The Bauer Brothers: Masters of Scientific Illustration

To continue with a favourite theme of this blog I turn again to the topic of natural history and in particular The Bauer Brothers exhibition that has been on display in the Images of Nature Gallery at the Natural History Museum since November 2015.

Erica massoni L.f., 1796-1803
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Erica_massoni00.jpg

The exhibition features the botanical and zoological artworks of two exceptional natural history artists, Franz (1758-1840) and Ferdinand (1760-1826) Bauer; Austrian born brothers who were educated by some of the Continent’s most influential botanical artists of the time. You might be thinking, “oh here she goes again reviewing yet another exhibition” and yes that’s true. I can’t deny that that is what I’m going to do. But what I really like about this exhibition and why I wanted to blog about it is because I was so surprised by how taken I was with it, both in terms of content and concept.

Both brothers spent their entire lives studying and drawing nature and the results are some truly beautiful and, I’m reliably informed, scientifically accurate pieces of illustration. To quote the exhibition website, the brothers ‘excelled in learning the principles of botanical illustration according to the Linnaean system of classification. This technique typically depicts the entire plant in flower, but separately represents the bud and fruit, often dissected to show the internal structure’(1). They are really fascinating pieces of art to stand and look at, and even more so when you consider the degree of accuracy.

But behind the obvious skill both men had, I was also taken by the stories of them as individuals. They had similar artistic styles and yet their careers were very different from each other. Franz had been hired by Sir Joseph Banks as the first resident artist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London. While Ferdinand had been hired by Banks as the natural history artist on the HMS Investigator (1801-1805) on its expedition to Australia. There he worked alongside Robert Brown and made many sketches, which he bought back and based future water colours on.

They are really beautiful pieces artwork – the colours surprisingly bold and the level of detail just amazing. I rather naively wouldn’t have expected scientific illustration of this period to have been of such a high standard. It really was a pleasant surprise and when in the museum I always like to wander past and take a look, especially as the drawings and watercolours rotate every four months.

Beyond being aesthetically pleasing, what I also think is great about this exhibition is how it highlights the depth of the Natural History Museum’s collections, especially those of the Library and Archives. By having this designated gallery, which shows exhibitions on a rotating basis, Library staff are given the opportunity to delve into the archive and special collections to bring to light something a bit different; something that isn’t a piece of taxidermy or a slice of science. It can really remind us as visitors that the value of the collections for research goes beyond science and can reveal the history of the people involved in making the museum and its collections. I’ve made clear elsewhere that I’m a huge fan of this approach and I was really pleased to discover that there is at least one place within the museum, designated to informing the public about an aspect of the history of its collections.

You can find more info about the exhibition, which runs until February 2017 here - http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/whats-on/programs/nhm/bauer_brothers_art_exhibition.html

(1)  http://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/departments-and-staff/library-and-archives/collections/bauer-brothers.html

Final Reflections on London’s Urban Jungle @ The Horniman Museum and Gardens

I just wanted to round off quickly on London’s Urban Jungle which finished back in February by saying what a fantastic experience it was and how grateful I am to those who went and offered such positive feedback.

London's Urban Jungle © Elle Larsson

When I decided that I wanted to pursue an exhibition for my final MA project it soon dawned on me what a difficult process this would be. But there was a ray of hope and I am so grateful to the team at the Horniman Museum and Gardens for seeing potential in the idea and for scheduling it into their temporary exhibition programme for 2015/16.

London's Urban Jungle © Elle Larsson

I learnt a great deal throughout the process but most of all, achieved what I always hope to in doing research, and that’s inviting public engagement.  I am after all a public historian!

As a final farewell on this subject I offer you a link to a final piece I produced for the Horniman Museum website which can be found here, alongside some great pictures, hopefully showing how the exhibition tied in which the Horniman’s natural history collections - http://www.horniman.ac.uk/collections/stories/jamrachs-animal-legacy

It was a fantastic way to conclude my MA work, but this is not the end for my research on Jamrach so watch this space! 

Düsseldorf’s Mahn- und Gedenkstätte

The Main Square

Back in December I took a bit of a break and went for a long weekend to Düsseldorf to do the Christmas Markets, but what’s a trip without a bit of history? We were a bit limited for choice, but chose to spend the afternoon at the Mahn- und Gedenkstätte in Aldstadt, which was established in the 1980s as a memorial for the victims of National Socialism.

Having looked it up retrospectively, it appears only to have reopened in May this year after a four year closure, with a new permanent exhibition - “Düsseldorf children and young people under the Nazis” and actually, even though I hadn’t know that at the time, the quality of the exhibit was fantastic and you can see that current museum display theory has been fundamental to its new design.

I’d always been a bit curious about how WW2 is remembered in museums in Germany never having visited before, so I’m really glad we chose this museum to visit. It’s steeped in history, both the area in which it’s situated and the building itself, which was once the state police headquarters.

As English speakers we were given audio guides, which we were completely dependent on and were our only real way to access information. They were fantastic bits of kit and well produced. The tier system of information has been used to structure the audio guide clips, each successive clip offering more in depth information, based upon what you’d previously heard. It also offered a ‘?’ option for some points or items if you wanted more information on them specifically.

At first I responded really well to the exhibition and accessing it through the audio guide. However, because I was completely dependent on it, it made it somewhat difficult to maintain that level of concentration. It wasn’t possible to listen to every single clip and I had to try and dip in and dip out of clips that I was particularly interested in.

That said, the exhibit was packed with information, images and photographs, oral history testimony and objects, many of which were shown or displayed in interesting and interactive ways. You could open drawers, slide or spin text panels and listen to testimony through a receiver. And at each step, there was a corresponding number for your audio guide. A huge amount of work has clearly gone into the redevelopment of the exhibit and as a visitor I really appreciated that and could see the huge effort that has gone in to make it modern and accessible.

There were two additional points that I was also particularly taken by. First, was the effort gone to put Düsseldorf in the context of wider history. Local history was told alongside national history and examples of how events we know of at a theoretical level materialised in the communities in Düsseldorf were also included. They wrote themselves and their community into the historical narrative and I thought that was both quite brave and very nicely done. The second point was how the exhibit was told from the perspective of young people, which doesn’t often happen, but also how it covered multiple perspectives - those of Socialists, Jews, Protestants, Catholics, Democrats, Homosexuals and Edelweiss Pirates vs. Hitler Youth. It was really interesting to see all those points of view side by side and talked about quite openly.

The aim for the memorial is that it remains a place of learning, of research and of remembrance (1). They also have a temporary exhibition gallery, which at the moment is ‘Helpers + Healers: Jewish Women in Medicine 1933-1945, and an open access reference library with books, documents, photographs and other archival material which invites visitors to look in more depth at the topics the memorial covers.

I was hugely impressed by this museum and am really glad we took some time to explore the culture of Düsseldorf beyond the Christmas Markets!

(1)    This is the webpage, although it’s in German! -http://www.ns-gedenkstaetten.de/nrw/duesseldorf/besucherinformationen.html

London's Urban Jungle - A Blog

Check out the blog I wrote to promote London's Urban Jungle, on now at the Horniman Museum and Gardens - http://horniman.ac.uk/get_involved/blog/londons-urban-jungle

More to come in the next few weeks so watch this space!

Thank you to those who have been already/tweeted/given feedback it really means a lot! 

London’s Urban Jungle @ The Horniman Museum & Gardens

I am so pleased to be able to say that this past weekend London’s Urban Jungle, an exhibition I’ve curated together with the Horniman Museum & Gardens, opened.

The idea for the project began two years ago and was closely tied up with the work I did for my MA, and one thing led to another and here we are - it’s now open for you all to go and see.

My hope is that it will introduce people to a side of history we don’t often think about – the history of the exotic animal trade – where it began, who was involved and what impact it had on Victorian society. It will also, I hope, bring Charles Jamrach to a new audience. He’s a fascinating character in London’s history and there are some interesting stories to be told about his business, some of which feature in the exhibition.

It’s on until the 21^st February 2016 so please go if you can – here’s a link to the exhibits webpage and do keep an eye on it as we’re hoping to add a few bits and pieces over the coming weeks.

http://www.horniman.ac.uk/visit/current-exhibitions

And please tweet – it would be great to hear what you think about it! What questions has it prompted? What stories have you heard? It would be great to get a conversation going if we can.

I hope you find it as interesting to view as I did researching it! The Horniman Museum is a great place to spend an afternoon!