Research Project
Making Animals Speak: Logistics, Science, Presentation
Mareike Vennen, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Located at the interface between the history of science, logistics and culture, as well as environmental history, the sub-project asks how animals in and through the Berlin collections are (or should be) made into objects of knowledge and as such are made to speak. Firstly, the focus is on the transfers, traffics and transformations of objects, knowledge and practices from the 19th to the 21st century. In micro-historical case studies, the paths of individual objects will be traced in and through the institutions, taking into account local and global logistics and transport routes, dealer networks, collecting and catching practices: from where, through whom, and on which routes did the animals enter the zoo, teaching collection, or museum? How do procurement routes and transport practices differ for living and dead animals, or for aquatic and terrestrial animals? How have the logistical, scientific and economic conditions of transfers changed? Secondly, and building on this, the focus is on techniques and practices of storage, processing and presentation in the respective institutions - live animal husbandry in zoos and aquariums, taxidermy and scientific processing in museums, and utilization in the teaching collection.