The Heyday of Natural History
An “evening with the microscope”
The Penny Post
G.H. Lewes: “you should not send sea anemones in a
cardboard box, because when I did so and marked it
‘WITH CARE: LIVE ANIMALS!’ the post-office clerk
stamped the box so vigorously that it and its contents
were entirely squashed.”
....
“This problem can be obviated by the use of tins.”
The “Great Exhibition”—aka—the Crystal Palace
1851
London Zoo—first insect exhibit in the world
Wardian Case
from Cassell’s Guide
Pteridomania
Mary Ann North
Mary Anning
Kew Gardens
Kew Gardens Temperate House
Palm House
J. J. Audubon
(1785-1751)
Audubon wrote to his friend, Richard Harlan:
“I reopened my letter to say I have just now killed a
large new falcon, yes positively a new species of hawk,
almost black about 25 inches long and 4 ft broad tail,
square yellow eye, yellowish white, legs and feet bare
short and strong—I will skin it!!”
—The Heyday of Natural History(59).
Gilbert White: Natural History of Selborne, 1789
William Paley: Natural Theology; or, Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of
the Deity,
1802
Natural Theology:
The first purpose of the study of Nature is to teach us that God
exists.
The second is to illustrate God’s attributes—compares it to a
watch: Just as we see the watch and how it works and admire
the skill of the watchmaker, when we see something from the
natural world, we are inevitably led to think about the
perfection of the designer—God.
Nothing happens by chance—everything happens by
design.
J. G. Wood: Common Objects of the Country (and a long list of other Natural History titles)
Charles Waterton: Wanderings in South America (1857)
from Wanderings in South America
Hugh Miller: Old Red Sandstone, The Testimony of the Rocks (1857)
Frank Buckland
Richard Owen
Crystal Palace Garden Dinosaurs
Sydenham
South Kensington Museum
From “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.
From Tennyson’s In Memoriam, (1849)
LV
Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life.
....
LVI
‘So careful of the type? but no.
From scarped cliff and quarried stone
She cries, “A thousand types are gone:
I care for nothing, all shall go.’
....
Man, her last work, who seem'd so fair,
Such splendid purpose in his eyes,
Who roll'd the psalm to wintry skies,
Who built him fanes of fruitless prayer,
Who trusted God was love indeed
And love Creation's final law
Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shriek'd against his creed
....
O life as futile, then, as frail!
O for thy voice to soothe and bless!
What hope of answer, or redress?
Behind the veil, behind the veil.
Forbidden Knowledge indeed. . . .
Barber, Lynn. The Heyday of Natural History,
1820-1870. New York: Doubleday, 1980. print.