Sea currents in nineteenth-century art, science and culture : commodifying the ocean world

How did scientists, artists, designers, manufacturers and amateur enthusiasts experience and value the sea and its products? Examining the commoditization of the ocean world during the nineteenth century, this book demonstrates how the transaction of oceanic objects inspired a multifaceted material discourse stemming from scientific exploration, colonial expansion, industrialization, and the rise of middle-class leisure. From the seashore to the seabed, marine organisms and environments, made tangible through processing and representational technologies, captivated practitioners and audiences. Combining essays and case studies by scholars, curators, and scientists, Sea Currents investigates the collecting and display, illustration and ornamentation, and trade and consumption of marine flora and fauna, analysing their material, aesthetic and commercial dimensions. Traversing global art history, the history of science, empire studies, anthropology, ecocriticism and material culture, this book surveys the currency of marine matter embedded in the economies and ecologies of a modernizing ocean world. Cover Contents List of Illustrations Notes on Contributors Acknowledgements 1 Commodifying the Ocean World in the Long Nineteenth Century Kathleen Davidson and Molly Duggins Part One Wave: Circulating Marine Products 2 Scent from the Sea: Ambergris in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Medicine, Perfume and Natural History Georgina Cole 3 Imperial Coral: The Transformation of a Natural Material to a Qing Imperial Treasure Pippa Lacey 4 Echoes of Empire: The Painted Museums of Leroy de Barde Jessica Priebe 5 ‘Native Manufactures’: Sailors’ Valentines and the Caribbean Curio Trade Molly Duggins Part Two Shore: Coastal Economies and Ecologies 6 Reading the Wrack Line: Ecology and Visual Culture on the French Atlantic Shore Maura Coughlin 7 An Intense Curiosity: Marine Research Stations and Marine Specimens in the Late Nineteenth Century Jude Philp 8 The Tears of Pearls: Archaic Labour, Fisheries and Waste in Ceylon and Beyond Natasha Eaton 9 Culture Keeping and Money Making: Aboriginal Women’s Shellwork from the South Coast of New South Wales Priya Vaughan Part Three Seabed: Materializing Submarine Environments 10 Their ‘Colours are Brilliant, but Fugitive’: Coral Concerns from Imperial Expeditions and the British Museum to the Royal Academy and Drury Lane Kathleen Davidson 11 Aquariums Under the Rising Sun: A Cultural History of Early Public Aquariums in Japan, 1882–1903 Yuichi Mizoi 12 Merging the University Museum and Volksbildung: The Curatorial Strategies of Berlin’s Museum für Meereskunde in 1900 Stefanie Lenk Part Four Oceanic Objects: Museum Case Studies 13 ‘An Imitation of Seaweed’: Nature and Design in a Late Eighteenth-Century Printed Cotton Ann Christie 14 Fashioning Whalebone: Scrimshaw and the Nineteenth-Century Tradition of the Decorative Busk Martha Cattell 15 The Ornamental Glass Window of the Maison de l’Océan in Paris: A Celebration of Evolution Jacqueline Goy and Robert Calcagno 16 Trade Connections: The Acquisition of Blaschka Marine Invertebrate Models in Australia and New Zealand Jan Brazier Bibliography Index "The nineteenth-century ocean world inspired a multifaceted material discourse intersecting with scientific exploration, colonial expansion, industrialization, and the rise of middle-class leisure. From the seashore to the seabed, marine organisms and environments, made tangible through processing and representational technologies, captivated practitioners and audiences. How did scientists, artists, dealers, designers, manufacturers and amateur enthusiasts experience and value the sea and its products? This book examines the commoditization of the ocean world through oceanic objects transacted across the realms of art, science, and culture. Combining essays and case studies by scholars, curators, and scientists, Sea Currents in Nineteenth-Century Art, Science and Culture investigates the collecting and display, illustration and ornamentation, and trade and consumption of marine flora and fauna, analysing their material, aesthetic and commercial dimensions. Traversing global art history, the history of science, empire studies, anthropology, ecocriticism and material culture, this volume surveys the currency of marine matter embedded in the economies and ecologies of a modernizing ocean world"-- Provided by publisher