Reading the shape of nature : comparative zoology at the Agassiz Museum / / Mary P. Winsor

• Record Nr.: UNINA9910824155103321
• Autore: Winsor Mary P
• Pubbl/distr/stampa: Chicago, : University of Chicago Press, 1991
• ISBN: 1-283-07850-3; 9786613078506; 0-226-90208-0
• Edizione: [1st ed.]
• Descrizione fisica: 1 online resource (345 p.)
• Collana: Science and its conceptual foundations
• Classificazione: WB 1455
• Disciplina: 574/.012
• Soggetti: Animals - History; Natural history - Classification - History; Naturalists - United States
• Lingua di pubblicazione: Inglese
• Formato: Materiale a stampa
• Livello bibliografico: Monografia
• Note generali: Description based upon print version of record.
• Nota di bibliografia: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• Nota di contenuto: Front matter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. "In the Prime of His Admirable Manhood" -- 2. "I Have Been Disappointed in My Collaborators" -- 3. "Our Work Must Be Done with Much More Precision" -- 4. "An Object Worthy of a Life's Devotion" -- 5. "The Many Plans Started by My Father" -- 6. "Shall We Say 'Ignorabimus: or Chase a Phantom?" -- 7. "The Slender Thread Is Practically Severed" -- 8. "Results Unattainable by Museum Study Alone" -- 9. "Collections Never of Use to Anyone" -- 10. "Dependent on the Personal Feelings of the Authors" -- 11. "I Made Up My Mind That Very Day to Be Director" -- Concluding Remarks -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
• Sommario/riassunto: Reading the Shape of Nature vividly recounts the turbulent early history of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard and the contrasting careers of its founder Louis Agassiz and his son Alexander. Through the story of this institution and the individuals who formed it, Mary P. Winsor explores the conflicting forces that shaped systematics in the second half of the nineteenth century. Debates over the philosophical foundations of classification, details of taxonomic research, the young institution's financial struggles, and the personalities of the men most ; deeply involved are all brought to life. In 1859, Louis Agassiz established the Museum of Comparative Zoology to house research on the ideal types that he believed were embodied in all living forms. Agassiz's vision arose from his insistence that the order inherent in the diversity of life reflected divine creation, not organic evolution. But the mortar of the new museum had scarcely dried when Darwin's Origin was published. By Louis Agassiz's death in 1873, even his former students, including his son Alexander, had defected to the evolutionist camp. Alexander, a self-made millionaire, succeeded his father as director and introduced a significantly different agenda for the museum. To trace Louis and Alexander's arguments and the style of science they established at the museum, Winsor uses many fascinating examples that even zoologists may find unfamiliar. The locus of all this activity, the museum building itself, tells its own story through a wonderful series of archival photographs.