Science And Culture For Members Only: The Amsterdam Zoo Artis In The Nineteenth Century

DONNA C . MEHOS Science & Culture FOR MEMBERS ONLY The Amsterdam Zoo Artis in the Nineteenth Century Amsterdam University Press Science and Culture for Members Only Science and Culture for Members Only The Amsterdam Zoo Artis in the Nineteenth Century Donna C. Mehos The publication of this book is made possible by a grant from the M.A.O.C. Gravin van Bylandt Stichting Cover design Cover illustration Layout Studio Jan de Boer bno, Amsterdam Vignette, Jaarboekje van het Zoologisch Genootschap Natur Artis Magistra, Amsterdam: M. Westerman en Zoon, 18521875 PROgrafici, Goes isbn 90 5356 739 9 nur 694 © 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 system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. For Jaap Table of Contents Acknowledgments 9 Introduction The Nation and Nature in Middle-Class Culture 11 Chapter 1 Structuring a New Generation’s Scientific Society 21 Chapter 2 Private Science and the Public Interest 35 Chapter 3 Internationalizing Nationalist Science 59 Chapter 4 Science Joins Cultural Life 91 Conclusion Science, Colonial Expansion, and National Identity 125 Appendix: Members of the Artis Board of Directors, 1838-1870 131 Notes 137 List of Illustrations and Color Plates 173 Bibliography 177 Index 201 7 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 Nationaal 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 University of Pennsylvania maintained an unusually encouraging and intellectually stimulating environment during my years in Philadelphia. When I moved to Amsterdam, the (then) Department of Science and Technology Dynamics at the