Discovery
At one time you had to risk your life to discover and create a natural history collection. Now you can safely make discoveries from the comforts of your boudoir, with your laptop computer, sipping fresh squeezed lemonade, or whatever your drink of choice is.
I was so excited when I discovered this website on Victorian Microscope Slides
slides, with gorgeous details. I had never seen anything like them before.
Then searching for more information on them I came across an antique microscope, only four inches tall and shaped like a monkey. I thought it would be nice to search for one to buy, but the going rate seems to be around $1,000.
Oh well, at least I found more antique microscope slides, some made out of wood.
Here is a close up of that dragon fly slide.
Then I discovered that one of my favorite movies, Angels and Insects, in which several people had an obsession with insects, (not to mentions a few other obsessions;I will not spoil the plot), was a very common hobby back in that era.
Natural history collecting was a fashionable past-time for all classes during the Victorian and Edwardian times. People collected butterflies, shells, taxidermy animals, etc. and often displayed their collections in cabinets
This hobby reached it's peak around 1900, and slowly faded from popularity.
So now I'm obsessed and I keep googling and discovering even more interesting tidbits and books on the subject.
Bright Paradise: Victorian Scientific Travellers, looks interesting...
...and so does Wild and Fearless: The Life of Margaret Fountaine.
She was a lepidopterist. I had no idea what that was until I looked it up...it's a person who catches, watches, collects and studies butterflies and moths.
Here is a photo of Margaret.
And I found these beautiful images, reminiscent of the natural history collecting craze in the book Theatre of Insects, by Jo Whaley.
Oh, I still want one of those little monkey microscopes!
I was so excited when I discovered this website on Victorian Microscope Slides
slides, with gorgeous details. I had never seen anything like them before.
Then searching for more information on them I came across an antique microscope, only four inches tall and shaped like a monkey. I thought it would be nice to search for one to buy, but the going rate seems to be around $1,000.
Oh well, at least I found more antique microscope slides, some made out of wood.
Here is a close up of that dragon fly slide.
Then I discovered that one of my favorite movies, Angels and Insects, in which several people had an obsession with insects, (not to mentions a few other obsessions;I will not spoil the plot), was a very common hobby back in that era.
Natural history collecting was a fashionable past-time for all classes during the Victorian and Edwardian times. People collected butterflies, shells, taxidermy animals, etc. and often displayed their collections in cabinets
This hobby reached it's peak around 1900, and slowly faded from popularity.
So now I'm obsessed and I keep googling and discovering even more interesting tidbits and books on the subject.
Bright Paradise: Victorian Scientific Travellers, looks interesting...
...and so does Wild and Fearless: The Life of Margaret Fountaine.
She was a lepidopterist. I had no idea what that was until I looked it up...it's a person who catches, watches, collects and studies butterflies and moths.
Here is a photo of Margaret.
And I found these beautiful images, reminiscent of the natural history collecting craze in the book Theatre of Insects, by Jo Whaley.
Oh, I still want one of those little monkey microscopes!