{"title":"The man-eaters of Tsavo and the untapped potential of natural history collections","authors":"Bruce D. Patterson","doi":"10.1111/cura.12562","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>One of the best-known exhibits at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History features the man-eating lions of Tsavo. Over a period of nine months in 1898, this pair of lions systematically hunted, killed and consumed railroad workers engaged in building a bridge over the Tsavo River in East Africa. The lions were eventually killed by an engineer, J. H. Patterson, who afterwards wrote a best-selling book about the episode. His dramatic story has been retold in countless articles, books, and motion pictures, each more sensational and gory than the last. What parts are true? Fortunately, the lions' skins and skulls offer an independent and verifiable chronicle of events that actually transpired. These two specimens effectively re-wrote their own history through the scientific research sparked by their notoriety, reminding us that the collections of natural history museums hold almost limitless potential to illuminate the world around us and its history.</p>","PeriodicalId":10791,"journal":{"name":"Curator: The Museum Journal","volume":"66 3","pages":"523-531"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Curator: The Museum Journal","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cura.12562","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"HUMANITIES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
One of the best-known exhibits at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History features the man-eating lions of Tsavo. Over a period of nine months in 1898, this pair of lions systematically hunted, killed and consumed railroad workers engaged in building a bridge over the Tsavo River in East Africa. The lions were eventually killed by an engineer, J. H. Patterson, who afterwards wrote a best-selling book about the episode. His dramatic story has been retold in countless articles, books, and motion pictures, each more sensational and gory than the last. What parts are true? Fortunately, the lions' skins and skulls offer an independent and verifiable chronicle of events that actually transpired. These two specimens effectively re-wrote their own history through the scientific research sparked by their notoriety, reminding us that the collections of natural history museums hold almost limitless potential to illuminate the world around us and its history.
芝加哥菲尔德自然历史博物馆最著名的展品之一是察沃食人狮。1898年，在长达9个月的时间里，这对狮子系统地猎杀并吞噬了在东非察沃河上建造桥梁的铁路工人。这些狮子最终被工程师j·h·帕特森(J. H. Patterson)杀死，他后来就这一事件写了一本畅销书。他那戏剧性的故事在无数的文章、书籍和电影中被重述，一个比一个耸人听闻，一个比一个血腥。哪些部分是真实的?幸运的是，狮子的皮和头骨为实际发生的事件提供了独立且可验证的编年史。这两个标本通过科学研究有效地改写了它们自己的历史，提醒我们自然历史博物馆的藏品几乎具有无限的潜力，可以照亮我们周围的世界及其历史。
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