Patrons of Paleontology

Jane P. Davidson is Professor of Art History at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is author of The Bone Sharp: The Life of Edward Drinker Cope, A History of Paleontology Illustration, and Early Modern Supernatural: The Dark Side of European Culture 1400-1700.

• Introduction: The Cost of Doing Business1. The Beginnings of Government Support for Paleontology2. Eighteenth-century and Early Nineteenth-century Paleontologists and Patrons3. Developments in Government Support for Paleontology in the United States Between 1830 to About 18804. Paleontology in Mid Nineteenth-Century Surveys Outside the United States5. Government Support for Paleontology in the Late Nineteenth Century and the Turn of the Twentieth Century: 1880 to about 1940Conclusion: The Chain of PaleontologyAppendix: Glossary of Prominent Patrons and PaleontologistsAnnotated Bibliography of Primary SourcesBibliography of Secondary SourcesIndex

"This slim book, graced with beautiful facsimile reproductions of gorgeous paleontological folio art, is a treasure trove of vertebrate paleontological history, sacred and arcane."—The Quarterly Review of Biology" Patrons of Paleontology is a good introduction to the ambitious individuals and institutions that pursued their own, national, and institutional interests over centuries in a variety of contexts. "—Journal of American History"Who pays for palaeontological research and why? Patrons of Paleontology will be a useful reference guide for anyone interested in the early history of the subject and some of the social and historical context in which it occurred."—Paul Barrett, Priscum, The Newsletter of the Palentological Society