Thesis ID: CBB001567402

Dinosaurs: Assembling an Icon of Science (2012)

unapi

Rieppel, Lukas Benjamin (Author)


Biagioli, Mario
Ritvo, Harriet
Harvard University
Browne, E. Janet
Biagioli, Mario
Ritvo, Harriet
Beckert, Sven
Beckert, Sven


Publication Date: 2012
Edition Details: Advisor: Browne, Janet; Committee Members: Biagioli, Mario, Ritvo, Harriet, Beckert, Sven.
Physical Details: 400 pp.
Language: English

This dissertation examines how the modern dinosaur--fully mounted, freestanding assemblages of vertebrate fossils such as we are accustomed to seeing at the natural history museum--came into being during the late 19th and early 20th century, focusing especially on the United States. But it is not just, or even primarily a history of vertebrate paleontology. Rather, I use dinosaurs as an opportunity to explore how science was embedded in broader changes that were happening at the time. In particular, I am interested in tracing how the culture of modern capitalism--the ideals, norms, and practices that governed matters of value and exchange--manifested itself in the way fossils were collected, studied, and put on display. During the second half of the 19th century, America experienced an extended period of remarkable economic growth. By the eve of WWI, it had emerged as the world's largest producer of goods and services. At the same time, paleontologists were unearthing the fossil remains of marvelous creatures the likes of which no one had ever dreamed in the American west. The discovery of dinosaurs like Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Triceratops prompted the nation's wealthy elite to begin cultivating an intense interest in vertebrate paleontology. In part, this is because dinosaurs meshed well with a conventional narrative that celebrated American exceptionalism. Dinosaurs from the United States were widely heralded as having been larger, fiercer, and more abundant than their European counterparts. Not only that, but their origins in the deep past meant that dinosaurs were associated with evolutionary theory, including the conventional notion that struggle was at the root of progress. Finally, it did not hurt that America's best fossils hailed from places like Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. This is precisely where most of the raw materials consumed by factories could also be found. As they coalesced into a coherent social class, American capitalists began to patronize a number of elite cultural institutions. Just as Gilded Age entrepreneurs invested considerable resources in the acquisition of artworks, so too did they invest in natural history. However, whereas the acquisition of artworks functioned as a display of refined aesthetic sensibilities, the collection of natural history specimens represented another form of social distinction, one that combined epistemic virtues like objectivity with older notions of good stewardship and civic munificence. Capitalists who had grown rich off of the exploitation of America's natural resources turned to dinosaur paleontology as a form of cultural resource extraction.

...More

Description Cited in Dissertation Abstracts International-A 74/03(E), Sep 2013. Proquest Document ID: 1175978007.


Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001567402/

Similar Citations

Thesis Marlena Briane Cameron; (2017)
Fossil Excavation, Museums, and Wyoming: American Paleontology, 1870-1915 (/isis/citation/CBB144188127/)

Book Dingus, Lowell; Norell, Mark A.; (2010)
Barnum Brown: The Man Who Discovered Tyrannosaurus Rex (/isis/citation/CBB001023269/)

Book Ina Heumann; Holger Stoecker; Marco Tamborini; Mareike Vennen; (2018)
Dinosaurierfragmente: Zur Geschichte der Tendaguru-Expedition und ihrer Objekte, 1906-2018 (/isis/citation/CBB168836588/)

Book Ilja Nieuwland; (2019)
American Dinosaur Abroad: A Cultural History of Carnegie’s Plaster Diplodocus (/isis/citation/CBB424808631/)

Chapter Meigs, Mark; (2010)
The First Dinosaurs and Changing Museum Paradigms in America (/isis/citation/CBB001033303/)

Book Rudwick, Martin J. S.; (2014)
Earth's Deep History: How It Was Discovered and Why It Matters (/isis/citation/CBB001422030/)

Article McMillan, R. Bruce; (2010)
The Discovery of Fossil Vertebrates on Missouri's Western Frontier (/isis/citation/CBB001031246/)

Article Elizabeth D. Jones; (2019)
Assumptions of Authority: The Story of Sue the T-Rex and Controversy Over Access to Fossils (/isis/citation/CBB334696047/)

Book Sepkoski, David; (2012)
Rereading the Fossil Record: The Growth of Paleobiology as an Evolutionary Discipline (/isis/citation/CBB001210043/)

Book Lukas Rieppel; (2019)
Assembling the Dinosaur: Fossil Hunters, Tycoons, and the Making of a Spectacle (/isis/citation/CBB932931396/)

Book Rich, Thomas H.; Vickers-Rich, Patricia; (2003)
A Century of Australian Dinosaurs (/isis/citation/CBB000950018/)

Chapter Gregory A. Liggett; S. Terry Childs; Nicholas A. Famoso; H. Gregory McDonald; Alan L. Titus; Elizabeth Varner; Cameron L. Liggett; (2018)
From public lands to museums: The foundation of U.S. paleontology, the early history of federal public lands and museums, and the developing role of the U.S. Department of the Interior (/isis/citation/CBB608011914/)

Thesis Daniel Francis Zizzamia; (2015)
Making the West Malleable: Coal, Geohistory, and Western Expansion, 1800–1920 (/isis/citation/CBB915846070/)

Authors & Contributors
Nicholas A. Famoso
Joseph H. Hartman
Elizabeth Varner
H. Gregory McDonald
Cameron L. Liggett
Cameron, Marlena Briane
Concepts
Fossils
Paleontology
Dinosaurs
Natural history
Museums
Earth sciences
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
21st century
20th century, early
18th century
Gilded Age (1870s-1900)
Places
United States
Great Britain
Wyoming (U.S.)
Nebraska (U.S.)
Missouri (U.S.)
Tanzania (Tanganyika, Zanzibar)
Institutions
Department of the Interior, United States
University of Wyoming
Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.)
University of California, Berkeley
Museum für Naturkunde (Berlin)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment