John Kay’s The craft in danger (1817): graphic satire and natural history in nineteenth-century Edinburgh
In the early nineteenth century, the pre-eminence of lecturers at the University of Edinburgh medical school faced challenge from successful extra-mural teachers, like the anatomist John Barclay (1758–1826). Wishing to maintain the University’s reputation, in 1816 Edinburgh Town Council proposed the...
Published in: | Archives of Natural History |
---|---|
Main Author: | |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Edinburgh University Press
2022
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/anh.2022.0766 https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full-xml/10.3366/anh.2022.0766 |
id |
credinunivpr:10.3366/anh.2022.0766 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
credinunivpr:10.3366/anh.2022.0766 2023-05-15T17:14:12+02:00 John Kay’s The craft in danger (1817): graphic satire and natural history in nineteenth-century Edinburgh McGlashan, Wendy 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/anh.2022.0766 https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full-xml/10.3366/anh.2022.0766 en eng Edinburgh University Press https://www.euppublishing.com/customer-services/librarians/text-and-data-mining-tdm Archives of Natural History volume 49, issue 1, page 175-188 ISSN 0260-9541 1755-6260 Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) History Anthropology journal-article 2022 credinunivpr https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2022.0766 2022-07-07T13:43:22Z In the early nineteenth century, the pre-eminence of lecturers at the University of Edinburgh medical school faced challenge from successful extra-mural teachers, like the anatomist John Barclay (1758–1826). Wishing to maintain the University’s reputation, in 1816 Edinburgh Town Council proposed the institution of a new chair in Comparative Anatomy and Veterinary Surgery: a proposal which the University chose to reject. These events provided the subject to John Kay’s (1742–1826) satirical print The craft in danger (1817), which accused Alexander Monro tertius (1773–1859), Thomas Charles Hope (1766–1844) and Robert Jameson (1774–1854) of attempting to hold back the progress of knowledge in the interest of personal profit. Kay staged a mock battle in which Barclay charges the entrance of the University mounted upon an elephant skeleton; Hope attempts to topple him using an insecurely anchored rope; Monro tries to fend him off with a bone, while Jameson, seated astride a walrus, brandishes a narwhal tusk. The animal specimens pictured represent identifiable objects, then in the museum collections of Barclay and Jameson – the depiction of which reflects the colonial networks of natural history collecting that brought them to Edinburgh. Kay’s satirical print thus maintains a valuable record of the culture of natural history in the city, being facilitated to do so by periodicals like The Scots Magazine, and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany through which new knowledge was actively transmitted. Article in Journal/Newspaper narwhal* walrus* Edinburgh University Press (via Crossref) Barclay ENVELOPE(-61.000,-61.000,-62.600,-62.600) Kay ENVELOPE(-60.917,-60.917,-64.117,-64.117) Tusk The ENVELOPE(-168.250,-168.250,-84.867,-84.867) Archives of Natural History 49 1 175 188 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Edinburgh University Press (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
credinunivpr |
language |
English |
topic |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) History Anthropology |
spellingShingle |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) History Anthropology McGlashan, Wendy John Kay’s The craft in danger (1817): graphic satire and natural history in nineteenth-century Edinburgh |
topic_facet |
Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) History Anthropology |
description |
In the early nineteenth century, the pre-eminence of lecturers at the University of Edinburgh medical school faced challenge from successful extra-mural teachers, like the anatomist John Barclay (1758–1826). Wishing to maintain the University’s reputation, in 1816 Edinburgh Town Council proposed the institution of a new chair in Comparative Anatomy and Veterinary Surgery: a proposal which the University chose to reject. These events provided the subject to John Kay’s (1742–1826) satirical print The craft in danger (1817), which accused Alexander Monro tertius (1773–1859), Thomas Charles Hope (1766–1844) and Robert Jameson (1774–1854) of attempting to hold back the progress of knowledge in the interest of personal profit. Kay staged a mock battle in which Barclay charges the entrance of the University mounted upon an elephant skeleton; Hope attempts to topple him using an insecurely anchored rope; Monro tries to fend him off with a bone, while Jameson, seated astride a walrus, brandishes a narwhal tusk. The animal specimens pictured represent identifiable objects, then in the museum collections of Barclay and Jameson – the depiction of which reflects the colonial networks of natural history collecting that brought them to Edinburgh. Kay’s satirical print thus maintains a valuable record of the culture of natural history in the city, being facilitated to do so by periodicals like The Scots Magazine, and Edinburgh Literary Miscellany through which new knowledge was actively transmitted. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
McGlashan, Wendy |
author_facet |
McGlashan, Wendy |
author_sort |
McGlashan, Wendy |
title |
John Kay’s The craft in danger (1817): graphic satire and natural history in nineteenth-century Edinburgh |
title_short |
John Kay’s The craft in danger (1817): graphic satire and natural history in nineteenth-century Edinburgh |
title_full |
John Kay’s The craft in danger (1817): graphic satire and natural history in nineteenth-century Edinburgh |
title_fullStr |
John Kay’s The craft in danger (1817): graphic satire and natural history in nineteenth-century Edinburgh |
title_full_unstemmed |
John Kay’s The craft in danger (1817): graphic satire and natural history in nineteenth-century Edinburgh |
title_sort |
john kay’s the craft in danger (1817): graphic satire and natural history in nineteenth-century edinburgh |
publisher |
Edinburgh University Press |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/anh.2022.0766 https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/full-xml/10.3366/anh.2022.0766 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-61.000,-61.000,-62.600,-62.600) ENVELOPE(-60.917,-60.917,-64.117,-64.117) ENVELOPE(-168.250,-168.250,-84.867,-84.867) |
geographic |
Barclay Kay Tusk The |
geographic_facet |
Barclay Kay Tusk The |
genre |
narwhal* walrus* |
genre_facet |
narwhal* walrus* |
op_source |
Archives of Natural History volume 49, issue 1, page 175-188 ISSN 0260-9541 1755-6260 |
op_rights |
https://www.euppublishing.com/customer-services/librarians/text-and-data-mining-tdm |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3366/anh.2022.0766 |
container_title |
Archives of Natural History |
container_volume |
49 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
175 |
op_container_end_page |
188 |
_version_ |
1766071493649760256 |