Sea Currents in Nineteenth-century Art, Science and Culture

Book excerpt: How did scientists, artists, designers, manufacturers and amateur enthusiasts experience and value the sea and its products? Taking a fresh approach to oceanic history, this book brings together material culture, oceanography, and environmental history to uncover marine object and display histories and the role they played in nineteenth-century culture. Scientific exploration, colonial expansion, industrialization, and the rise of middle-class tourism transformed the way the ocean was seen and experienced. Its mystery, made tangible through processing and representational technologies, captivated practitioners and audiences. Combining essays and case studies by scholars, curators, and scientists, this book investigates the collecting and display, illustration and ornamentation, and trade and consumption of marine flora and fauna, analysing their material, aesthetic and commercial dimensions. Traversing global art history, the history of science, empire studies, anthropology, ecocriticism and material culture, it surveys the currency of marine matter in the economies and ecologies of a modernizing ocean world. By highlighting the relevance and role the ocean world played in modern science and industry, art and culture, this book demonstrates the vital interconnectivity of art and science and the importance of ocean-oriented perspectives in the understanding of modern history.