Book - The History of Natural History

An annotated bibliography – second edition

Every single one of us is going to need regular access to a copy. As a source of reference on almost every conceivable aspect of the subject it will patently be indispensable. David Allen, Wellcome Trust

This volume has just about everything a historian of natural history could want in the reference line... [Bridson] knows the kind of questions historians tend to ask in libraries. Janet Browne, Harvard University

The History of Natural History is an essential source of information for scientists, researchers and enthusiastic amateurs. This annotated bibliography, the only one to encompass the entire subject area, provides a unique key to information sources for this wide-ranging subject.

Compiled over many years by the late Gavin Bridson, this revised and greatly updated second edition (with over 5,300 additional references) is published by The Linnean Society.

Each entry is identified with a coded locator, leading you fluidly through each section where the information is divided into different types of source. The main sections cover:

Personnel, Organisations, Current Awareness

Biographies

Club, Society, Association and Academy History

Library History and Resources

History of Natural History

History of Botany

History of Zoology

Historical and Bibliographical Methods

The History of Natural History is a useful reference on the history of science and for any student of natural history.

About the author

Gavin D.R. Bridson (1936 – 2008) was chief librarian at London’s Natural History Museum before he relocated to become Librarian of the Linnean Society in 1969. Over a decade later, Bridson had transferred the Society’s extensive library holdings to a card catalogue, including Linnaeus’ own personal library. Bridson then departed for the U.S. where he settled as Bibliographer and Principal Research Scholar at the Hunt Botanical Institute in Pittsburgh.