Imitating nature: Museum representations of non-human life beyond the specimen

Imitating Nature investigates natural history displays which do not incorporate the remains of the lifeform depicted, analysing objects such as animal death masks, re-creation taxidermy, glass models and virtual tours. Drawing on literary analysis, museum studies and the environmental humanities, it analyses displays at the Museum für Naturkunde, Harvard Natural History Museum, the Creation Museum, Naturalis Biodiversity Center and other institutions. The book interrogates the relationship between exhibition media and narrative to reveal how non-specimen representations mediate extinction, speculate on past ecologies and construct alternative forms of museum nature. It provides a critical account of how these objects shape knowledge-making within twenty-first-century museum practice, and extends analysis of ‘museum nature’ beyond taxidermy and the organic specimen to deepen our understanding of non-human representations in contemporary culture. — .