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| "Rooms of Wonder: From Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599-1899" The Grolier Club December 5, 2012 to February 2, 2013 |
In my more fanciful moods, I can almost imagine myself as a 17th century collector of exquisite biological specimens, cataloguing a scholarly and beautiful Wunderkammer that could one day form the basis of a natural history museum. Then I remember I most likely would have been an impoverished peasant unable to afford even a stuffed crocodile to suspend from the ceiling.
The show "Rooms of Wonder, from Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599-1899" ran from December 5, 2012 to February 2, 2013. Let's look at a few choice objects from the display in honor of National Library Week, as if we needed an excuse.
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Albert Seba, Crocodile (hand colored)
Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata description, Vols. I and II (Amsterdam 1734 and 1758)
Collection of the George Peabody Library of the Sheridan Library Special Collections,
Johns Hopkins University.
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The crododile is displayed on the exhibition poster and on the catalogue. The catalogue is available for $25.
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| Rooms of Wonder Catalogue The Grolier Club |
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| "Rooms of Wonder: From Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599-1899," Press Release, Page 1 |
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| "Rooms of Wonder: From Wunderkammer to Museum, 1599-1899," Introductory Wall Text |
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Albert Seba
Snakes (hand colored) Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata description,
Vols. I and II (Amsterdam 1734 and 1758)
Collection of the George Peabody Library of the Sheridan Library Special Collections,
Johns Hopkins University.
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Albert Seba
Crocodile (hand colored) Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata description, Vols. I and II (Amsterdam 1734 and 1758)
Collection of the George Peabody Library of the Sheridan Library Special Collections,
Johns Hopkins University.
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| Albert Seba Blowfish, Locupletissimi rerum naturalium thesauri accurata descriptio [A collection of natural history objects, accurately and richly described] Volume 1 (Amsterdam, 1734) |
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| Albert Seba Engraved Portrait, (Amsterdam, 1731) |
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| Martin Frobenius Ledermüller, Subscription Prospectus with Hand-Colored Engraved Plate of Two Flying Squirrels (Nuremberg, 1762) |
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| Pedro Francisco Dávila, Catalogue Systématique et raisonné des Curiosités (Paris, 1767) |
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| George Bennet, 4th Earl of Tankerville, A Catalogue of the Shells Contained in the Collection of the Late Earl of Tankerville (London, 1825) |
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| Johann Daniel Schumacher, Palaty Sanktpeterburgskoi imperatorskoi Akademii nauyk Biblioteki i Kunstkamery kotorykh predstavleny plany [Chambers of the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Sciences Library and Gallery] (St. Petersburg, 1741) Lent by the Houghton Library, Harvard University |
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| Johann Samuel Schröter, Musei Gottwaldiani (Nuremberg, 1782) |
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| Johann Samuel Schröter, Musei Gottwaldiani (Nuremberg, 1782), Bowl Made from a Cut and Incised Nautilus Shell |
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| Jacob de Wilde Signa antiqua e musaeo Jacobi de Wilde, Copy 1 (Amsterdam, 1700) |
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| Jan van Rymsdyk Museum Britannicum (London, 1791) |
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| Ferrante Imperato Frontispiece to Dell'Historia Naturale (Naples, 1599) |
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| Basilius Besler Continuatio rariorum et aspectu dignorum varii generis, Engraved title page (Nuremberg, 1622) Collection of Florence Fearrington. |
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| Nehemiah Grew Musaeum Regalis Societatis (London, 1681) |
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| Mauro Soldo Exercise Machine, 1766 |
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| Tower of London: A New History and Description of the Tower of London (London, 1810) |
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| George Shaw Museum Leverianum (London, 1792) The museum of Sir Ashton Lever (1729-1788) |
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| George Shaw Museum Leverianum (London, 1792) The museum of Sir Ashton Lever (1729-1788) |
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| William Bullock Print of Bullock's London Museum |
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| Thomas Joseph Pettigrew History of Egyptian Mummies (London, 1834) after George Cruikshank |
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| Paulinus a Sancto Bartholomaeo Mumiographia Musei Obiciani (Padua, 1799) |
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| John Collins Warren A Description of an Egyptian Mummy (Boston, 1824) |
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| Frederik Ruysch Opera Omnia, Volumes II and III (Amsterdam, 1739) |
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| Michael Bernhard Valentini Museum Museorum (1714) |
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| Frederik Ruysch Observationum anatomico-chirurgicarum (Amsterdam. 1691) |
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| Frederik Ruysch Thesaurus Anatomicus Primus |
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| Frederik Ruysch Thesaurus Anatomicus Primus |
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| John Barnard Swett Jackson, M.D. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Anatomical Museum (Boston, 1847) |
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| Madame Tussaud The Napoleon Museum (London, c. 1843) |
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| New York Tribune, July 14, 1865, "Great Conflagration. Barnum's Museum in Ashes." P. T. Barnum's Fiji Cannibals The Rhinoceros, Advertising Card for P. T. Barnum's Travelling [sic] World's Fair (New York, 1874) |
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| The Rhinoceros, Advertising Card for P. T. Barnum's Travelling [sic] World's Fair (New York, 1874) |
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| Emil Seitz after Thomas Benecke Sleighing in New York (New York, 1855) Depicting P. T. Barnum and Jenny Lind Lent by the American Antiquarian Society |
May 4, 2013 Update: An album of thirteen photos from the show at the Grolier Club taken by Gregor J. Rothfuss is posted here.
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