Where can you go to see an extinct auk next to a camera obscura...the
conjoined skulls of a two-headed sheep...an anamorphic mirror...a chair
made of a whale vertebrae...a plant giving birth to a vegetable
lamb....plus wondrous optical instruments, picture stones, insects, narwhal
tusks, poisons, fossils, harpoons, and rhino horns?
******Exhibition Announcement*****
Bringing Nature Inside
17th Century Natural History, Classification, and Vision
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Department of the History of Science, Harvard University
Special Exhibition Gallery
Science Center, Room 251
1 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
617-495-2779
Guest Artist:
Rosamond W. Purcell
Curator:
Sara Schechner, Ph.D
The David P. Wheatland Curator of the
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Dates:
4 October 2004 - 14 January 2005
Hours:
Monday - Friday, 10-4
2nd and 3rd Sundays of November and December, 1-5
Working from the celebrated frontispiece and catalogue of Worm's Museum, or
the History of Very Rare Things, Natural and Artificial, Domestic and
Exotic, Which Are Stored in the Author's House in Copenhagen (1655),
Rosamond Purcell, has recreated the private museum of a Danish professor of
medicine, Ole Worm (1588-1654), by using natural history specimens and
ethnographic objects borrowed from collections at Harvard and elsewhere in
the United States. In recreating Worm's world, Purcell, an installation
artist, and Sara Schechner, a historian of science, explore not only the
place of Worm's cabinet among other early museums and the ways he organized
his collection, but also the issues that arose in representing nature
through the sense of sight.
As we move from the engraving to the reconstructed room, we are confronted
immediately with these questions: How many layers are between us and the
room? Can we peel this box back--as in an anatomy dissection--to see the
bones and organs of the collection and their relationships to each
other? Are we really seeing the thing in itself or just an artistic
representation of it? Are the specimens drawn as archetypes or
individuals? How do the monstrous and anomalous fit in?
These questions were relevant to Worm and his contemporaries, too.
One distinguishing characteristic of early modern science was the emphasis
on learning through the observation of Nature{WP4,33}through empiricism and
experiment{WP4,33}and not just through the study of texts. Worm firmly
believed
that vision was the most trustworthy sense for natural history
investigations. He assembled his museum collection as a resource for
teaching.
The 17th century was also an age of new optical instruments that enhanced
or skewed vision. Lenses, mirrors, telescopes, microscopes, and prisms were
heralded as aids to vision and tools to analyze and dissect the world, but
others accused them of distorting Nature and creating optical
tricks. These instruments brought new worlds into view, gathered
information, fragmented it, reassembled it, and dispersed it. Drawing
instruments and engravings improved the transcription and sharing of visual
information.
This exhibition looks at the work of Worm and other naturalists in this age
of vision and optical instruments. It asks what was the authority of
vision, and what impact did this have on the classification of things and
understanding of Nature.
In exploring these themes, the exhibition juxtaposes many kinds of material
culture used by early modern scientists. These include scientific
instruments, natural history specimens, ethnographic objects, rare books,
and prints.
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