More than birds: Loss and reconnection at the National Museum of Natural History

Abstract

ABSTRACT This essay draws on correspondence between Smithsonian Institution curators and Edgar Alexander Mearns, an army surgeon who served in the Philippines during the first decade of the twentieth century, in order to explore ideas about loss in natural history collections. Beneath the appearance of abundance in these collections lies a constant concern with loss, not simply with the loss of specimens to spoil and slippage, but also with the loss of data and sometimes the loss of opportunities to acquire and describe new material. I explore the ways curators considered loss historically but also the ways that reconnecting natural history specimens and field books today offer possibilities for repairing some of these losses and more fully understanding the historical and cultural context of collection.