Stuffing Birds, Pressing Plants, Shaping Knowledge

The Curatorial Department of the American Philosophical Society presents a catalogue of the exhibition held in Philosophical Hall from June 2003 through December 2004. The exhibit focuses on the blending of art and science in the study of natural history in North America. It explores the cultural assumptions that governed the practice of natural history on the North American continent in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Focusing on the study of living things -- plants, animals, and indigenous peoples -- it looks at how and why Euro-Americans of the Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment periods went about explaining the world the way they did. Exhibit items include historical specimens, manuscript materials, first-edition books, and art work.