Natural History and the Ecology of Display

Thoreau called natural history museums “the catacombs of nature.”  But from the Renaissance to the present, displays of dead animals –whether actual, in cabinets of curiosity and museums, or virtual, in illustrated books – have had several functions.  They recorded little-known or exotic species, they demonstrated the diversity and fecundity of Nature, they satisfied the curious, and they gave urban audiences a glimpse of a natural world to which they seldom had access.  The style and technology of animal display changed greatly over time in response to social, political, and aesthetic considerations, as well as scientific ones.  New technologies and audiences have engendered new exhibits, but many older museums have retained the old with the new.  The examples of the Field Museum in Chicago, the Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History show how a centuries-old model had adapted to modern science and new ideas about animal-human relationships.