{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0817361480?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0817361480","authors":["Paul D. Brinkman"],"book_id":"9780817361488","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/now-is-the-time-to-collect-9780817361488","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780817361488.jpg?v=7910fab7a704a007","description":"The rediscovery of a curator’s lost journal illuminates the astonishing African journey that formed the basis of the Chicago Field Museum’s famed collections “Now” Is the Time to Collect tells the fascinating story of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History’s zoological expedition to Africa in 1896, the source of many of the museum’s foundational collections and an astounding episode in nineteenth-century science. After the well-publicized extinction of the dodo and Carolina parakeet and the collapse of the American bison population, late nineteenth-century naturalists expected many more vulnerable species to die out with spread of Western-style industrialization. This triggered a race to collect rare species of animals expected soon to be lost forever. Established in 1893, Chicago’s ambitious Field Museum aimed to become a global center of study. Zoologist Daniel Giraud Elliot persuaded museum patrons to fund an immediate expedition to British Somaliland (contemporary Somalia). There, his team hunted and killed hundreds of animals for the growing collection. On the trip was groundbreaking taxonomist Carl Akeley. Back in Chicago, Akeley created captivating lifelike dioramas of rare animal groups that enhanced the museum’s fame and remain popular to this day. Enriched with illuminated passages from Elliot’s journal, only recently rediscovered, “Now” Is the Time to Collect is the first book of its kind by an American museum and a case study in what author Paul D. Brinkman calls “salvage zoology”—the practice of aggressively collecting rare animal specimens for preservation just prior to the birth of the modern conservation movement. It is a riveting account of the expedition, the travelers’ experiences in Somalia during its colonial period, and the astonishing origins of one of Chicago’s classic museum experiences.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780817361488","publication_date":"20240820","publisher":"University Of Alabama Press","slug":"now-is-the-time-to-collect","subtitle":"Daniel Giraud Elliot, Carl Akeley, and the Field Museum African Expedition of 1896","title":"Now Is the Time to Collect"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"SCI070030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Mammal Biology","score":0.7403,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"NAT045040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Wilderness & Wild Places","score":0.7009,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SCI070060","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Animal Behavior","score":0.7,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"SCI070030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Mammal Biology","score":0.7403,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"NAT045040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Wilderness & Wild Places","score":0.7009,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"SCI070060","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Animal Behavior","score":0.7,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS001020","confidence_band":"high","label":"East African History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036090","confidence_band":"high","label":"Midwest History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"HIS051000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Exploration & Discovery","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SCI034000","confidence_band":"high","label":"History of Science","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"SCI070030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Mammal Biology","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Mammal Biology","score":0.7403,"slug":"mammal-biology"},{"label":"Wilderness & Wild Places","score":0.7009,"slug":"wilderness-wild-places"},{"label":"Animal Behavior","score":0.7,"slug":"animal-behavior"}],"reader_fit":["For readers interested in the history of natural history museums.","For readers exploring early specimen collecting and conservation history."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Sophy Roberts"],"book_id":"9780802164865","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780802164865.jpg?v=9942e96329d67544","score":0.6682,"title":"A Training School for Elephants","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780802164865"},{"authors":["Matthew Richardson"],"book_id":"9781784274573","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781784274573.jpg?v=c53d0f18f7921a33","score":0.6629,"title":"Illustrated History of Primatology","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781784274573"},{"authors":["Mark Owens","Delia Owens"],"book_id":"9780395647806","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780395647806.jpg?v=7120c95cabd6fb04","score":0.6468,"title":"Cry of the Kalahari","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780395647806"},{"authors":["Jonah Siegel"],"book_id":"9780195331134","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780195331134.jpg?v=70f9bca918efe482","score":0.6443,"title":"The Emergence of the Modern Museum","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780195331134"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:field museum of natural history"],"label":"History","score":0.4536,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:american science"],"label":"Science","score":0.1776,"slug":"science"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:african wildlife"],"label":"African","score":0.059,"slug":"african"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:museum studies"],"label":"Studies","score":0.0285,"slug":"studies"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Museum history, Salvage zoology, Colonial-era Somalia.","Themes: History, Science, African.","Reading lane: Mammal Biology and Wilderness & Wild Places."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.94,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["For readers interested in the history of natural history museums.","For readers exploring early specimen collecting and conservation history."],"themes":["Museum history","Salvage zoology","Colonial-era Somalia"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":3,"goodreads_ratings_count":3,"goodreads_reviews_count":1,"quality_score":0.8229}}