Fil. dr Anna Samuelsson
Centrum för genusvetenskap
Uppsala universitet

2010-2015

Project aim and changes during the course of the project
The original objective was to examine how humans and animals have been displayed in natural history museums in the period 1800-2007, with a focus on taxidermy and anatomical preparations. How have bodies been reconstructed, shaped and staged, what changes can we see over time, and how can these be interpreted in their historical contexts? The overall perspective was that categories, classifications and exhibitions are changing, changeable, shaped by cultural beliefs and power relations.
During the course of the project the original selection of museums has been narrowed to the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, Gothenburg Natural History museum, the Natural History Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen and the Biological Museums in Uppsala and Stockholm, with some comparisons to Berlin and London. Rather than covering the entire period and all exhibitions, the focus has been on case studies and themes, such as anomalies, the human body, colonial taxidermy and changes in dioramas. The research questions were how ideas about species, race, gender, nation and normality have been expressed and how border work relating to the dualisms nature/culture and human/animal have been performed. The survey period has been somewhat extended in the cases where I have "followed" some bodies' exhibition histories during the project period. The theft of a computer in March 2013 caused a loss of research data. This resulted in a time delay and a modified publication plan.
The three most important results
The first theme deals with how great apes (and one proboscis monkey) have been exhibited. The point of departure was the gorillas "collected" for the Swedish Museum of Natural History between 1906 and 1921. The study exemplifies how museums participated in colonial networks, and how the perceptions, shaping and staging of great apes has changed, from threatening (standing) "monsters" and legitimate trophy bodies, to peaceful primates. The cases also exemplify how mounted animals are most often staged as de-individualized icons of species, habitat or behavior, but that the diorama often meant an even stronger anonymization as the traces of historical processes and taxidermic translations and transformations are made invisible in the pursuit of creating an image of "pure" nature. Exceptions to this anonymization exist among some of those who have been experienced and classified as individuals in zoos.
The second theme is about how museums have interpreted bodies that have been classified as anomalies between established categories. From around 1800 the specimen which couldn't be classified within Linnaeus' system where generally marginalized. A part of this investigation, however, shows a parallel development with an increased interest in crosses during the 1800s. A case study of a group of now warehoused wolfdog puppies that were inserted in the Swedish Museum's public collections in 1903, show that this interest also can be connected to the heredity doctrine which was established in 1900. A study of older printed guides also demonstrates how museums through their older taxonomic exhibitions displayed more varieties than later dioramas, where only ideal types would represent the species in question. Throughout the 1900s, museums have often interpreted the display of malformations as unscientific, but necessary to attract audiences. An example is the so-called Cabinet of Naturalia which was arranged and installed in Gothenburg Museum of Natural History in 1963, and which was intended to be a reminiscence of the old museum in contrast to the modern. The cabinet among other "things" contained the heads of a two-headed calf, a two-headed snake and conjoined human babies. I follow the twins' exhibition history in three steps: From 1923 in the context of comparative mammal anatomy in the Whale hall, to the Cabinet where they became an element in a construction of the "old" museum, to their removal in 2011. Their removal can be understood on many levels, but their humanity is one reason. The Human's place in (and exclusion from) natural history is a theme in itself with a number of examples in the project.
The third theme highlights the dioramas and panoramas that became popular around 1900 in reaction to the older taxonomic exhibitions. In Sweden the diorama found two of its most prominent expressions in Gustav Kolthoff's Biological museums in Stockholm (1893) and Uppsala (1910). While previous research has mainly focused on the establishment of dioramas, I focus on changes in the dioramas after their inauguration; how animals have been rearranged, removed and re-placed in a series of renovations and how perceptions of gender and place have shaped these arrangements, up the recent re-inaugurations in 1993 and 2007. One general conclusion is that the original displays, and the early additions to them, predominantly displayed "family groups" arranged as "male and female with cub/s" - in that order - in texts and composition. With recent renovations bodies were culled to create transparency and more space, but this also meant that the males in many cases became the exclusive norm for the species in question. (For example, today's elk bull in the Biological museum in Stockholm stands alone, while in the original version, he was "accompanied" by "his" cow.) Also in the so called biological groups which were introduced in the Swedish Museum of Natural History and in Gothenburg around the same period, a similar pattern can be read. The survey also emphasises that most (mounted) animals are regarded as interchangeable objects without scientific values rather than unique individuals with historical values.
New research questions generated by the project
A study of visitors' experiences during the time period covered in the project would complement and nuance findings. A deeper study of photographs and illustrations would contribute to a more comprehensive picture. The possibilities to zoom in on photographs and provide access to details we have not previously accessed, could be utilized more fully than has been done in the present study. How collections and specimens have been moved between institutions such as the medical, natural history, veterinary and school museums is an unexplored area. In several cities there were a variety of museums of comparative anatomy. These would be interesting to study not only from the perspective of the history of science and cultural history but also in relation to issues of comparisons and relationships between animals and humans. Furthermore, early representations of the human and other species' evolution, as well as the casts and models which were used to represent races and folk types deserves to be examined. Postwar exhibitions on themes such as environmental toxins and threats to species raises questions about how bodies have been used in Contaminant Research and exhibitions on the subject.
International connections
Parts of the project have been presented at international conferences at the Advanced Cultural Studies Institute of Sweden (ACSIS) in Norrköping in 2013 and 2015, the International Society for Cultural History in Oslo in 2011, and at the Pufendorf Institute: Animal Turn, in Lund, 2014. During the project I have participated in the HumAnimal Group at the Centre for Gender Research and in an international workshop on the theme Animal Places, in Uppsala. The project was initially presented at the Medical Museion, Copenhagen and the Center for Museology, Aarhus.
Research information outside the academic community
In addition to presentations at academic seminars, the research has been used in the international master's program in Global Environmental History at Uppsala University in 2013-2015. Public lectures have been held at the Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala and at the National Library in Oslo. A poster and research profile presentation have been published. More talks are planned for 2016.
The two most important publications and dissemination strategy
"Zoo/mbie Spaces: Museums as Humanimal Places" discuss gorillas in the Swedish Museum of Natural History, twins in Gothenburg and a diorama with orangutans in Copenhagen. The overarching question is how different spatial contexts and exhibition texts creates different meanings. The article put forward several of the project's theoretical and empirical arguments and the concept Zoo/mbie, a combination of Zoology and Zombie, is developed. The text is a contribution to an upcoming anthology on the theme Animals Places.
"Varghybriderna i museimagasinet: Om korsningar i museer och zoologiska parker" [Wolf Hybrids in the Storeroom: crossings in museums and zoological parks]. Starting from seven mounted wolf dog puppies that were inserted into the exhibitions in the SMNH in 1903, the article explores how hybrids were exhibited in museums and zoos around 1900-1929. The article discusses the changing terms and meanings of crossbreeds ("bastard" was a common term in the museum guides, yearbooks and journals) but also Hybrid as metaphor and materialized symbol of the different types of border crossings, historically and today. The article draws attention to the traffic of bodies between zoos and museums, in this case, Skansen and the Swedish Museum of Natural History. The article is written together with Ingvar Svanberg.
Open access of the first article is ensured through parallel publishing. By the publication of the second article in the Journal RIG the historically interested audience is reached. The journal use delayed Open Access but also allows publishing in open archives. In addition to these, there are more articles in progress which will be published in open access journals or permitting parallel publishing.

Publications
”Zoo/mbie Spaces: Museums as Humanimal Places”, Animals and Place, eds. Jacob Bull, Tora Holmberg, Cecilia Åsberg, Aldershot: Ashgate [forthcoming, 2016].
”Varghybriderna i museimagasinet: Om korsningar i museer och zoologiska parker” (med Ingvar Svanberg), RIG: Kulturhistorisk tidskrift [kommande, 2016].
Poster presentations (2015): http://files.webb.uu.se/uploader/207/Poster%20booklet.pdf (p. 7)
“Researcher profile: Anna Samuelsson” (2015), The 2014 annual report of the Centre for Gender Research, Uppsala University: Crossroads of knowledge: Annual report 2014 (pp. 30–32).
Works in Progress
Humans on Display in Natural History Museums (https://www.isak.liu.se/acsis/konferenser/in-the-making/1.637834/Programbok.pdf (p. 106))
”Apes in Museums: changing re-presentations and material-semiotic processes”
”Sekelskiftets dioramor i ny belysning”
”Den feminina vita älgtjuren: om genus och variation i naturhistoriska museer”
”Keillers björn”