A Glorious Enterprise: The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia and the Making of American Science
"To leaf throughA Glorious Enterpriseis to see history unfold. Two hundred years in the making, this beautiful book is a paean to the Western Hemisphere's oldest natural history museum—the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia—and the passionate men and women who shaped its reputation. Like a sophisticated cabinet of curiosities, the tome brims with treasures illustrating the museum's 18-million-piece collection."—Audubon"A book to remember. . . . To wander throughA Glorious Enterpriseis to absorb the nineteenth century's passion for botany and zoology; the twentieth century's mania for exploration of distant, difficult or desolate places; and present-day preoccupations. . . . All of these tales are fascinating, but the book's true fascination comes in its color photographs and illustrations, scores of them."—Cornelia Dean,New York Times"A handsome volume that should be in all serious collections on the history of the natural sciences."—Library Journal"Magnificent in both its scope and its ambitious physicality,A Glorious Enterpriseis a fascinating miniature museum in and of itself, exploring the cultural history of natural history with equal parts rigor and romanticism—the hallmark of great science."—Maria Popova,Brain Pickings"A fascinating history, lavishly illustrated, of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, America's earliest scientific institution. The book's eighteen chapters offer not a single narrative, but a set of panels in which are figured episodes and topics that carry us from the beginning of the nineteenth century up to the present. For those who do not already know the Academy,A Glorious Enterpriseshould prompt a visit to the displays and library of this extraordinary home of scientific research."—Charles Gillispie, Professor Emeritus of the History of Science, Princeton University