The Curious Old Gentleman: Pages 77-91
Overview:
The Curious Old Gentleman is about the history of the classification and preservation of species. It starts in Europe with an ambitious student named Sir Hans Sloane, born in 1660, who had always been interested in plants as well as other parts of nature. He studied at the Apothecary's Hall in London (pg. 78), then traveled abroad to study in Paris between Jaridn Royal des Plantes and the Hopital de la Charite, and proceeded to finish his studies in Orange. Sloane was respected in the name of science which allowed him to obtain a variety of jobs which included being a physician to the 2nd Duke of Albermarle (pg.79), as well as the personal physician to Queen Anne (pg.80), a colonial doctor, the President of the College of Physicians (pg.81), and most importantly a collector of rare species (pg.80). Many of the jobs allowed him to distance himself from the way of life his family expected him to have and the reputation of his father since he was traveling abroad.
Sloan married a widow he met in Jamaica who inherited a substantial fortune from her family. With her help in funding, Sloane was able to begin expanding his collections with new, rarer, and wanted collections. Sloane became as popular a collector as he was a physician. Sailors would bring him back treasures as a form of payment for him to treat them or members of their families. As a result, Sloanes collection grew far outside of his findings within the Eastern Hemisphere. Instead of just collecting plant and animal specimens, Sloane acquired fruits, vegetables, metals, minerals, shoes, and clothes from different cultures.
With his collections growing far greater than he imagined, Sloane needed to figure out where his collections would move to after his death. His collection was moved from his House in Chelsea to the Montague House and now makes up part of what is now the British Museum. While his work was highly admired in the beginning, as time went on, he started to receive criticisms of his classification method and the way he preserved his species. He was also said to not be honoring the species in the right way by having them all in a small house so crammed together. When his collection was passed on to the museum, it was accompanied by many other artifacts that took away from the importance of his findings. Many of his discoveries got lost and were ruined over time because of the way they were preserved. Because of this, a man named Carl Linnaeus decided to re-organize Sloanes findings the way he had been organizing his own, by sorting them into kingdoms, classes, orders, and species.
His classification method changed the face of the scientific inquiry into nature (pg. 89), but his methods were also questioned by other scientists over time, who all had their own way of classifying organisms. The ideas of Buffon were also introduced because his way of thinking provided the crucial idea of the instability of species. This idea has allowed for discussion in the way species are classified because many species have features similar to others that may not fall under a strict form of classification.
Image 1:
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| Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753) |
Reflection:
Sir Hans Sloane and his research are the main focus of this passage. Another one of Sloanes occupations was as a doctor on slave plantations (British Museum). This allowed him to collect 800 new plant and animal specimens. Many of these specimens became a part of the British Museum, Natural History Museum, and British Library (British Museum).
Source:
Sir Hans Sloane | British Museum
Image 2:
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| Catalogue Cover |
Source:
Image 3:
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| Arnotto and Indian Savin tree |
[Arnotto and Indian Savin tree] (artstor.org)
Reflection:
The second image is the cover of the catalog that Sloane created with the help is Edmund Howard (pg. 82) after his voyage to Jamaica. This catalog contains the 800 new species of plants Sloane discover, two of which are in image 3, leaves from the Arnotto and Indian Savin tree. His wife was mentioned in the book as someone he met while in Jamaica. Elizabeth Langley Rose was an heiress to a sugar plantation on which Sloane was a doctor (British Museum). The money allowed him to purchase other whole collections and fund his further expeditions.
The Mastodon and the Taxonomy of Memory: Pages 92-97
Overview:
The Mastodon and the Taxonomy of Memory is about Charles Willson Peale, who is described as one of the three most talented painters born in the British Colonies(nga.gov). He painted portraits of many of the revolutionary war heroes but also focused on making his exhibit "whole" by adding elements such as animals, stones, and parts of the human body. Peale believed that there should be no duplicates of any species within the museum and that every specimen should be handled with care. Following the idea of care, Peale is known to have taken great caution in how the portraits of his family are viewed.
Peale's perception of death has played a great role in how these portraits of his family are created and then framed for the public to see. He used curtains to cover the painting he made of his wife so that every time they were moved it would show her permeance (pg.95). Peale's diverse backgrounds and talents made him so well-known and respected amongst the people. They all wanted to see his great works, specifically The Exhumation of the Mastodon, which also shows his perception of death and how to show his family members' permeance by bringing them back to life in his paintings.
Image 4:
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| Matthias and Thomas Bordley |
Matthias and Thomas Bordley was painted by Peale as a gift to their father because he supported Peale at an early age. Peale painted the boys inside an oval shape because it enhanced the idea that small things like this were kept as keepsakes (si.edu). Peale added the bust of Minerva, who is the goddess of wisdom as a way to wish the boys good luck since he believes that painting figures are a way of re-establishing their presence.
Source:
Matthias and Thomas Bordley | Smithsonian American Art Museum (si.edu)
Charles Willson Peale (nga.gov)
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