The Calf with Two Heads

Louisa Blair

Description

Muddy boots, cold hands, a pocket full of fossils, a mind full of existential questions.
These beautifully illustrated stories of natural history in nineteenth-century Canada are about the curious men and women who crossed the oceans from Europe to explore, map, draw, puzzle about, collect and exhibit nature in Canada. Informed by French, British and Indigenous naturalists, they tried to understand what they saw.
What did it all mean about the origins of the world?
Louisa Blair, an amateur naturalist in Quebec and a transatlantic species herself, tells tales on Darwin, Russell Wallace and James Cook, and lingers on the strange and colourful details of Canada’s stubborn resistance to evolutionism and its first natural history museums with their penchant for deformities.
Louisa Blair is writer, editor and translator who was born in Quebec City, raised in the UK, and returned to live in Quebec 25 years ago. Her books in English include The Anglos: The Hidden Face of Quebec City and Iron Bars and Bookshelves: A History of the Morrin Centre. She has also translated numerous books and exhibitions about history, culture and politics in Quebec. Her translation of Robert Lepage’s play 887 (House of Anansi Press, 2019) was nominated for a Governor General’s prize. Her exhibition on natural history in Quebec, entitled Blossoms, Beetles and Birds, is on display at the Literary and History Society of Quebec.
Praise and Reviews
“Wow! I’m impressed. Stop scrolling on your phones and have a look at this.” Tomson Highway, Cree playwright, author, musician
“These stories about the passion for nature are an antidote to climate despair.” Jean-François Gauvin, Professor of Museum Studies and Scientific Heritage, Université Laval
About Louisa Blair’s work
“A captivating book.” Caroline Montpetit, Le Devoir, on The Anglos, The Hidden Face of Quebec
“A loving and readable history” Brian Bethune, Macleans, on Iron Bars & Bookshelves
“So good, so rich in anecdote and warm humanity, that it’s hard to capture its flavour in a few lines.” Morris Wolfe, Globe & Mail, on Louisa Blair’s 3-part investigative piece on Indigenous land rights in the James Bay, Catholic New Times, 1992.
These stories feature Indigenous mapmakers, botanical artists, bug-bitten rock fanatics, arctic explorers, and a trio of Quebec women who managed to get plants named after themselves.
Blair also salutes their successors, the citizen scientists who are now frantically mapping Canada’s biodiversity before it fades to bio-monotony.
What does it all mean for the end of the world?

Sujets

• Zoologie
• Science
• Charles Darwin
• Canada
• Darwin
• Zoology
• Entomology
• 19th century
• Sciences et techniques
• Life Sciences
• Natural History

Informations

• Publié par: Baraka Nonfiction
• Date de parution: 25 octobre 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781771863360
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

Lousa Bar

THE CALF wîth TWO HEADS

Transaanc Naura Hsory n e Canadas

The Calf wiTh Two heads

The Calf wITh Two heads Transaanc Naura Hsory n e Canadas

Lousa Bar

Monréa

Ā ŝ éŝéé. ô à ô ŝ ôôk à é éôûçé ô àŝé  à ô ô  à éàŝ, ééçôç ô éçàçà, çû ôôçô, éçô, ô  à ôàô ŝôàé à ééà ŝŝé, ôû éŝŝô   ô é ûŝé.

© ôûŝà bà

Śb 978-1-77186-330-8 k; 978-1-77186-335-3 éû; 978-1-77186-336-0 

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éà éôŝ, 4 qûàé 2023 bôèqûé é Āçéŝ àôàéŝ û Qûéç à à Āçéŝ Çààà

pûŝé  bààkà bôôkŝ ô môéà pé à ôû  Qûééç

àé ŝûô & éûŝ Çààà – up ŝûô: upŝûô.çô

ué Śàéŝ ééé pûŝéŝ gôû: pgôôk.çô

é àçkôéé é ŝûô ô é Śôç é éôéé éŝ ééŝéŝ çûûééŝ (ŚÔÉÇ) à é gôéé ô Qûééç à çé ô ôôk ûŝ àŝéé  ŚÔÉÇ.

 he Two-Headed Calf

Tomorrow wen te farm boys find tis freak of nature, tey will wrap is body in newspaper and carry im to te museum.

But tonigt e is alive and in te nort field wit is moter. It is a perfect summer evening: te moon rising over te orcard, te wind in te grass. And as e stares into te sky, tere are twice as many stars as usual.

- àûà g

tàbé ô cônénŝ

Açknôégéménŝ Fôréôr ïnrôuçîôn

ï – NOVELtïES OF NAtURE Te eresy o e sars Astronomîcal leaps A arder muberry Botanîcal usefulness Pe pgeons Ornîthologîcal obsessîons No rong les Geologîcal datîng

ïï – ïNtERROGAtïNG NAtURE Memory maps Indîgenous natural hîstory More un an embrodery Lady botanîsts of Quebec A snguar specmen o e poao Natural hîstory at the Lîterary and Hîstorîcal Socîety of Quebec, 1824 to 1840 Te be-knged coecor James MacPherson Le Moîne

ïïï – DRAWïNG NAtURE Drang dsseced mousc penses Natural hîstory artîsts We er usband mapped e rver Natural hîstory artîsts în the Canadas

11 13 17 19 19 19 22 22 25 25 25 25

31 31 31 35 35 38 38 43 43

47 47 47 50 50

ïV – EXPLAïNïNG NAtURE Seasck on eBeagle Orîgîns of the Orîgîn… Fee  sruggng beeen one’s ingers Alfred Russel Wallace and the theorîes of evolutîon “ï auged …  my sdes ere amos sore” How the theory of evolutîon by natural selectîon was receîved A caos o aen rocks Passîonate opposîtîon în Quebec

V – MAPPïNG NAtURE BY BOAt No room or ders Captaîn Cook în Quebec Canada’s Arcc Dogsbody Captaîn Bernîer, 1853–1934 Nong more uman an a sp The Canadîan Arctîc Expedîtîon

Vï – EXHïBïtïNG NAtURE Les smpes cureux The bîrth of the great museums Os and e saey eevaor World’s Faîrs Te ca  o eads The irst natural scîence museums în Quebec Snkng no e mud The Geologîcal Survey and the Canadîan Museum of Nature Sae pencs Wîllîam Dawson and the Redpath Museum în Montreal Senne speces Natural hîstory and the future of nature

FURtHER READïNG

ïNDEX

cREDïtS

55 57 57 58 58 61 61 63 63

67 68 68 70 70 73 73

77 78 78 82 82 86 86 89 89 93 93 97 97

103

121

131