Overview

Full Product Details

9780700623891

Table of Contents

Reviews

Yellowstone and the Smithsonian provides an important foundation on which to critically reexamine American attitudes toward wildlife conservation. Journal of American History Smith has contributed immeasurably to our understanding of a period often compressed by environmental historians. It is a story we deserve to know and Diane Smith tells it extremely well. Pacific Historical Review A valuable scholarly addition to the literature of both the Smithsonian and Yellowstone, this is as wonderful to read as a novel. Environmental History Smith s excellent administrative history should assume an important place in the historiography of wildlife conservation history in the United States. Western Historical Quarterly Diane Smith s Yellowstone and the Smithsonian is an excellent analysis of the institutionalization of wildlife protection. It s an essential and much needed work of US environmental history. Highly recommended! Douglas Brinkley, author of Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America In 1856, western surveying and exploring expeditions were sending large animals to the Smithsonian National Museum, which in turn transferred them to the nearby United States Insane Asylum to provide amusement and mental diversion for the patients. From these inauspicious beginnings, an important network of specimen donation, distribution, display, and exchange developed over the next three generations between Yellowstone National Park and the Smithsonian that would help shape American wildlife conservation. In telling this fascinating story, Diane Smith s engaging book Yellowstone and the Smithsonian makes a major contribution to the fields of American cultural history, Museum Studies, and American Studies, as well as American western and environmental history. David M. Wrobel, author of Global West, American Frontier: Travel, Empire, and Exceptionalism from Manifest Destiny to the Great Depression Diane Smith s Yellowstone and the Smithsonian: Centers of Wildlife Conservation examines the unique relationship between two iconic American institutions the Smithsonian and the world s first national park at Yellowstone. Smith discusses the Smithsonian s evolving and often conflicting roles as a center for scholarly research, a museum to educate the public, and a zoological garden and pleasuring ground. Smith also confronts the role that the early administrators of Yellowstone National Park played in obtaining both living and dead wildlife specimens for study and display at the Smithsonian. This relationship between these institutions, which included wildlife specimen exchanges and the confinement of charismatic animals (particularly endangered bison) in the national park for the enjoyment of park visitors and future shipment to the East, is often overlooked by environmental historians. Students of environmental history as well as general audiences with an interest in the Yellowstone National Park or the early history of the Smithsonian will find Smith s work which features world s fair wildlife displays, professional taxidermy, and the US Calvary s management of Yellowstone both engaging and accessible. Kathy S. Mason, author of Natural Museums: U.S. National Parks, 1872 1916

This wonderful book should be ranked as required reading in the literature about Yellowstone National Park. Smith insightfully unravels not only how scientific institutions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries shaped the treatment of wildlife in the park, but also reveals the deep changes in how Americans have understood wildlife in North America, and the enormous difficulties encountered in conserving this magnificent heritage. <b>James A. Pritchard</b>, author of <i>Preserving Yellowstone s Natural Conditions: Science and the Perception of Nature</i>

Diane Smith's Yellowstone and the Smithsonian is an excellent analysis of the institutionalization of wildlife protection. It's an essential and much needed work of US environmental history. Highly recommended! --Douglas Brinkley, author of Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America

Diane Smith's <i>Yellowstone and the Smithsonian</i> is an excellent analysis of the institutionalization of wildlife protection. It's an essential and much needed work of US environmental history. Highly recommended! --<b>Douglas Brinkley</b>, author of <i>Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America</i>

This wonderful book should be ranked as required reading in the literature about Yellowstone National Park. Smith insightfully unravels not only how scientific institutions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries shaped the treatment of wildlife in the park, but also reveals the deep changes in how Americans have understood wildlife in North America, and the enormous difficulties encountered in conserving this magnificent heritage. --<b>James A. Pritchard</b>, author of <i>Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions: Science and the Perception of Nature</i>

Diane Smith's Yellowstone and the Smithsonian is an excellent analysis of the institutionalization of wildlife protection. It's an essential and much needed work of US environmental history. Highly recommended! --Douglas Brinkley, author of Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America -Diane Smith's Yellowstone and the Smithsonian is an excellent analysis of the institutionalization of wildlife protection. It's an essential and much needed work of US environmental history. Highly recommended!---Douglas Brinkley, author of Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America -This wonderful book should be ranked as required reading in the literature about Yellowstone National Park. Smith insightfully unravels not only how scientific institutions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries shaped the treatment of wildlife in the park, but also reveals the deep changes in how Americans have understood wildlife in North America, and the enormous difficulties encountered in conserving this magnificent heritage.---James A. Pritchard, author of Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions: Science and the Perception of Nature -Diane Smith's Yellowstone and the Smithsonian: Centers of Wildlife Conservation examines the unique relationship between two iconic American institutions--the Smithsonian and the world's first national park at Yellowstone. Smith discusses the Smithsonian's evolving and often conflicting roles as a center for scholarly research, a museum to educate the public, and a zoological garden and -pleasuring ground.- Smith also confronts the role that the early administrators of Yellowstone National Park played in obtaining both living and dead wildlife specimens for study and display at the Smithsonian. This relationship between these institutions, which included wildlife specimen exchanges and the confinement of charismatic animals (particularly endangered bison) in the national park for the enjoyment of park visitors and future shipment to the East, is often overlooked by environmental historians. Students of environmental history as well as general audiences with an interest in the Yellowstone National Park or the early history of the Smithsonian will find Smith's work--which features world's fair wildlife displays, professional taxidermy, and the US Calvary's management of Yellowstone--both engaging and accessible.---Kathy S. Mason, author of Natural Museums: U.S. National Parks, 1872-1916 This wonderful book should be ranked as required reading in the literature about Yellowstone National Park. Smith insightfully unravels not only how scientific institutions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries shaped the treatment of wildlife in the park, but also reveals the deep changes in how Americans have understood wildlife in North America, and the enormous difficulties encountered in conserving this magnificent heritage. --James A. Pritchard, author of Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions: Science and the Perception of Nature Diane Smith's Yellowstone and the Smithsonian: Centers of Wildlife Conservation examines the unique relationship between two iconic American institutions--the Smithsonian and the world's first national park at Yellowstone. Smith discusses the Smithsonian's evolving and often conflicting roles as a center for scholarly research, a museum to educate the public, and a zoological garden and pleasuring ground. Smith also confronts the role that the early administrators of Yellowstone National Park played in obtaining both living and dead wildlife specimens for study and display at the Smithsonian. This relationship between these institutions, which included wildlife specimen exchanges and the confinement of charismatic animals (particularly endangered bison) in the national park for the enjoyment of park visitors and future shipment to the East, is often overlooked by environmental historians. Students of environmental history as well as general audiences with an interest in the Yellowstone National Park or the early history of the Smithsonian will find Smith's work--which features world's fair wildlife displays, professional taxidermy, and the US Calvary's management of Yellowstone--both engaging and accessible. --Kathy S. Mason, author of Natural Museums: U.S. National Parks, 1872-1916 In 1856, western surveying and exploring expeditions were sending large animals to the Smithsonian National Museum, which in turn transferred them to the nearby United States Insane Asylum to provide amusement and mental diversion for the patients. From these inauspicious beginnings, an important network of specimen donation, distribution, display, and exchange developed over the next three generations between Yellowstone National Park and the Smithsonian that would help shape American wildlife conservation. In telling this fascinating story, Diane Smith's engaging book Yellowstone and the Smithsonian makes a major contribution to the fields of American cultural history, Museum Studies, and American Studies, as well as American western and environmental history. --David M. Wrobel, author of Global West, American Frontier: Travel, Empire, and Exceptionalism from Manifest Destiny to the Great Depression Diane Smith s Yellowstone and the Smithsonian is an excellent analysis of the institutionalization of wildlife protection. It s an essential and much needed work of US environmental history. Highly recommended! Douglas Brinkley, author of Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America Diane Smith s Yellowstone and the Smithsonian: Centers of Wildlife Conservation examines the unique relationship between two iconic American institutions the Smithsonian and the world s first national park at Yellowstone. Smith discusses the Smithsonian s evolving and often conflicting roles as a center for scholarly research, a museum to educate the public, and a zoological garden and pleasuring ground. Smith also confronts the role that the early administrators of Yellowstone National Park played in obtaining both living and dead wildlife specimens for study and display at the Smithsonian. This relationship between these institutions, which included wildlife specimen exchanges and the confinement of charismatic animals (particularly endangered bison) in the national park for the enjoyment of park visitors and future shipment to the East, is often overlooked by environmental historians. Students of environmental history as well as general audiences with an interest in the Yellowstone National Park or the early history of the Smithsonian will find Smith s work which features world s fair wildlife displays, professional taxidermy, and the US Calvary s management of Yellowstone both engaging and accessible. Kathy S. Mason, author of Natural Museums: U.S. National Parks, 1872 1916

Author Information

Diane Smith is a research historian with the USDA Forest Service and the author of Pictures from an Expedition and Letters from Yellowstone. She lives in Missoula, Montana.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available