Book ID: CBB424808631

American Dinosaur Abroad: A Cultural History of Carnegie’s Plaster Diplodocus (2019)

unapi

In early July 1899, an excavation team of paleontologists sponsored by Andrew Carnegie discovered the fossil remains in Wyoming of what was then the longest and largest dinosaur on record. Named after its benefactor, the Diplodocus carnegii—or Dippy, as it’s known today—was shipped to Pittsburgh and later mounted and unveiled at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in 1907. Carnegie’s pursuit of dinosaurs in the American West and the ensuing dinomania of the late nineteenth century coincided with his broader political ambitions to establish a lasting world peace and avoid further international conflict. An ardent philanthropist and patriot, Carnegie gifted his first plaster cast of Dippy to the British Museum at the behest of King Edward VII in 1902, an impulsive diplomatic gesture that would result in the donation of at least seven reproductions to museums across Europe and Latin America over the next decade, in England, Germany, France, Austria, Italy, Russia, Argentina, and Spain. In this largely untold history, Ilja Nieuwland explores the influence of Andrew Carnegie’s prized skeleton on European culture through the dissemination, reception, and agency of his plaster casts, revealing much about the social, political, cultural, and scientific context of the early twentieth century.

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Reviewed By

Review Neil Clark (2020) Review of "American Dinosaur Abroad: A Cultural History of Carnegie’s Plaster Diplodocus". Archives of Natural History (pp. 209-210). unapi

Review Hochadel, Oliver (June 2020) Review of "Dinosaurierfragmente: Zur Geschichte der Tendaguru-Expedition und ihrer Objekte, 1906-2018". NTM: Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin. unapi

Review Brian Noble (2020) Review of "American Dinosaur Abroad: A Cultural History of Carnegie’s Plaster Diplodocus". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 896-898). unapi

Review Chris Manias (2020) Review of "Dinosaurierfragmente: Zur Geschichte der Tendaguru-Expedition und ihrer Objekte, 1906-2018". Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 562-565). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB424808631/

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Authors & Contributors
McMillan, R. Bruce
Cameron, Marlena Briane
Fallon, Richard
Rieppel, Lukas Benjamin
Torrens, Hugh S.
Taylor, Michael A.
Concepts
Paleontology
Fossils
Natural history
Dinosaurs
Biology
Science and literature
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
20th century, early
18th century
Gilded Age (1870s-1900)
21st century
Places
United States
Great Britain
Wyoming (U.S.)
Missouri (U.S.)
England
Kentucky (U.S.)
Institutions
University of Wyoming
Académie des Sciences, Paris
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