as we know it--an institution of expert knowledge built to inform a lay public--was still very much in formation during this dynamic period. Science Museums in Transition provides a nuanced, comparative study of the diverse places and spaces in which science was displayed at a time when science and spectacle were still deeply intertwined; when leading naturalists, curators, and popular showmen were debating both how to display their knowledge and how and whether they should profit from scientific work; and when ideals of nationalism, class politics, and democracy were permeating the museum's walls. Contributors examine a constellation of people, spaces, display practices, experiences, and politics that worked not only to define the museum, but to shape public science and scientific knowledge. Taken together, the chapters in this volume span the Atlantic, exploring private and public museums, short and long-term exhibitions, and museums built for entertainment, education, and research, and in turn raise a host of important questions, about expertise, and about who speaks for nature and for history.

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