Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2017 Fossil Excavation, Museums, and Wyoming: American Paleontology, 1870-1915 Marlena Briane Cameron Follow this and additional works at the DigiNole: FSU's Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES FOSSIL EXCAVATION, MUSEUMS, AND WYOMING: AMERICAN PALEONTOLOGY, 1870-1915 By MARLENA BRIANE CAMERON A Thesis submitted to the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2017 Marlena Cameron defended this thesis on July 17, 2017. The members of the supervisory committee were: Ronald E. Doel Professor Directing Thesis Michael Ruse Committee Member Kristina Buhrman Committee Member Sandra Varry Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iv Abstract ............................................................................................................................................v 1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................1 2. THE BONE WARS ....................................................................................................................9 3. MUSEUM WARS .....................................................................................................................22 4. LOCAL PEACE AND VALUES: THE UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING MUSEUM ............41 5. CONCLUSION .........................................................................................................................55 APPENDIX: IMAGES ..................................................................................................................59 References ......................................................................................................................................67 Biographical Sketch .......................................................................................................................71 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: 1899 Fossil Fields Expedition Participants ....................................................................59 Figure 2: William Harlow Reed and Assistants Around a Titanothere Mount..............................59 Figure 3: “Megalnosaur paddle – about 1897 – Prof. B. C. Buffum” ...........................................60 Figure 4: Carnegie Museum’s Fossil Preparation Room ...............................................................60 Figure 5: “Bone Room – Mechanic Arts Bldg – 1897” .................................................................61 Figure 6: “Bone Room (Mechanic Arts Bldg) – About 1898” ......................................................61 Figure 7: “Bone Room - Mechanic Arts Bldg – 1899” .................................................................62 Figure 8: “Bone Room – In Mechanic Arts Bldg – 1897. W. H. Reed” .......................................62 Figure 9: “Elmer Riggs with Preparator in Field Museum’s Fossil Preparation Room, 1900 ......63 Figure 10: “Museum Room – ‘in Old Main’ – About 1895” ........................................................63 Figure 11: “Museum Scene U. of Wyo. Winter 1906-1907” ........................................................64 Figure 12: “Museum, 1908. W. H. Reed.” ....................................................................................64 Figure 13: American Museum with First Dinosaur Mount ( Brontosaurus ) on Display, 1905......65 Figure 14: Carnegie Museum with Diplodocus Mount on Display, 1907 .....................................65 Figure 15: American Museum Titanothere Models on Display, Circa 1900 .................................66 iv ABSTRACT Displays of dinosaurs have become a staple of modern natural history museums, but these did not emerge until the turn of the twentieth century. Through the work of Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh in this field (despite their intense rivalry), paleontology grew as a discipline and, after losing federal funding, found a new home in museums and universities. Recognizing the potential of large dinosaurs for display and education, major natural history museums such as the American Museum of Natural History in New York under Henry Osborn began competing for their own specimens. Much work has been done on the efforts of these emerging large museums. Smaller museums such as the University of Wyoming Museum, however, have been much less studied. Through its proximity to immense, rich fossil fields, the university became directly connected to the major events shaping paleontology at the time. Yet differences in the pedagogy and intentions behind its formation—a sense of state pride rather than the concerns of wealthy, elite sponsors—served to set it apart from larger, more well-known institutions. v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Dinosaurs. Large reptile-like behemoths towering above even the largest of modern terrestrial animals, their bones at an unprecedented scale. Not all dinosaurs reached such a large size, but even so, the sheer range of their body sizes, types, and structures have awed scientists and the general public alike. Proof of their popularity extends from being a quintessential staple of the stereotypical museum to a strong presence in pop culture. In science, work continues to be done not just on the fossil record and its role in evolution and earth’s history, but also the morphology, diet, and behavior of dinosaurs—even coloration. 1 Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, however, have not always been in the forefront of public consciousness. Georges Cuvier’s proof of extinction to scientific communities in 1796, notions of geologic time and uniformitarianism appearing in the mid-1800s, and the publication of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection in 1859 constituted crucial changes to scientific thinking and the analysis of fossils and their implications. This was not to say that fossils had gone unnoticed beforehand. The ancient Greeks had noted parallels between fossils and extant organisms, while the concept of griffins from Greek and Roman legends, incorporated from Saca-Scythian nomads, are thought to have been inspired by the remains of Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus .2 In North America, fossils functioned as symbolic objects and folklore in Native American culture. This ranged from “Plains Indians [gathering] certain iridescent marine fossils for their magical power to summon buffalo 1 Chris Sloan, “Dinosaur True Colors Revealed for First Time,” National Geographic , January 27, 2010. 2 Adrienne Mayor, The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000), 8-9; 22; 40-49. 1 herds…[to] Sioux myths about Thunder Birds fighting Water Monsters.” 3 Meanwhile, ivory from mastodon tusks was “actively collected and traded,” while “the mounds built by paleo- Indians in Ohio also contain pieces of fossilized ivory tusks collected more than two thousand years ago.” 4 The 1700s and especially the late 1800s, however, brought with them a focus on collecting fossils specifically for the purpose of studying earth’s history, geology, and paleobiology. The work of Englishwoman Mary Anning in the early 1800s demonstrated these efforts: continuing her father’s work in gathering fossils, she actively collected them from the nearby Jurassic-period cliffs, including the discovery she and her brother made of Ichthyosaurus and “her [own] discovery of the first plesiosaur.” 5 Her fossils found their way to the collections of noblemen, museums, and naturalists, including Georges Cuvier, aiding the discourse on fossils and inspiring artwork of prehistoric creatures and their habitats. The growing popularity of the prehistoric also became reflected in Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins’ sculptures of prehistoric creatures for the Crystal Palace in England in 1854, tapping into the ‘‘monstrous aesthetic.’” 6 Paleontology in the United States, meanwhile, took off in the mid-1800s. The work of Joseph Leidy at the Academy of Natural Sciences proved especially influential, while the infamous “Bone Wars” feud of Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh propelled the growth of the discipline. Driven by deep personal animosity and rivalry, the two raced to 3 Adrienne Mayor, Fossil Legends of the First Americans (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press), xxiii. 4 Ibid., 9. 5 “Mary Anning (1799-1847),” University of California Museum of Paleontology , accessed April 30, 2017, http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/anning.html 6 Mark Jaffe, The Gilded Dinosaur: The Fossil War Between E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh and the Rise of American Science (New York: New York University Press, 2000), 15; Paul D. Brinkman, The Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush: Museums and Paleontology in America at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010), 248. 2 discover and name the most fossils, attacked each other in print, endeavored to hire each other’s fossil collectors, and, more so in Marsh’s case, ordered the destruction of sites to prevent their use by others. Yet with the means to engage in continuous fossil hunting