Here are a couple of highlights of our new Summer books. I was particularly interested in the French language publication titled Des images pour l'animal by Thierry Laugée who used one of our photographs for his book cover. In fact, Laugée wrote about how visual forms of instruction at the turn of the century, such as the animal exhibitions and school service at the AMNH, helped raise awareness about wildlife conservation. Another title related to the AMNH is The Monster's Bones: the Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World. Tyrannosaurus rex was discovered by Barnum Brown in the early 1900s. Henry Fairfield Osborn, then curator of the Museum’s Vertebrate Paleontology Department, assigned the iconic name. The rest is history… and a gripping one as told by New York Times best-selling author David K. Randall.
For a list of all the new books we have acquired from June through August, check out these links:
Des images pour l'animal : instruction visuelle et conservation des espèces dans l'Etat de New York (1869-1914)
by Thierry Laugée
2022
Available in French language only
The last third of the 19th American century was that of an awareness of the ecological damage caused by man and of the urgency of sensitizing the population to the protection of species. The American Museum of Natural History played a central role in this crusade for animals and was the laboratory for major reflection on the power of the scientific image. The establishment of a visual instruction system for all schools in New York State led the Museum to reinvent itself, to rethink its role through its collections. By analyzing the mission assigned to wildlife photography and taxidermy, both mediums usually neglected, this book traces the history of visual activism for wild animals in museums and schools. (Summary translated from the publisher’s website available here.
*Thierry Laugée spent significant time in the Museum's Library conducting his research. On behalf of the Archives staff in the Gottesman Research Library, félicitations Mr. Laugée on a successful publication!
The monster's bones : the discovery of T. Rex and how it shook our world
by David K. Randall
2022
A gripping narrative of a fearless paleontologist, the founding of America's most loved museums, and the race to find the largest dinosaurs on record. In the dust of the Gilded Age Bone Wars, two vastly different men emerge with a mission to fill the empty halls of New York's struggling American Museum of Natural History: Henry Fairfield Osborn, a privileged socialite whose reputation rests on the museum's success, and intrepid Kansas-born fossil hunter Barnum Brown. When Brown unearths the first Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils in the Montana wilderness, forever changing the world of paleontology, Osborn sees a path to save his museum from irrelevancy. With four-foot-long jaws capable of crushing the bones of its prey and hips that powered the animal to run at speeds of 25 miles per hour, the T. Rex suggests a prehistoric ecosystem more complex than anyone imagined. As the public turns out in droves to cower before this bone-chilling giant of the past and wonder at the mysteries of its disappearance, Brown and Osborn together turn dinosaurs from a biological oddity into a beloved part of culture. Vivid and engaging, The Monster's Bones journeys from prehistory to present day, from remote Patagonia to the unforgiving badlands of the American West to the penthouses of Manhattan. With a wide-ranging cast of robber barons, eugenicists, and opportunistic cowboys, New York Times best-selling author David K. Randall reveals how a monster of a bygone era ignited a new understanding of our planet and our place within it.
Can’t get enough? Find out more about happenings at the Gottesman Research Library here!
The AMNH Library is not currently open to the public. Resources are available to Museum staff and items may circulate to staff members with full borrowing privileges. Staff can submit an application for access here.
This entry was written by Iris Lee, Cataloging and Metadata Librarian.