The Nature of Things : Stories from a Natural History Museum

Meteorites from the fields, frogs in alcohol, gigantic fossils, living animal specimens or DNA samples from bats the collections of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin include around 30 million objects from all over the world. Only through very own processes do objects from nature become museum objects, i.e. knowledge items that can answer questions and raise new ones. These natural history objects are associated to varied, sometimes unexpected, stories of collecting travels or accidental discoveries, of knowledge gain and scientific errors. More than 80 authors tell fascinating stories about museum things of all kinds. In this way, the volume shows innovative paths that museums can tread in interpreting their collections.