Hi,
Our exhibition by guest artist, Rosamond Purcell, has been extended by
popular demand until June 10th. Here are short and long versions of
the announcement for listing purposes and information. I am
attaching an image from the exhibition as well. We would love for
your paper to list this event in your calendar or cover it.
Any questions, please give me a call.
Sara
Sara Schechner, Ph.D.
David P. Wheatland Curator
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Department of the History of Science
Harvard University, Science Center 251c
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-496-9542
Fax: 617-496-5932
=========================================================
Harvard University
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
"Bringing Nature Inside" examines natural history,
classification, early museums, and the authority of vision and experience
in the 17th century. 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
reconstructed 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 and the exhibition
curator, 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.
(through June 10, 2005)
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Special Exhibition
Gallery, Science Center, Room 251, 1 Oxford St, Cambridge, MA 02138.
(617-495-2779) Open: Monday - Friday, 11 am - 4 pm.
Closed on University holidays. Admission Free.
=========================================================
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 J. Schechner, Ph.D
The David P. Wheatland Curator of the
Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments
Dates:
through June 10, 2005
Hours:
Monday - Friday, 11-4
closed on University holidays
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 Naturethrough empiricism
and experimentand 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.
[The recreation of Olaus Worms collection was originally
part of the exhibition Rosamond Purcell: Two Rooms, organized by
the Santa Monica Museum of Art and curator Lisa
Melandri.]
