Description
At the heart of it all from the very start have been curators. Yet after three decades as a natural history curator, Lance Grande found that he still had to give an explanation for to people what he does. This book is the answer—and, oh, what an answer it is: vigorous, exciting, up-to-date, it offers a portrait of curators and their research like none we’ve seen, one that conveys the intellectual excitement and the educational and social value of curation. Grande uses the personal story of his own career—most of it spent at Chicago’s storied Field Museum—to structure his account as he explores the value of research and collections, the importance of public engagement, changing ecological and ethical considerations, and the have an effect on of abruptly bettering technology. Right through, we are guided by Grande’s keen sense of mission, of a job where the why is all the time as important as the what.
This beautifully written and richly illustrated book is a clear-eyed but loving account of natural history museums, their curators, and their ever-expanding roles in the twenty-first century.