Science and Culture for Members Only: The Amsterdam Zoo Artis in the Nineteenth Century

213 Pages·2006·7.52 MB·English

by  Donna C. Mehos

Science .
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Culture
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Science
FOR MEMBERS ONLY
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The Amsterdam Zoo Artisin
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the Nineteenth Century M
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DONNA C MEHOS
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What role did science play in nineteenth-century Dutch cultural life?
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This fascinating slice-of-cultural-life book unveils the significance of Artisas i FOR MEMBERS ONLY
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both a scientific center and the cultural hub of the city. It links exhibits of n
exotic animals and colonial artifacts, concerts, scientific research, and social c
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exclusion to the rise of national consciousness among nineteenth-century

Dutch middle classes. The author highlights Dutch society and its efforts to &
display colonial wealth before it supported what is traditionally seen as high
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culture. Artis flourished with the help of significant private funding at
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a time when monumental institutions such as museums and concert halls
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had yet to appear on the Dutch cultural landscape. Artis was a private
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institution open to members only that held an unprecedented pride of place
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in Dutch society. e
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Donna C. Mehos is a senior researcher at the Technical University of
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Eindhoven.
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The Amsterdam Zoo Artis in
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the Nineteenth Century
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ISBN 90-5356-739-9
AMSTERDAMUNIVERSITYPRESS
www.aup.nl 9 789053 567395 Amsterdam University Press
science and culture 12-01-2006 11:52 Pagina 1
Science and Culture
for Members Only
science and culture 12-01-2006 11:52 Pagina 2
science and culture 12-01-2006 11:52 Pagina 3
Science and Culture
for Members Only
The Amsterdam Zoo Artis
in the Nineteenth Century
Donna C. Mehos
science and culture 12-01-2006 11:52 Pagina 4
The publication of this book is made possible by a grant from the M.A.O.C.
Gravin van Bylandt Stichting
Cover design Studio Jan de Boer bno, Amsterdam
Cover illustration Vignette, Jaarboekje van het Zoologisch Genootschap Natur
Artis Magistra, Amsterdam: M. Westerman en Zoon, 1852-
1875
Layout PROgrafici, Goes
isbn9053567399
nur694
© Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2006
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no
part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval sys-
tem, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photo-
copying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copy-
right owner and the author of the book.
science and culture 12-01-2006 11:52 Pagina 5
For Jaap
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science and culture 12-01-2006 11:52 Pagina 7
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments 9
Introduction The Nation and Nature in Middle-Class Culture 11
Chapter1 Structuring a New Generation’s Scientific Society 21
Chapter2 Private Science and the Public Interest 35
Chapter3 Internationalizing Nationalist Science 59
Chapter4 Science Joins Cultural Life 91
Conclusion Science, Colonial Expansion, and National Identity 125
Appendix: Members of the ArtisBoard of Directors, 1838-1870 131
Notes 137
List of Illustrations and Color Plates 173
Bibliography 177
Index 201
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science and culture 12-01-2006 11:52 Pagina 9
Acknowledgments
When I first proposed the history of Artis as a dissertation subject in the
mid-1980s, my ideas generated enthusiasm among some historians and
skepticism among others. The value of zoo history as a serious academic
topic in the history of science was not yet crystal clear. I commenced
research that first appeared in my dissertation and has now crystalized into
this book. I trust that this work, and various studies of other zoos that have
recently appeared, will convince scholars in many sub-fields of history and
the social sciences that zoological gardens provide rich resources that help
illuminate science and reveal its cultural meanings.
I could not have conducted this research without the valuable and
friendly assistance of staff members in the libraries of the University of
Amsterdam, the Gemeentelijke Archiefdienst Amsterdam, and the Nation-
aal Natuurhistorisch Museum Naturalis in Leiden. I am grateful for their
help.
It is my pleasure to thank here all of my friends and colleagues – too
many to name – who have supported me in more ways than they know.
While I was a graduate student, the faculty, staff, and my fellow graduate
students of the Department of History and Sociology of Science at the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania maintained an unusually encouraging and intellec-
tually stimulating environment during my years in Philadelphia. When I
moved to Amsterdam, the (then) Department of Science and Technology
Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam gave me an institutional base for
which I am grateful. I was privileged to have participated in their discussion
groups and Voortgangsconferenties where drafts of my work were discussed
by both department members and outside participants. I thank them for
their valuable comments. I am also indebted to the members of the (then)
Unit for Mass Spectrometry of Macromolecular Systems at the FOM Insti-
tute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam for their technical
support, hospitality, and the friendly atmosphere. I am thankful for the
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