Most of us are deluged daily with hundreds of images on billboards and screens of all sizes. But natural history illustrations like those featured in the 2012 collection Natural Histories: Extraordinary Rare Book Selections from the American Museum of Natural History Library still retain the power to surprise.
Featuring beguiling illustrations from scientific works published from the 1500s until the early 1900s, Natural Histories was edited by Tom Baione, the Museum Library’s director, and inspired the current exhibition of the same name.
In advance of his Wednesday evening lecture about Natural Histories, Baione recently talked with us about the Library’s Rare Book Collection, how he chose which 40 books to feature in Natural Histories, and which rare books he’s planning to bring to tomorrow’s lecture so the audience can see the art for themselves.
Tell us about the Library’s Rare Book Collection.
We have more than half of a million volumes in the main library, all of which we consider to be tools for scientists and scholars.
We sequester a subset of about 14,000 volumes in the rare book collection, which are accessible, but with more rigorous security protocols. Usually the books are there because they are rare, or scarce, or valuable, and often because the images within might be considered valuable—and people might want to tear them out!
How are the rare books stored?
We have some shelving for small books—those that are under 35 centimeters tall—the normal kind of bookshelf, with the spines upright. But the other, larger books, called folios, lie flat.
There are illustrations from 40 books featured in Natural Histories. How did you choose which to include?
First, we wanted to choose images that were intriguing, that were not only attractive, but made you ask: What’s going on here? I have to know more.
I also decided that the books should cover the disciplines that scientists study here at the Museum. For instance, we have many beautiful illustrated botany books, but we don’t have a botany department, so we didn’t include that subject. The selected books also ensured representation from all the geographic regions on Earth, from Europe to the Americas to Antarctica to Australia.
Which books will you be bringing along to the lecture for the audience to see?
We usually don’t bring books outside the library—but we’re going to do it Wednesday! I’m leaning toward the Conrad Gessner, from the 1550s. It’s a five-volume work called Historia animalium (Histories of the animals), with black-and-white woodcut illustrations, including many animals the illustrator had never seen in life.
Perhaps also the William Hamilton, a book from the 1770s featuring colored engravings of Mt. Vesuvius, in Italy, as it erupts.
And the Johann Christian Daniel von Schreber, featuring large mammals from zebras to mandrills, which was published in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
In the end, we’ll bring a selection that showcases the beauty and diversity of the organisms and art works.
What’s next for showcasing the library’s collections?
Last winter, the Museum published Extraordinary Birds, written and edited by [Ornithology Collections Manager] Paul Sweet, the second volume in the Natural Histories series with illustrations from our Rare Book Collection.
And next comes the third in this illustrated series about the Museum's rare books, tentatively titled Opulent Oceans, featuring essays by Curator Melanie Stiassny about marine animals, from sea stars to octopuses to sharks to sea snakes.