Enchanted invertebrates: Blaschka models and other simulacra in National Museums Scotland

Swinney, Geoffrey N

Enchanted invertebrates: Blaschka models and other simulacra in National Museums Scotland

Resource type

Journal article

Creator (person)

Swinney, Geoffrey N

Date published

January 1, 2008

Abstract

This paper examines the role of natural history models in museum displays in the second half of the nineteenth century and in the early decades of the twentieth century. In particular it considers the 257 Blaschka models of invertebrate animals and some of the other natural history models acquired by the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art (subsequently the Royal Scottish Museum, now part of National Museums Scotland). Attention is given to the intellectual context in which the models were acquired and subsequently displayed, and to their 'career trajectory' from being instructional technologies to becoming the subjects of discourses on the art of nature and the nature of art.