Finders, Keepers: Eight Collectors

Rating:
Summary: Eight Collectors Collecting
Review: I have to start out by confessing that I bought this book for the pictures. I am fascinated by the photography of the grotesque, and Rosamond Purcell holds high rank in this rarified genre. She is noted both for her own original work and her recording (museum, collection, etc.) work. Her photography in "Finders, Keepers" is remarkable, strong carefully composed images with lush color. Just as notable is her reliance on natural light and the simplest of Nikon cameras and lenses.

The only part of the book I originally read was Purcell's Afterword. It is a delightful exposition on her romance with collectors and museums, revealing a thoughtful, philosophical professional with a strong creative sense. After that much reading I was satisfied, and the book took its place on my shelves with Purcell's other works, to be referred to when opportunities of my own appeared.

Having decided to review it, I discovered, to my embarrassment, that the book was actually about something. The text, far from being the filler that often appears in photographic volumes, turned out to be a series of gemlike studies of eight collectors of note, consisting of Peter the Great, Phillip Von Siebold, Willern Von Heurn, Eugen Dubois, Walter Rothschild, Agostino Scilla, Thomas Hawkins and Louis Agassiz . Some of these men are popularly famous and others are known only to other naturalists, but they are all interesting. Their collections, sometimes known only from fragments are breathtaking.

The author of these essays is Stephen Gould, paleontologist and occupant of the Alexander Agassiz Chair of Zoology and Curator at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. Despite these rather awe inspiring credentials his style is delightfully accessible as he reveals each collector's life and passion to the reader. If you like paleontology, or natural history, or glances into the strange mind of the collector you will find this a refreshingly pleasant volume, providing an equal share of education and delight.

Rating:
Summary: Eight Collectors Collecting
Review: I have to start out by confessing that I bought this book for the pictures. I am fascinated by the photography of the grotesque, and Rosamond Purcell holds high rank in this rarified genre. She is noted both for her own original work and her recording (museum, collection, etc.) work. Her photography in "Finders, Keepers" is remarkable, strong carefully composed images with lush color. Just as notable is her reliance on natural light and the simplest of Nikon cameras and lenses.

The only part of the book I originally read was Purcell's Afterword. It is a delightful exposition on her romance with collectors and museums, revealing a thoughtful, philosophical professional with a strong creative sense. After that much reading I was satisfied, and the book took its place on my shelves with Purcell's other works, to be referred to when opportunities of my own appeared.

Having decided to review it, I discovered, to my embarrassment, that the book was actually about something. The text, far from being the filler that often appears in photographic volumes, turned out to be a series of gemlike studies of eight collectors of note, consisting of Peter the Great, Phillip Von Siebold, Willern Von Heurn, Eugen Dubois, Walter Rothschild, Agostino Scilla, Thomas Hawkins and Louis Agassiz . Some of these men are popularly famous and others are known only to other naturalists, but they are all interesting. Their collections, sometimes known only from fragments are breathtaking.

The author of these essays is Stephen Gould, paleontologist and occupant of the Alexander Agassiz Chair of Zoology and Curator at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. Despite these rather awe inspiring credentials his style is delightfully accessible as he reveals each collector's life and passion to the reader. If you like paleontology, or natural history, or glances into the strange mind of the collector you will find this a refreshingly pleasant volume, providing an equal share of education and delight.

Rating:
Summary: Lush, fascinating view of collecting and natural history
Review: One of the most beautiful books I own, combining Purcell's precise and beautiful photographs with Gould's intelligent and accessible writing. Finders, Keepers combines the diversity of living things, history, scholarship and art in an immaculately designed and printed whole. Absolutely stunning from start to finish.