The Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush ebook is available to be downloaded here now.
- Title: The Second Jurassic Dinosaur Rush – Museums and Paleontology in America at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
- Author: Paul D. Brinkman
- Publisher: The University of Chigago Press
- Pages: 361
This book began long ago when I was in the Program in the History of Science and Technology (HST) at the University of Minnesota. I am deeply grateful to Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, John Beatty, Alan Shapiro, Ronald Rainger, and Olivier Rieppel for the invaluable guidance they provided. I am likewise grateful to the HST faculty, students, and staff, past and present, who provided a vital network of support and encouragement. A few deserve special mention, including Mary Anne Andrei, Susan Rensing, Margot Iverson, David Sepkoski, Richard Bellon, Michel Janssen, Barbara Eastwold, Bob Seidel, and Piers Hale. I am also grateful to the program and the university for generous financial support, including a writing fellowship.
In addition to a PhD in the history of science, I have many years of experience as a field, lab, and collections technician working with vertebrate fossils. I worked for many years at the Field Museum, where I first got interested in the life and career of Elmer Riggs, one of the key people whose story I tell in this book. The Field Museum provided a second institutional home for me. The staff of the museum library was especially accommodating, providing access to critical research materials, office space, and invaluable professional support. Ben Williams made these arrangements possible.
Christine Giannoni made them palatable. The Geology Department, likewise, has been generous with access to important materials. Many friends, including staff and fellow graduate students, at the museum’s Friday evening seminar series contributed to this project in ways that are hard to explain, or remember. Finally, the Field Museum Scholarship Committee awarded me with the Lester Armour Graduate Student Fellowship, which made my residence in Chicago possible.
Innumerable staff members—too many to list individually—at dozens of institutions have helped me with critical access to special collections. Those that merit special mention because of the magnitude of the help they provided include Armand Esai, Jerice Barrios, and Bill Simpson of the Field Museum; Bernadette Callery and Betty Hill of the Carnegie Museum; and Susan Bell of the American Museum.