El desafío de las políticas de subjetividad

In contrast, the International exhibitions were increasingly popular events, driven not by science but colonial rivalries. An alternative display philosophy o f the natural world

accompanied these impressive exhibitions that merged spectacle with education. The Great Exhibition, held at London’s Crystal Palace in 1851, is acknowledged as the ‘birth o f the international exhibition movement.’39 Origins of the Great Exhibition are traced to early nineteenth-century exhibitions that aimed to educate the largely-illiterate English working class in technical arts, primarily through ‘learning by looking.’6" Unlike early exhibitions that arranged displays according to ‘stages of production’ such as raw products,

manufactured goods, mechanical devices, and fine and applied art, the Great Exhibition 58 Sheets-Pyenson, Cathedrals o f Science: The Development o f Colonial N a tu r a l History M useums During the Hate Nineteenth Century.

p.35.

59 Peter H. Hoffenberg, A n Empire on Display: English, Indian and Australian Exhibitions fro m the Crystal Palace to the Great W ar (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).p.l.

60 Graeme Davison, "Festivals of Nationhood: The International Exhibitions," in A ustralian Cultural History, ed. S.L. Goldberg & F.B. Smith (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). pp. 159-160.

introduced a global exposition of material culture ‘based on nations and the supra-national constructs o f empires and races.’61 Exhibits were classified according to regions or nations, leading to the division of the floor space into maps of the world, accompanied by more contextual displays o f nature.6- In a significant difference from the taxonomically-ordered natural history museum, the adoption o f narrative and storytelling introduced a spectatorial experience of nature to the visitor.

The International exhibits were important forums for journalists, visitors and politicians, as they were considered venues for trade and commerce and a place to display ‘ideas, images and practices of both imperialism and nationalism.’6’ Competition for immigrants and capital investment inspired many exhibits. Exhibits therefore were not strictly focused on scientific knowledge but instead presented a construction o f colonial and national identity conceived as an ‘interplay o f participation, propaganda, advertising and spectacle.’64 Australian colonial exhibits, for example, were framed to counter European, British and American ‘preconceptions about the colonies’ pre-industrial economy, frontier violence, and large Irish Catholic population.’6. These exhibits presented an independent colonial identity, where despite the relative youth o f European settlement an image o f settler progress was cultivated. The Victorian Commissioners for the 1862 London International Exhibition aimed to present ‘a physical atlas’ o f the colony, advising exhibitors and

contributors ‘to bring prominently before those who will congregate in London, the results of the intellectual and scientific, as well as the animal and manufacturing industry of the people of Victoria.’66

A Display o f Spectacle

Spatial organisation of exhibitions was released from the confines o f imperial science, allowing taxidermists and artists the opportunity to deviate from the rigidity of taxonomic classification o f the museum.* * * * 6 Two major differences distinguish the display o f nature in the International and Colonial exhibitions from the natural history museum. First, these exhibitions encouraged ‘non-scientific taxidermic sculpture,’ introducing techniques of

61 Bennett, " The Exhibitionary Complex." p. 353.

62 Davison, "Festivals of Nationhood: The International Exhibitions." p. 161.

63 Hoffenberg, A n Empire on Display: English, Indian and Australian Exhibitions from the Crystal Palace to the Great War. p.2.

m Ibid. p. 27. 63 Ibid. p. 136. 66 Ibid. p. 137.

67 Annie E. Coombes, "Museums and the Formation of National and Cultural Identities," in Museum Studies: A n Anthology of Contexts, ed. Bettina Messias Carbonell (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004). p.233.

narrative and storytelling/’8 Narrative taxidermic tableaux promoted more animated and artistic representations that also appealed to Victorian taste.67 Secondly, more animated approaches to display created a new spectatorial experience. In contrast to the natural history museum where the visitor’s experience was limited to the contemplation o f the object and was restricted to ‘looking and learning,’ animated displays constructed a

theatrical narrative around the specimen, inviting interpretation from the viewer and often evoking an emotive response. "

Display innovation was encouraged primarily by private natural history supply houses such as Ward’s Natural Science Establishment. 1 Expositions provided space for taxidermists to experiment, unlike the increasingly cluttered nineteenth-century museum. The formation of the Society of American Taxidermists in 1880 elevated taxidermy to an art form. 2 Ward and his team created entire museum displays and served over 100 museums worldwide, including the National Museum of Victoria.73 The groundbreaking display ‘Fight in the Treetops,’ which featured two male orang-utans, incorporated behavioural and

environmental information. The exhibit was purchased in 1882 by the National Museum of Natural History. Many of Ward’s employees later worked in major museums of natural history, and were considered influential in the introduction o f the habitat diorama into the early-twentieth century museum. 4

Contextual painted backgrounds were a major feature of displays, contributing a sense of a distant landscape and spatial depth. This shares similarities with the popular panorama displays of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, where specially-constructed circular buildings provided a central platform for spectators to view a continuous painting of a landscape or urban scene, offering the viewer a bird’s eye view of miniature landscapes. 5 Insertion of a background image suggested an engagement with the ‘real world,’ in contrast

68 Wonders, Habitat Dioramas: Illusions of Wilderness in Museums of Natural History, p. 34. 69 Ibid. p. 34.

70 Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Destination Culture: Tourism, Museums, and Heritage (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998). p.3.

71 Ward’s Natural Science establishment was founded in 1862 by Henry A. Ward and was considered a leading international supplier of scientific specimens for museums and universities. Ward studied at Ecoles des Mines and Jardin des Plantes, as well as studying taxidermy at Maison Verreaux in Paris, before appointed Professor of Natural Sciences at the University of Rochestor in 1860.

72 Wonders, Habitat Dioramas: Illusions of Wilderness in Museums of Natural History, p.l 17. 73 Ibid, p.l 11.

74 Graduates from the Ward Establishment included William T. I lornaday who became chief taxidermist at the National Museum of Natural History and Frederic A. Lucas who became curator at the American Museum of Natural History. 75 Wonders, Habitat Dioramas: Illusions of Wilderness in Museums of Natural History, pp.12-13.

to taxonomic classifications that offered only the contemplation of a selected object. (1 ‘The Kansas Exhibit’ at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago is a significant precedent for introducing a more contextual approach to natural history. Prepared by Lewis Dyche from the Museum of Natural History at the University of Kansas, the exhibit featured a twenty-four metre long chamber that housed a re-created naturalistic foreground of differing landscapes o f swamps, mountains, and prairies. A large panoramic landscape painting formed the backdrop for more than 100 mammals mounted in animated poses. The display presented a ‘hyper-representation’ o f the real world through the juxtaposition of miniature landscape types within a single exhibit. Guided tours conducted by Dyche heightened the experience by allowing visitors to wander within the exhibit and experience a closer view of the animals. *