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Biological collections: the basis of evolutionary theory.

Article Excerpt
All Creatures: Naturalists, Collectors, and Biodiversity, 1850-1950. Robert E. Kohler. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2006. 380 pp., illus. $35.00 (ISBN 9780691125398 cloth).

Robert Kohler says he wrote All Creatures: Naturalists, Collectors, and Biodiversity, 1850-1950 to answer the question, "Hundreds of expeditions launched to every corner of the world: millions of specimens assembled and lovingly preserved--what made that happen?" In typical historian fashion, Kohler documents his answer to that question with 776 endnotes--a gold mine of information for anyone wanting to explore further. He writes an excessively long (90-page) introduction before he ever gets to the major collecting expeditions, discussing patterns of land use and recreation across the United States (which is important for documenting his idea that hunting, fishing, and camping were the ancestral requirements for large-scale collecting). Kohler also provides an excellent discussion of how Americans' view of nature evolved over 100 years, noting that amateur collections of birds' eggs and other biological specimens turned out to be valuable additions to...

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