{"product_id":"now-is-the-time-to-collect-daniel-giraud-elliot-carl-akeley-and-the-field-museum-african-expedition-of-1896-9780817361488","title":"Now Is the Time to Collect: Daniel Giraud Elliot, Carl Akeley, and the Field Museum African Expedition of 1896","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe rediscovery of a curator's lost journal illuminates the astonishing African journey that formed the basis of the Chicago Field Museum's famed collections\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"Now\" \u003ci\u003eIs the Time to Collect\u003c\/i\u003e tells the fascinating story of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History's zoological expedition to Africa in 1896, the source of many of the museum's foundational collections and an astounding episode in nineteenth-century science. After the well-publicized extinction of the dodo and Carolina parakeet and the collapse of the American bison population, late nineteenth-century naturalists expected many more vulnerable species to die out with spread of Western-style industrialization. This triggered a race to collect rare species of animals expected soon to be lost forever. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Established in 1893, Chicago's ambitious Field Museum aimed to become a global center of study. Zoologist Daniel Giraud Elliot persuaded museum patrons to fund an immediate expedition to British Somaliland (contemporary Somalia). There, his team hunted and killed hundreds of animals for the growing collection. On the trip was groundbreaking taxonomist Carl Akeley. Back in Chicago, Akeley created captivating lifelike dioramas of rare animal groups that enhanced the museum's fame and remain popular to this day. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Enriched with illuminated passages from Elliot's journal, only recently rediscovered, \"Now\" \u003ci\u003eIs the Time to Collect \u003c\/i\u003eis the first book of its kind by an American museum and a case study in what author Paul D. Brinkman calls \"salvage zoology\"--the practice of aggressively collecting rare animal specimens for preservation just prior to the birth of the modern conservation movement. It is a riveting account of the expedition, the travelers' experiences in Somalia during its colonial period, and the astonishing origins of one of Chicago's classic museum experiences. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePaul D. Brinkman\u003c\/b\u003e is head of the Science Research Lab and curator of Special Collections at the Environmental Research Laboratory and adjunct associate professor at North Carolina State University. He is author of \u003ci\u003eThe Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush: Museums and Paleontology in America at the Turn of the Twentieth Century\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University Alabama Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50875279311122,"sku":"9780817361488","price":30.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_7e54c19d-ebb3-4865-ac5a-f9f2c6bc0750.jpg?v=1738284689","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/now-is-the-time-to-collect-daniel-giraud-elliot-carl-akeley-and-the-field-museum-african-expedition-of-1896-9780817361488","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}