{"product_id":"9780199839124","title":"Stuffed Animals and Pickled Heads: The Culture and Evolution of Natural History Museums","description":"The natural history museum is a place where the line between \"high\" and \"low\" culture effectively vanishes--where our awe of nature, our taste for the bizarre, and our thirst for knowledge all blend happily together. But as Stephen Asma shows in \u003cem\u003eStuffed Animals and Pickled Heads\u003c\/em\u003e, there is more going on in these great institutions than just smart fun. Asma takes us on a wide-ranging tour of natural history museums in New York and Chicago, London and Paris, interviewing curators, scientists, and exhibit designers, and providing a wealth of fascinating observations.  We learn how the first museums were little more than high-toned side shows, with such garish exhibits as the pickled head of Peter the Great's lover. In contrast, today's museums are hot-beds of serious science, funding major research in such fields as anthropology and archaeology. \"Rich in detail, lucid explanation, telling anecdotes, and fascinating characters.... Asma has rendered a fascinating and credible account of how natural history museums are conceived and presented.  It's the kind of book that will not only engage a wide and diverse readership, but it should, best of all, send them flocking to see how we look at nature and ourselves in those fabulous legacies of the curiosity cabinet.\"--\u003cem\u003eThe Boston Herald\u003c\/em\u003e.","brand":"Oxford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47082942726384,"sku":"9780199839124","price":39.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780199839124_p0.jpg?v=1763671729","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780199839124","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}