Forgotten Science of Bird Eggs: The Life Cycle of Oology at the Smithsonian Institution (2015)
Marsh, Allison (Advisor)
Katherine Nicole Crosby (Author)
Marsh, Allison
University of South Carolina
This thesis analyzes the influence the Smithsonian Institution had over the development of oology as a science from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. The Smithsonian promoted oology, or the study of bird eggs, through publications and collections of eggs in the mid-19th century, and the science enjoyed a brief period of proliferation and approval. In the end, however, the popularity of egg collecting as a hobby, in-fighting between oologists and ornithologists over the validity of oology as a science, and bird conservation groups opposed to collecting eggs, all conspired to halt oology’s professionalization, and ultimately led to the downfall of the science, which is no longer practiced today. Museums still house these collections, and their history matters, particularly when the specimens are used to help make scientific discoveries that drive policy, as was the case with the 1972 ban of DDT. The thesis speaks to broader conversations in the history of science and public history about why scientific collections and their histories matter today.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Yochelson, Ellis L.;
(2004)
More Than 150 Years of Administrative Ups and Downs for Natural History in Washington. Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum, National Museum of Natural History
(/isis/citation/CBB001036105/)
Book
Chuck (Charles H. ) Warner;
(2019)
Birds, bones, and beetles: The improbable career and remarkable legacy of University of Kansas naturalist Charles D. Bunker
(/isis/citation/CBB589254906/)
Article
Sunderland, Mary E.;
(2012)
Collections-Based Research at Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
(/isis/citation/CBB001220848/)
Article
Casado, Santos;
Aragón, Santiago;
(2014)
Vignettes of Spanish Nature: Imagining a National Fauna at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid (1910--1936)
(/isis/citation/CBB001201043/)
Book
Lewis, Daniel;
(2012)
The Feathery Tribe: Robert Ridgway and the Modern Study of Birds
(/isis/citation/CBB001251397/)
Book
Walker, William S;
(2013)
A Living Exhibition: The Smithsonian and the Transformation of the Universal Museum
(/isis/citation/CBB001201272/)
Thesis
Nichols, Catherine;
(2014)
Museum Networks: The Exchange of the Smithsonian Institution's Duplicate Anthropology Collections
(/isis/citation/CBB001567579/)
Book
Samuel J. Redman;
(2016)
Bone Rooms: From Scientific Racism to Human Prehistory in Museums
(/isis/citation/CBB181840212/)
Article
Giffard, Hermione;
(2014)
The Politics of Donating Technological Artifacts: Techno-Nationalism and the Donations of the World's First Jet Engines
(/isis/citation/CBB001451057/)
Thesis
Pingree, Mark Kirkham;
(2003)
From Revolutionary Patriots to Principal Chiefs: Promoting Civilization and Preserving Savagery in American Museums, 1785--1865
(/isis/citation/CBB001560606/)
Article
Davidson, Martha;
(Spring 2007)
From the Garage to the Smithsonian
(/isis/citation/CBB594273454/)
Chapter
Kohlstedt, Sally Gregory;
(2011)
Place and Museum Space: The Smithsonian Institution, National Identity, and the American West, 1846--1896
(/isis/citation/CBB001231568/)
Chapter
Chelnik, Judy M.;
(2013)
Collecting Medical Technology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History
(/isis/citation/CBB001202348/)
Article
DeVorkin, David H.;
(2011)
Space Artifact or Nazi Weapon? Displaying the Smithsonian's V-2 Missile, 1976--2011
(/isis/citation/CBB001210149/)
Article
R.Paul Scofield;
(2005)
The Supposed Macquaire Island Parakeet in the Collection of Canterbury Museum
(/isis/citation/CBB764667446/)
Book
Birkhead, T R;
Wimpenny, Jo;
Montgomerie, Robert D;
(2014)
Ten Thousand Birds: Ornithology since Darwin
(/isis/citation/CBB001421573/)
Article
Olson, Storrs L.;
(2007)
Correspondence Bearing on the History of Ornithologist M. A. Carriker, Jr., and the Use of Arsenic in Preparation of Museum Specimens
(/isis/citation/CBB000774089/)
Book
Correia, Clara Pinto;
(2003)
Return of the Crazy Bird: The Sad, Strange Tale of the Dodo
(/isis/citation/CBB000320245/)
Article
Van den Abeele, Baudouin;
(1999)
L'empereur et la philosophie: L'utilisation de la zoologie d'Aristote dans le De arte venandi cum avibus de Frédéric II de Hohenstaufen (1194-1250)
(/isis/citation/CBB000111346/)
Chapter
Henson, Pamela;
(2000)
Spencer Baird's Dream: A U.S. National Museum
(/isis/citation/CBB000101413/)
Be the first to comment!