CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 6/27/2022

Natural treasures of bygone centuries in 'Collecting Nature: The History of the Herbarium and Natural Specimens'

Today is a good day for a book about the flora, shells, eggs, minerals and rare insects of the golden age of curiosities. Featured image—a detail from an insect cabinet at Engelsberg Ironworks in Sweden, home of a collection created by Gabriel Casper Timm and his son Paul August in the nineteenth century—is reproduced from Collecting Nature: The History of the Herbarium and Natural Specimens, the gorgeous, leatherbound new release from Bokförlaget Stolpe. “Browsing through the leaves of the herbarium and admiring the plants, insects, minerals, bird’s eggs and shells makes for a powerful experience,” Svante Helmbaek Tirén writes; “it is truly a monument of a bygone era and a testament to their great devotion and passion for natural history. It raises questions about the Timms and other collectors of that time, and also larger questions about why we humans are gatherers in the first place.”