Digrius, Dawn Mooney (Author)
This project explores the history of paleobotany during the nineteenth century and focuses on the internal structure debate; a scientific debate that defined this nascent science from the 1830s to the 1890s. The debate arose when cambial activity was observed in certain fossil plants that challenged existing modes of classification. Two individuals defined the poles of the debate, Adolphe Theodore Brongniart (1801-1876) of the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris and William Crawford Williamson (1816-1895) of Owens College, Manchester. Brongniart attained international acclaim for his paleobotanical researches through his connection to the museum and his mentor, Georges Cuvier. He had also established in 1822 a systematic classification scheme for fossil plants and was considered from that moment forward the highest authority on the subject of fossil plants. Williamson, who began his paleobotanical career illustrating Lindley and Hutton's Fossil Flora, eventually rose to scientific prominence in paleobotany as a result of the debate. Williamson disagreed with Brongniart's classification based on his own microscopic observations of carboniferous fossil plant specimens. Brongniart and Williamson held vastly different views as to where certain vascular cryptogamic fossils lie taxonomically, based on the presence or absence of a cambium. This project teases out the spheres of interaction for both Brongniart and Williamson, in order to understand how both they and other paleobotanists viewed the internal structure debate and how theoretical biases and social networks influenced positions on either side. In addition, this project considers not only scientific achievements, but also how social ties, nationalism and evolutionary theory played a role in the practice of paleobotany during its development. By focusing on an internal debate that spanned most of the period of inquiry and crossed international borders, this examination reveals the scientific achievements in paleobotany, but also speaks to the practice of the science through its social dimensions. The project provides a rich source of consolidated information for subsequent scholars of paleobotany and other historians of science. More significantly, it presents not only what paleobotanists sought to explain, but reveals the cultures in which these practitioners of paleobotany were intimately entrenched.
...MoreDescription Cited in Diss. Abstr. Int. A 68/06 (2007). Pub. no. AAT 3268691.
Chapter
Torrens, Hugh S.;
(2005)
The Moravian Minister Rev. Henry Steinhauer (1782--1818): His Work on Fossil Plants, Their First “Scientific” Description and the Planned Mineral Botany
(/isis/citation/CBB000774530/)
Chapter
Howell, Alan C.;
(2005)
James Lomax (1857--1934): Palaeobotanical Catalyst or Hindrance?
(/isis/citation/CBB000774538/)
Chapter
Chaloner, William G.;
Pearson, Hugh L.;
(2005)
John Lindley: The Reluctant Palaeobotanist
(/isis/citation/CBB000774531/)
Book
Bowden, A. J.;
Burek, C. V.;
Wilding, R.;
(2005)
History of Palaeobotany: Selected Essays
(/isis/citation/CBB000740898/)
Chapter
Cleal, Christopher J.;
Lazarus, Maureen;
Townsend, Annette;
(2005)
Illustrations and Illustrators during the “Golden Age” of Palaeobotany: 1800--1840
(/isis/citation/CBB000774532/)
Chapter
Wilding, Richard;
(2005)
D. H. Scott and A. C. Seward: Modem Pioneers in the Structure and Architecture of Fossil Plants
(/isis/citation/CBB000774539/)
Chapter
Wilding, Richard;
(2005)
From the Rise of the Enlightenment to the Beginnings of Romanticism: Robert Plot, Edward Lhwyd and Richard Brookes, MD
(/isis/citation/CBB000774529/)
Chapter
Chaloner, W. G.;
(2005)
The Palaeobotanical Work of Marie Stopes
(/isis/citation/CBB000774537/)
Article
Cleal, Christopher J.;
(2009)
The Forests before the Flood: The Palaeobotanical Contributions of Edmund Tyrell Artis (1789--1847)
(/isis/citation/CBB000932613/)
Book
Fieschi, Caroline;
(2008)
Photographier les plantes au XIXe siècle: la photographie dans les livres de botanique
(/isis/citation/CBB000950234/)
Article
Considine, John;
(2014)
John Jamieson, Franz Passow, and the Double Invention of Lexicography on Historical Principles
(/isis/citation/CBB001201303/)
Article
Archibald, J. David;
(2009)
Edward Hitchcock's Pre-Darwinian (1840) “Tree of Life”
(/isis/citation/CBB000932226/)
Article
John Leslie Dowe;
Sara Maroske;
(2022)
Corrigendum to: John Dallachy (1804–71): from gardener to botanical collector
(/isis/citation/CBB184166465/)
Article
Diogo, Maria Paula;
Carneiro, Ana;
Simões, Ana;
(2001)
The Portuguese naturalist Correia da Serra (1751-1823) and his impact on early nineteenth-century botany
(/isis/citation/CBB000100498/)
Book
Creese, Mary R. S.;
(2015)
Ladies in the Laboratory IV: Imperial Russia's Women in Science, 1800--1900: A Survey of Their Contributions to Research
(/isis/citation/CBB001551939/)
Article
Maroske, Sara;
(2006)
Ferdinand Mueller and the Shape of Nature: Nineteenth-Century Systems of Plant Classification
(/isis/citation/CBB001020753/)
Article
Lorelai Kury;
Sara Albuquerque;
(2021)
Global Affinities: The Natural Method and Anomalous Plants in the Nineteenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB283368943/)
Book
John Leslie Dowe;
(2019)
Wendland's Palms: Hermann Wendland (1825-1903) of Herrenhausen Gardens, Hannover
(/isis/citation/CBB837250192/)
Chapter
Raynal-Roques, Aline;
Roguenant, Albert;
(2008)
Nommer et classer les plantes: un parcours de trois siècles
(/isis/citation/CBB001221150/)
Article
Robin, Nicolas;
Hellwig, Frank;
(2005)
Plant Systematics in Jena during the Early 19th Century: Fr. S. Voigt's Treatment of the “méthode naturelle”
(/isis/citation/CBB000933660/)
Be the first to comment!