Ian Convery & Peter Davis 
Changing Perceptions of Nature 

Essays investigating the idea of natural heritage and the ways in which it has changed over time.


The concepts of nature, culture and heritage are deeply entwined; their threads run together in some of our finest museums, in accounts of exploration and discovery, in the work of artists, poets and writers, and in areas that arecherished and protected because of their landscapes and wildlife. The conservation ethic – placing a value on the natural environment – lies at the heart of the notion of ‘natural heritage’, but we need to question how those values originated, were consolidated and ultimately moulded and changed over time. In a contemporary context the connections between nature and culture have sometimes become lost, fragmented, dislocated or misunderstood; where did ‘natural heritage’ begin and how do we engage with the idea of ‘nature’ today? The essays collected here re-evaluate the role of culture in developing the concept of natural heritage, reflecting on the shifts in its interpretation over the last 300 years.


Contributors: Martin Holdgate, Marie Addyman, E. Charles Nelson, Darrell Smith, Andrew Ramsey, Viktor Kouloumpis, Richard Milner, Gina Douglas, Penny Bradshaw, Arthur Mac Gregor, Chiara Nepi, Hannah Paddon, Stephen Hewitt, Gordon Mc Gregor Reid, Ghillean T Prance, Peter Davis, Christopher Donaldson, Lucy Mc Robert, Sophie Darlington, Keith Scholey, Paul A. Roncken, Angus Lunn, Juliet Clutton-Brock, Tim Sands, Robert A. Lambert, James Champion, Erwin van Maanen, Heather Prince, Chris Loynes, Julie Taylor, Sarah Elmeligi, Samantha Finn, Owen Nevin, Jared Bowers, Kate Hennessy, Natasha Lyons, Mike Jeffries.

Table of Content

Foreword – Martin Holdgate

Introduction – Ian Convery and Peter Davis

‘The Nomination of the Visible’: William Turner’s Practice of Natural History – Marie Addyman

Early European Perceptions of the Nature of Australia – Charles Nelson

Conserving Natural Heritage: Shifting Positions of Culture and Nature – Darrell Smith and Ian Convery and Andrew Ramsey and Viktor Kouloumpis

Three Birds of a Feather – Darwin, Wallace and Attenborough: An Unbroken Tradition of Finding Where the Wild Things Are – Richard Milner

Organising, Naming and Ordering Nature – Gina Douglas

Our ‘Great Entail’: Constructing the Cultural Value of the Lake District – Penny Bradshaw

Renaissance Collecting and Understanding of the Natural World – Arthur Mac Gregor

Botanical Collecting, Herbaria and the Understanding of Nature – Chiara Nepi

Taxidermy and the Representation of Nature – Hannah Paddon

The Significance of Natural History Collections in the 21st Century – Stephen Hewitt

Changed Attitudes to Nature Reflected in the Transformation of Menageries to Zoos – Gordon Mc Gregor Reid

Interpretation in Botanic Gardens – Ghillean T. Prance and Peter Davis

Shifting Interpretations of the English Lake District – Christopher Donaldson

Facebook Nature: My Generation and Other Animals – Lucy Mc Robert

Visual Narratives in Wildlife Film-making – Sophie Darlington

A History of Half a Century of Wildlife Television and its Impact on Audiences – Keith Scholey

Landscape, Nature and the Contemporary Sublime in Illustrated Children’s Literature – Paul A. Roncken

Landscape, Nature and the Contemporary Sublime in Illustrated Children’s Literature – Ian Convery

The Public Perception of Protected Areas in the UK – Angus Lunn

Conservation of Rare Species and Natural Heritage: the Wild and the Tame – Juliet Clutton-Brock

Our Vanishing Natural Heritage and The Wildlife Trusts: a Century of Influence and Local Action for Nature and People – Tim Sands

Our Vanishing Natural Heritage and The Wildlife Trusts: a Century of Influence and Local Action for Nature and People – Robert Lambert

A Champion of the Tiger’s Cause – James Champion

Adventure, Nature and Commodification – Heather Prince and Chris Loynes

Destination Nature: Wildlife and the Rise of Domestic Ecotourism in Britain, 1880-2015 – Robert Lambert

Wild Places as Therapeutic Environments – Julie Taylor

Citizen Science and the Perception of Nature – Ian Convery and Sarah Elmeligi and Samantha Finn and Owen Nevin

Using Community-based Cultural Tourism to Enhance Nature Conservation in the Rupununi, Guyana – Jared Bowers

Representing Natural Heritage in Digital Space: from the National Museum of Natural History to Inuvialuit Living History – Kate Hennessy

Using Community-based Cultural Tourism to Enhance Nature Conservation in the Rupununi, Guyana – Natasha Lyons

Out of the Wild Wood and into our Beds: the Evolutionary History of Teddy Bears and the Natural Selection of Deadly Cuteness – Mike Jeffries

Rewilding: the Realisation and Reality of a New Challenge for Nature in the 21st Century – Erwin van van Maanen

Rewilding: the Realisation and Reality of a New Challenge for Nature in the 21st Century – Ian Convery

About the author

Peter Davis is Emeritus Professor of Museology in the School of Arts and Cultures at Newcastle University, UK. His research interests relate to the connections between place, nature, heritage, communities and sustainability.