Titel
The historical power of the natural science collection of Dominik Bilimek at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU)
Autor*in
Franz Ottner
Department of Applied Geology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences
... show all
Abstract
The scientific world of the nineteenth century was shaped by far-reaching discoveries, expeditions, travel and collection activities as well as by the development of extensive natural scientific social networking. During the 1840s, Dominik Bilimek (1813–1884) arose as a key personality in European natural sciences, with a significant impact on the biological, geoscientific and even archaeological communities. The Bilimek collection at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna encompasses thousands of specimens and provides a large number of original labels with date, locality and companions in the field. This set of collection labels was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively with respect to its historical value to increase our knowledge about the explorer's life and his social network. The study also focuses on Bilimek's so far unknown social links, which were recovered by the processing of the collection, probably resulting in the use of these data for a social network analysis of a nineteenth-century scientific network.
Historical natural science collections have become increasingly important for several reasons. First, extensive urban development since the nineteenth century has led to successive inaccessibility of many fossil localities and geological strata. Second, geomorphological changes such as the re-naturation of outcrops or landslides can strongly influence scientific sampling at many localities. Third, scientific activities and field trips may be restricted because of political instabilities and global pandemics such as the Covid-19 virus. All these factors can impact long-term plans for scientific projects. During such times, the use of collection material for biological and geoscientific studies offers a clear alternative because museums and archives enable researchers to access collection material, promoting further work on particular taxonomic groups, fossil localities and even geological strata. Finally, palaeontological collections are the only long-term archives for the faunal content of geological localities and the corresponding strata. The sensible distribution of palaeontological finds among different institutions prevents the complete loss of scientifically valuable objects if an individual collection is lost.
In this paper we examine the work of the Cistercian monk and collector Dominik Bilimek along with the geoscientific and biological specimens he worked on. Specimen-based palaeontology and the significance of collections within the scientific infrastructure have a long tradition.1 As faunal associations can be preserved in scientific collections,2 palaeobiological research can be conducted by using that material and the corresponding labels. Recently, the distribution of viviparity in clausiliid gastropods from currently inaccessible localities was examined based on biological collection material.3 In addition, natural history collections contain ‘layered information’—including the locality and collection dates, which are necessary for palaeontologists. Other information of interest to researchers, historians and social scientists are notes about the collector, associated observations, additional information about individual objects, sometimes even comments about the weather and rocks, as well as distinct events such as scientific conferences. These comprise the so-called ‘historical layer’. Here, records of personal or institutional relationships, time specifications or travelling routes increase the significance of geoscientific or biological collections for other disciplines as well. Case studies and applications of collections in the history of science abound in the literature.4 Ideally, the different layers are used combined because only from this overall approach can suitable knowledge be gained.
Stichwort
MexicocollectionpalaeobiologyEduard Suesshistory of sciencesDominik Bilimek
Objekt-Typ
Sprache
Englisch [eng]
Persistent identifier
phaidra.univie.ac.at/o:1971490
Erschienen in
Titel
Notes and Records: the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
ISSN
0035-9149
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Publication
The Royal Society
Erscheinungsdatum
2023
Zugänglichkeit
Rechte
Rechteangabe
© 2023 The Authors
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