Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Journal of Natural Science Collections
Volume
10
Publication Date
2022
Abstract
Mineral displays embodied how we think about minerals: as symbols of social status, scholarly tools, theological objects, and instruments of education. Mineral displays are also representations of how we don’t think about minerals: as human products embedded in wider human histories. This paper reviews the historical themes in mineral display, from the cabinets of curiosity of the Renaissance to modern museums, and articulates a major narrative that has been omitted from mineral display traditions: the human processes that bring mineral specimens from the ground to the display case, particularly Western colonialism and labour. Historically, mineral displays have been used to provoke thought about mineral formation and wider Earth processes; here, too, mineral displays can be used to provoke thought about the human processes that created modern Geology.
Citation
Hearth, S., and Robbins, C. 2022. Mineral displays as embodiments of geological thought and colonial invisibility. Journal of Natural Science Collections. 10. pp.3-17.
Included in
Geology Commons, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine Commons, Museum Studies Commons
