Thursday, February 1, 2018

The Natural World, Past and Present

Last weekend I participated in about half of the 24 in 48 Readathon. (The second day I just couldn't get interested in reading for some reason so I only got 11 hours done.) The first two books I read were ones sitting on my non-fiction TBR that I wanted to be able to mark as read.


The first is one I just got this past Christmas -- Amazing Rare Things: The Art of Natural History in the Age of Discovery by David Attenborough, Susan Owens, Martin Clayton, and Rea Alexandratos. It focuses on five natural history artists--Leonardo da Vinci, Cassiano dal Pozzo, Alexander Marshal, Maria Sybilla Merian, and Mark Catesby--and their works that are now held in the Royal Collection. They each represent a period in time, from about 1470-1730.

I am intrigued by natural history artists and actually have five prints hanging over my tv (that are rotated in from a collection I have -- right now they are a squid, a crab, a pineapple, an octopus, and molluscs). It was interesting to read about the diverse backgrounds of each of these artists and about what inspired them to draw. This isn't a super comprehensive natural history art book but more a snapshot of the works of a few prolific pioneers.


Then I read Jane Goodall's 50 Years at Gombe, which has been on my shelves for a few years now (the 50 years was in 2010). If you are a Goodall fan, most of the information and history in the book will be a review but it's a nice collection of some of the National Geographic photographs that brought Jane to the world's attention and some more recent photos of the land and the current chimps. (I happen to own the original August 1963 Nat Geo that first featured the chimpanzees.) This book is great for a basic overview and a call to action. It lists many of the organizations that are supported by the Jane Goodall Institute and the ways for people all around the world to make a difference in the lives of the chimpanzees and the humans around them. I was extremely happy to hear that my best friend donated to the Institute this year instead of sending me Christmas presents. (I donated to the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary instead of shopping for her.)

Have you read any great nature/natural history books lately?

Returning to the roots,
K

6 comments:

  1. Ooh, this was not the point of your post but I'm interested in this thing where you rotate out the prints that you have in a certain location. Do you actually do this regularly? I always think this would be a cool thing to do but then I'm like "Jenny be real you'd forget about this."

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    1. I have changed them twice now and am looking at the prints and deciding on the theme for a new set soon. The thing that really allows me to do this is that I have them hanging from big "bulldog clips" (stainless steel, not binder clips) so I can easily lift them off the nails and just slip a new sheet in. If I had them in frames I would never change them. I don't have a schedule for changing them or anything. It's just when I want something fresh.

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  2. The Attenborough book sounds fantastic--just the cover alone is tempting. I like gardening books, hiking in the wilderness books, and birding books. I like the idea of rotating images like that--cool idea.

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    1. It's not only a pretty book but it gives you some of the background on why these artists in different eras chose to draw the natural world. I found that fascinating.

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  3. The Attenborough book does look interesting. I'll have to check it out. I got my son a couple of years ago a book about the window displays at the natural History Museum in NYC. And then another book about taxidermy.

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    1. Very cool gifts! Natural science gets overlooked a lot but it's something that was essential to our modern knowledge about biology, zoology, and more!

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