Henry A. Ward: the merchant naturalist and American museum development

Kohlstedt, Sally Gregory

doi:10.3366/jsbnh.1980.9.part_4.647

Cited by 11 publications

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“…For example, the well-known collector Alfred Russel Wallace relied on established specimen dealers in London to sell the objects he collected in South America and the Pacific (Camerini, 1996). In America, the dealer and University of Rochester professor Henry Augustus Ward played a similar role, linking collectors in the field with established naturalists who worked in museums (Kohlstedt, 1980;Ward, 1948). In addition to connecting supply with demand, these go-betweens acted as agents of trust, vouchsafing the value of objects whose quality varied considerably but often required a great deal of time and specialized expertise to assess.…”

Section: The Market For Vertebrate Fossilsmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…However, previous accounts have primarily focused on a bitter and well-known feud known as the 'bone wars' between two of America's leading paleontologists at the time, Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope. Consequently, although the transactional relationships that dominated 19th-century natural history have not escaped notice (Barrow, 2000;Breithaupt, 1990;Camerini, 1996;Kjaergaard, 2012;Kohlstedt, 1980), we still lack a detailed account of exactly how natural history specimens were priced.…”

Section: The Market For Vertebrate Fossilsmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Prospecting for dinosaurs on the mining frontier: The value of information in America’s Gilded Age

Rieppel

2015

Soc Stud Sci

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How much is a dinosaur worth? This essay offers an account of the way vertebrate fossils were priced in late 19th-century America to explore the process by which monetary values are established in science. Examining a long and drawn-out negotiation over the sale of an unusually rich dinosaur quarry in Wyoming, I argue that, on their own, abstract market principles did not suffice to mediate between supply and demand. Rather, people haggling over the price of dinosaur bones looked to social norms from the mineral industry for cues on how to value these rare and unusual objects, adopting a set of negotiation tactics that exploited asymmetries in the distribution of scarce information to secure the better end of the deal. On the mining frontier in America's Gilded Age, dinosaurs were thus valued in much the same way as any other scarce natural resource one could dig out of the ground, including gold, silver, and coal.

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Section: The Market For Vertebrate Fossilsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: The Market For Vertebrate Fossilsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Prospecting for dinosaurs on the mining frontier: The value of information in America’s Gilded Age

Rieppel

2015

Soc Stud Sci

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“…Henry Augustus Ward (1834Ward ( -1906 has been characterised as a 'Museum builder to the Nation' during the postbellum period (Ward 1948;Kohlstedt 1980). His interest in natural history and geology in particular began with boyhood explorations of the Genesee River banks in western New York and quickly resulted in the acquisition of a fine mineral 'cabinet' of specimens.…”

Section: The Blaschka and Ward Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Catalogues included those for casts of vertebrate fossil bones, human skeletons, Auzoux human and veterinary papier mâché anatomical models, busts of famous men of science, the Leuckart charts of invertebrate forms, and the Blaschka marine invertebrate models (Ward 1878(Ward , 1893. Although other vendors sold specimens of a particular type such as birds eggs or mollusc shells, WNHE was unique for both the diversity and quality of specimens it provided (Kohlstedt 1980).…”

Section: The Blaschka and Ward Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning through glass: The Blaschka marine models in North American post secondary education

Dyer

2008

Historical Biology

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The use of the Blaschka marine models in North American educational institutions from 1870-1890 is detailed. Historical records of purchase from the Henry Augustus Ward papers and Leopold Blaschka's business notebooks and correspondence were examined to show how the models were received by curators and educators in North America, the significance of the models in marine biology education for secondary school teachers, and the role that Ward's Natural History Establishment played in the distribution of the models. A historical perspective of the business relationship between Henry Ward and Leopold Blaschka is presented. The taxa of the models ordered in North America are documented, as is the use of models demonstrating ontogeny of the organism. Educational practices of the period are explicated and the uses of the models to support contemporary biological concepts of the organism are elucidated through examination of Model 191a, a male colony of the hydroid, Tubularia.

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“…(Henry) Ward, a natural history collector and dealer from Rochester, New York State, visited Auckland in 1881 and met Cheeseman. Ward was well known as an advisor to museums (Kohlstedt 1980(Kohlstedt , 1985, and his correspondence with Cheeseman shows that he undertook to help recruit from America a taxidermist for Auckland Museum. He recommended the Belgian, Charles De Kempeneer (Figs 1 and 2), who had been working at Ward's establishment for many years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Records of the Auckland Museum

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The Auckland War Memorial Museum houses nearly 2000 Egyptian artefacts dating from the Palaeolithic to the modern era. Artefacts were obtained from professional institutions and societies including Cairo Museum, the Egypt Exploration Society, and the British Museum in the early 20th century. In addition, a number of objects were obtained from 'soldier collectors' during World Wars I and II. The collection is made up of objects from around Egypt, but mainly consists of collections from Amarna, Saqqara, Kharga, Abydos, and Matmar, amongst others. Here the history of the collection is examined.

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Henry A. Ward: the merchant naturalist and American museum development

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Prospecting for dinosaurs on the mining frontier: The value of information in America’s Gilded Age

Prospecting for dinosaurs on the mining frontier: The value of information in America’s Gilded Age

Learning through glass: The Blaschka marine models in North American post secondary education

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