One of Every Type: Collection, Description and the Production of the Generic Animal at the Hamburg Zoological Garden, 1863-1911

Abstract

Between 1863 and 1911, the guidebooks and several other publications of the Hamburg Zoological Garden characterized animals as standardized, biologically determined “Types.” These typologies were reinforced by physical and anthropomorphic descriptions and representations of animals as commodities or fragmented objects of scientific scrutiny. In this way, attempts to classify and collect animals reduced them to unsophisticated, interchangeable objects that confounded the zoo’s mandate to deepen public and scientific knowledge about wild animals. Instead, captive wild animals were rendered as simplified and generic representations that called into question the authenticity of the zoo experience and the scientific premise of the zoological garden.