If you are already familiar with Wardian cases, you’ll be delighted with this opportunity to learn the fascinating history of their discovery and development. And if you’re unfamiliar with them, this book will introduce you to one of the most on-the-surface mundane but in reality most world-changing technological innovations of the nineteenth century.
As anyone who – particularly as a child – has ever stood in rapt amazement before a well-crafted dioramic taxidermy display in a natural history museum can attest, their power to convey information as well as inspire interest is undeniable. However what is not as well known is the role museum taxidermists have played in the history of wildlife conservation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
When I was a boy, eight planets – including the one upon which we all live – were known to exist, and only one was known to harbor life. Since that time, a few more, thousands to be a bit more accurate, have been discovered; and in their myriad, marvelous diversity, there may in fact be at least a few that have, do, or one day will also be home to other life forms.
What did our ancestors who were unfamiliar with the origins of the fossilized remains of prehistoric creatures make of them? Did they recognize such things as belemnites, brachiopods, bits of vertebral columns, and other curious, stone objects extracted from the ground as the remains of creatures from long ago? If so, were such creatures factual or fantastic? And in any case, what useful qualities – or even extraordinary, perhaps even magical, powers – did they assume these mysterious objects might posses?