Nature of replication: Natural History Museums & the circulation of casts and models

在19世纪和20世纪初，石膏模型、模型和复制品是博物馆之间分享独特和稀有标本的关键，用于科学审查、博物馆展示和作为原件的“备份”。在许多类型的博物馆中，这些材料在物品等级中的地位很低，正如古典考古学的研究所表明的那样，存在争议。这种复制品在自然历史博物馆中的地位从未得到评估，但很可能与艺术史世界中的例子不同。该项目将解决这一学术空白。今天，这些模型可以让我们深入了解当时共享的想法和对象，并告诉我们用于制作和传播模型，模型和复制品的技术和网络。许多现在值得作为博物馆的对象本身的地位或无价的情况下，原来的对象已经丢失或销毁。在某些情况下，这些物品是没有档案的地方唯一的思想和解释的残余。这一领域的研究非常少，由于这些物品的价值相对较低，对将这些物品传播到几乎每个博物馆的技术人员，艺术家，建模师和销售人员的网络所知不多。该项目将着眼于铸造和建模的文化，以探索制造中使用的不同技术，出售它们的关键人物，博物馆档案中的现有目录，发票和信件以及委托，交换和共享这些材料的博物馆馆长网络。模型、模型和复制品在过去和现代博物馆中的价值也将被研究，比如它们是否应该成为收藏品？它们在博物馆展览中有作用吗？这些物品的价值是什么？这段历史能为开发3D复制品的新策展方法提供信息吗？从牛津大学自然历史博物馆的例子开始，该博物馆拥有世界上复制最多的博物馆物品之一“牛津渡渡鸟”，以及其他作为铸件和复制品展示和制作的标本的例子，这个项目将拼凑铸件制作的历史，作为分享想法的方式，以及研究博物馆如何最好地记录，今天推广和展示这些有时是二等的物品。

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, plaster casts, models and replicas were key to sharing unique and rare specimens between museums for scientific scrutiny, museum display and as 'backups' to the originals. In many types of museum the status of such materials in the hierarchy of objects was low and, as studies in classical archaeology have shown, contested. The status of such reproductions in the context of natural history museums has never evaluated, but is likely to have operated differently from examples in the art historical world. This project will address this lacunae in scholarship. Today these cast may give us an insight into the ideas and objects that were being shared, as well as telling us about the techniques and networks used to produce and disseminate casts, models and replicas. Many are now deserving a status as museum objects in their own right or invaluable in instances where the original objects have been lost or destroyed. In some cases these objects are the only remnants of ideas and interpretations where archives do not exist. This area is very poorly researched and, due to the comparatively low value perception of these objects, not much is known about the network of technicians, artists, modellers and salespeople who spread these objects to almost every museum. This project would look at the cultures of casting and modelling to explore the different techniques used in manufacture, key individuals who sold them, existing catalogues, invoices and correspondence in museum archives and the networks of museum curators who commissioned, swapped and shared this material. The value of casts, models and replicas in the past and in modern museums will also be examined, looking at questions like should they be accessioned objects? Do they have a role in museum displays? What is the value of such objects? Can this history be informative for developing new curatorial approaches to 3D replicas? Starting with examples from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, which holds the 'Oxford dodo', one of the most replicated museum objects in the world, alongside other examples of specimens which were and still are displayed and produced as casts and replicas, this project will piece together the history of cast production as way of sharing ideas as well as examining how museums can best record, promote and display these sometimes second class objects today.