Editing Natural history

{{short description|Study of organisms including plants or animals in their environment}}
{{Other uses|Natural history (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect|Naturalist}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=November 2013}}
[[File:Table of Natural History, Cyclopaedia, Volume 2.jpg|thumb|right|200px|upright=1.35|Black and white tables of natural history, from [[Ephraim Chambers]]'s 1728 ''[[Cyclopaedia, or an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences|Cyclopaedia]]''.]]

'''Natural history''' is a domain of [[Scientific method#Scientific inquiry|inquiry]] involving [[organism]]s, including [[animal]]s, [[fungus|fungi]], and [[plant]]s, in their [[natural environment]], leaning more towards [[observation]]al than [[experiment]]al methods of study. A person who studies natural history is called a '''naturalist''' or '''natural historian'''.

Natural history encompasses [[Scientific method|scientific research]] but is not limited to it.<ref>With "natural history" articles more often published today in [[List of science magazines|science magazines]] than in [[scientific journal|academic journals]].[http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=natural+history Natural History WordNet Search, princeton.edu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303173506/http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=natural+history |date=2012-03-03 }}.</ref> It involves the systematic study of any category of [[nature|natural]] objects or organisms,<ref name="isbn0-19-861271-0">{{Citation |author=Brown, Lesley |title=The New shorter Oxford English dictionary on historical principles |publisher=Clarendon |location=Oxford [Eng.] |year=1993 |isbn=0-19-861271-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/newshorteroxford00lesl }}</ref> so while it dates from studies in the [[Classical antiquity|ancient]] [[Greco-Roman world]] and the [[Muslim Agricultural Revolution|mediaeval Arabic world]], through to European [[Renaissance]] naturalists working in near isolation, today's natural history is a [[cross discipline|cross-discipline]] umbrella of many specialty sciences; e.g., [[geobiology]] has a strong multidisciplinary nature.

==Definitions==
===Before 1900===
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The meaning of the English term "natural history" (a [[calque]] of the [[Latin]] ''historia naturalis'') has narrowed progressively with time, while, by contrast, the meaning of the related term "nature" has widened (see also [[#History|History]] below).

In [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]], "natural history" covered essentially anything connected with [[Nature (philosophy)|nature]], or  used materials drawn from nature, such as [[Pliny the Elder]]'s [[Natural History (Pliny)|encyclopedia of this title]], published {{circa|77 to 79 AD}}, which covers [[astronomy]], [[geography]], humans and their [[technology]], [[medicine]], and [[superstition]], as well as animals and plants.<ref name="Fleischner-2025"/>

[[Middle Ages|Medieval]] European academics considered knowledge to have two main divisions: the [[humanities]] (primarily what is now known as [[classics]]) and [[divinity (academic discipline)|divinity]], with science studied largely through texts rather than observation or experiment. The study of nature revived in the [[Renaissance]], and quickly became a third branch of academic knowledge, itself divided into descriptive natural history and  [[natural philosophy]], the analytical study of nature. In modern terms, natural philosophy roughly corresponded to modern [[physics]] and [[chemistry]], while natural history included the [[biology|biological]] and [[geology|geological]] sciences. The two were strongly associated. During the heyday of the [[gentleman scientist]]s, many people contributed to both fields, and early papers in both were commonly read at professional [[Academy of Sciences|science society]] meetings such as the [[Royal Society]] and the [[French Academy of Sciences]]—both founded during the 17th century.

Natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as Linnaeus' aspiration to improve the economic condition of Sweden.<ref>{{cite book |last=Koerner |first=Lisbet |author-link=Lisbet Rausing |title=Linnaeus: Nature and Nation |year=1999 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |location=Harvard |isbn=978-0-674-09745-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/linnaeusnaturena00koer_0 }}</ref> Similarly, the [[Industrial Revolution]] prompted the development of geology to help find useful [[mineral]] deposits.<ref>Barry Barnes and Steven Shapin, "Natural order: historical studies of scientific culture", Sage, 1979.</ref>

===Since 1900===
[[File:Lycee Michelet Vanves bibliotheque collection histoire naturelle.jpg|thumb|left|A natural history collection in a French public secondary school]]

Modern definitions of natural history come from a variety of fields and sources, and many of the modern definitions emphasize a particular aspect of the field, creating a plurality of definitions with a number of common themes among them. For example, while natural history is most often defined as a type of observation and a subject of study, it can also be defined as a body of knowledge, and as a craft or a practice, in which the emphasis is placed more on the observer than on the observed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fleischner |first=Thomas Lowe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8iPrCAAAQBAJ |title=The Way of Natural History |date=2011-05-01 |publisher=Trinity University Press |isbn=978-1-59534-074-0 |language=en}}</ref>

Definitions from biologists often focus on the scientific study of individual organisms in their environment, as seen in this definition by Marston Bates: "Natural history is the study of animals and Plants—of organisms. ... I like to think, then, of natural history as the study of life at the level of the individual—of what plants and animals do, how they react to each other and their environment, how they are organized into larger groupings like populations and communities"<ref>Marston Bates, ''The nature of natural history'', Scribners, 1954.</ref> and this more recent definition by D.S. Wilcove and T. Eisner: "The close observation of organisms—their origins, their evolution, their behavior, and their relationships with other species".<ref>D. S Wilcove and T. Eisner, "The impending extinction of natural history," Chronicle of Higher Education 15 (2000): B24</ref>

This focus on organisms in their environment is also echoed by H.W. Greene and J.B. Losos: "Natural history focuses on where organisms are and what they do in their environment, including interactions with other organisms. It encompasses changes in internal states insofar as they pertain to what organisms do".<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Greene |first1=Harry W. |last2=Losos |first2=Jonathan B. |date=1988 |title=Systematics, Natural History, and Conservation: Field Biologists Must Fight a Public-Image Problem |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1310949 |journal=BioScience |volume=38 |issue=7 |pages=458–462 |doi=10.2307/1310949 |jstor=1310949 |issn=0006-3568}}</ref>

Some definitions go further, focusing on direct observation of organisms in their environments, both past and present, such as this one by G.A. Bartholomew: "A student of natural history, or a naturalist, studies the world by observing plants and animals directly. Because organisms are functionally inseparable from the environment in which they live and because their structure and function cannot be adequately interpreted without knowing some of their evolutionary history, the study of natural history embraces the study of fossils as well as physiographic and other aspects of the physical environment".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bartholomew |first=George A. |date=1986 |title=The Role of Natural History in Contemporary Biology |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1310237 |journal=BioScience |volume=36 |issue=5 |pages=324–329 |doi=10.2307/1310237 |jstor=1310237 |issn=0006-3568}}</ref>

A common thread in many definitions of natural history is the inclusion of a descriptive component, as seen in a recent definition by H.W. Greene: "Descriptive ecology and ethology".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Greene |first=Harry W. |date=2005-01-01 |title=Organisms in nature as a central focus for biology |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534704003350 |journal=Trends in Ecology & Evolution |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=23–27 |doi=10.1016/j.tree.2004.11.005 |pmid=16701336 |issn=0169-5347}}</ref> Several authors have argued for a more expansive view of natural history, including S. Herman, who defines the field as "the scientific study of plants and animals in their natural environments. It is concerned with levels of organization from the individual organism to the ecosystem, and stresses identification, life history, distribution, abundance, and inter-relationships. It often and appropriately includes an esthetic component",<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Herman |first=Steven G. |date=2002 |title=Wildlife Biology and Natural History: Time for a Reunion |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3802927 |journal=The Journal of Wildlife Management |volume=66 |issue=4 |pages=933–946 |doi=10.2307/3802927 |jstor=3802927 |issn=0022-541X}}</ref> and T. Fleischner, who defines the field even more broadly, as "A practice of intentional, focused attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human world, guided by honesty and accuracy".<ref>T. L. Fleischner, "Natural history and the spiral of offering", Wild Earth 11, no. 3/4 (2002): 10–13</ref> These definitions explicitly include the arts in the field of natural history, and are aligned with the broad definition outlined by B. Lopez, who defines the field as the "Patient interrogation of a landscape" while referring to the natural history knowledge of the Eskimo ([[Inuit]]).<ref>Barry Lopez, ''Arctic Dreams'', Vintage, 1986.</ref>

A slightly different framework for natural history, covering a similar range of themes, is also implied in the scope of work encompassed by many leading [[natural history museum]]s, which often include elements of anthropology, geology, paleontology, and astronomy along with botany and zoology,<ref>American Museum of Natural History, [http://www.amnh.org/about/ Mission Statement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604145807/http://www.amnh.org/about/ |date=2011-06-04 }}</ref><ref>Field Museum, [http://fieldmuseum.org/about/mission Mission Statement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103185243/http://fieldmuseum.org/about/mission |date=2012-01-03 }}</ref> or include both cultural and natural components of the world.<ref>The Natural History Museum, [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/index.html Mission Statement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227181412/http://www.nhm.ac.uk/about-us/index.html |date=2014-12-27 }}</ref>

The plurality of definitions for this field has been recognized as both a weakness and a strength, and a range of definitions has recently been offered by practitioners in a recent collection of views on natural history.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120710211403/http://declinetorebirth.org/conversations/an-accepted-way-of-viewing-art An Accepted Way of Viewing Art]</ref>

==History==

===Prehistory===
Prior to the advent of [[History of science|Western science]] humans were engaged and highly competent in indigenous ways of understanding the more-than-human world that are now referred to as [[traditional ecological knowledge]]. 21st century definitions of natural history are inclusive of this understanding, such as this by Thomas Fleischner of the Natural History Institute (Prescott, Arizona):<blockquote>

Natural history – a practice of intentional focused attentiveness and receptivity to the more-than-human world, guided by honesty and accuracy – is the oldest continuous human endeavor. In the evolutionary past of our species, the practice of natural history was essential for our survival, imparting critical information on habits and chronologies of plants and animals that we could eat or that could eat us. Natural history continues to be critical to human survival and thriving. It contributes to our fundamental understanding of how the world works by providing the empirical foundation of natural sciences, and it contributes directly and indirectly to human emotional and physical health, thereby fostering healthier human communities. It also serves as the basis for all conservation efforts, with natural history both informing the science and inspiring the values that drive these.<ref name="Fleischner-2025">{{cite journal |last1=Fleischner |first1=Thomas Lowe |title=The enduring and elemental importance of natural history |journal=The Ecological Citizen |date=2025 |volume=8 |issue=1 |url=https://www.ecologicalcitizen.net/pdfs/epub-115.pdf}}</ref></blockquote>

===Ancient===
[[File:ViennaDioscoridesPlant.jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[Blackberry]] from the sixth-century ''[[Vienna Dioscurides]]'' manuscript]]

As a precursor to [[History of science|Western science]], natural history began with [[Aristotle]] and other ancient philosophers who analyzed the diversity of the natural world. Natural history was understood by [[Pliny the Elder]] to cover anything that could be found in the world, including living things, geology, astronomy, technology, art, and humanity.<ref name=Pliny>{{cite book | title=Natural History: A Selection | publisher=Penguin Classics | author=Pliny the Elder | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-14-044413-1}}</ref>

{{lang|la|[[De Materia Medica (Dioscorides)|De Materia Medica]]}} was written between 50 and 70 AD by [[Pedanius Dioscorides]], a Roman physician of Greek origin. It was widely read for more than 1,500 years until supplanted in the [[Renaissance]], making it one of the longest-lasting of all natural history books.

From the [[ancient Greeks]] until the work of [[Carl Linnaeus]] and other 18th-century naturalists, a major concept of natural history was the ''scala naturae'' or [[Great Chain of Being]], an arrangement of minerals, vegetables, more primitive forms of animals, and more complex life forms on a linear scale of supposedly increasing perfection, culminating in our species.<ref name=Lovejoy1964>{{citation |date=1964 | orig-year=1936 |author=Arthur O. Lovejoy |author-link=Arthur Oncken Lovejoy |title=The Great Chain of Being: A Study of the History of an Idea |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5u3HZjTpkTgC |place=Cambridge, Massachusetts |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=0-674-36153-9}}</ref>

===Medieval===
Natural history was basically static through the [[Middle Ages]] in Europe—although in the [[Arabic]] and [[Oriental]] world, it proceeded at a much brisker pace. From the 13th century, the work of Aristotle was adapted rather rigidly into [[Christian philosophy]], particularly by [[Thomas Aquinas]], forming the basis for [[natural theology]]. During the Renaissance, scholars (herbalists and humanists, particularly) returned to direct observation of plants and animals for natural history, and many began to accumulate large collections of exotic specimens and unusual [[monster]]s. [[Leonhart Fuchs]] was one of the three founding fathers of botany, along with [[Otto Brunfels]] and [[Hieronymus Bock]]. Other important contributors to the field were [[Valerius Cordus]], [[Konrad Gesner]] ({{Lang|la|[[Historiae animalium (Gesner)|Historiae animalium]]}}), [[Frederik Ruysch]], and [[Gaspard Bauhin]].<ref name="natural">"[http://www.historyofscience.com/G2I/timeline/index.php?category=Natural+History Natural History Timeline] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101231172609/http://www.historyofscience.com/G2I/timeline/index.php?category=Natural+History |date=2010-12-31 }}". HistoryofScience.com.</ref> The rapid increase in the number of known organisms prompted many attempts at classifying and organizing species into [[taxonomy (biology)|taxonomic groups]], culminating in the system of the Swedish naturalist [[Carl Linnaeus]].<ref name="natural"/>

The British historian of Chinese science [[Joseph Needham]] calls [[Li Shizhen]] "the 'uncrowned king' of Chinese naturalists",<ref>Needham, J., & Ling, W. (1976). ''Science and civilization in China'' (Vol. 5, part.3, p. 216). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press</ref> and his ''[[Bencao gangmu]]'' "undoubtedly the greatest scientific achievement of the Ming".{{quote without source|date=October 2021}} His works translated to many languages direct or influence many scholars and researchers.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

===Modern===
<!-- Off topic? Biology isn't NH -->
[[File:Buffon 1707-1788.jpg|upright|thumb|[[Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon|Georges Buffon]] is best remembered for his ''[[Histoire naturelle]]'', a 44-volume encyclopedia describing quadrupeds, birds, minerals, and some science and technology. Reptiles and fish were covered in supplements by [[Bernard Germain de Lacépède]].]]<!-- Not discussed in text, no refs! -->

A significant contribution to English natural history was made by [[parson-naturalist]]s such as [[Gilbert White]], [[William Kirby (entomologist)|William Kirby]], [[John George Wood]], and [[John Ray]], who wrote about plants, animals, and other aspects of nature. Many of these men wrote about nature to make the [[natural theology]] argument for the existence or goodness of God.<ref name="Armstrong2000">{{cite book|author=Patrick Armstrong|title=The English Parson-naturalist: A Companionship Between Science and Religion|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hB0hEc4CN3wC|access-date=31 March 2013|year=2000|publisher=Gracewing Publishing|isbn=978-0-85244-516-7}}</ref> Since early modern times, however, a great number of women made contributions to natural history, particularly in the field of botany, be it as authors, collectors, or illustrators.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://womeninbotany.ur.de/ |title=Women in Botany |access-date=2019-12-19 |archive-date=2019-09-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903110914/https://womeninbotany.ur.de/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In modern Europe, professional disciplines such as botany, geology, [[mycology]], [[palaeontology]], [[physiology]], and [[zoology]] were formed. ''Natural history'', formerly the main subject taught by college science professors, was increasingly scorned by scientists of a more specialized manner and relegated to an "amateur" activity, rather than a part of science proper. In Victorian Scotland,  the study of natural history was believed to contribute to good mental health.<ref>{{Citation |journal=Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences |title='An aid to mental health': natural history, alienists and therapeutics in Victorian Scotland| author=Finnegan, Diarmid A. |year=2008 |volume=39 |pages=326–337 | doi=10.1016/j.shpsc.2008.06.006| pmid=18761284| issue=3}}</ref> Particularly in Britain and the United States, this grew into specialist hobbies such as the [[Ornithology|study of birds]], butterflies, seashells ([[malacology]]/[[conchology]]), beetles, and wildflowers; meanwhile, scientists tried to define a unified discipline of biology (though with only partial success, at least until the [[modern synthesis (20th century)|modern evolutionary synthesis]]). Still, the traditions of natural history continue to play a part in the study of biology, especially ecology (the study of natural systems involving living organisms and the inorganic components of the Earth's biosphere that support them), [[ethology]] (the scientific study of animal behavior), and [[evolutionary biology]] (the study of the relationships between life forms over very long periods of time), and re-emerges today as integrative organismal biology.

Amateur collectors and natural history entrepreneurs played an important role in building the world's large natural history collections, such as the [[Natural History Museum, London]], and the [[National Museum of Natural History]] in Washington, DC.

Three of the greatest English naturalists of the 19th century, [[Henry Walter Bates]], [[Charles Darwin]], and [[Alfred Russel Wallace]]—who knew each other—each made natural history travels that took years, collected thousands of specimens, many of them new to science, and by their writings both advanced knowledge of "remote" parts of the world—the [[Amazon basin]], the [[Galápagos Islands]], and the [[List of islands of Indonesia|Indonesian Archipelago]], among others—and in so doing helped to transform biology from a descriptive to a theory-based science.

The understanding of "Nature" as "an organism and not as a mechanism" can be traced to the writings of [[Alexander von Humboldt]] (Prussia, 1769–1859). Humboldt's copious writings and research were seminal influences for Charles Darwin, [[Simón Bolívar]], [[Henry David Thoreau]], [[Ernst Haeckel]], and [[John Muir]].<ref>[[Andrea Wulf]] (2015),''[[The Invention of Nature]]'', Knopf {{page needed|date=March 2018}}</ref>

==Museums==
{{further|List of natural history museums}}
Natural history [[museum]]s, which evolved from [[cabinet of curiosities|cabinets of curiosities]], played an important role in the emergence of professional biological disciplines and research programs. Particularly in the 19th century, scientists began to use their natural history collections as teaching tools for advanced students and the basis for their own [[morphology (biology)|morphological]] research.

==Societies==
[[File:Szczecin pomnik Jana Czekanowskiego.jpg|thumb|left|The monument of [[Jan Czekanowski]], a president of [[Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists]] (1923–1924), in [[Szczecin]], Poland]]

The term "natural history" alone, or sometimes together with archaeology, forms the name of many national, regional, and local natural history societies that maintain records for [[animal]]s (including [[birds]] (ornithology), [[insect]]s ([[entomology]]) and [[mammal]]s (mammalogy)), [[fungi]] ([[mycology]]), plants (botany), and other organisms. They may also have [[geological]] and [[microscope|microscopical]] sections.

Examples of these societies in Britain include the [[Natural History Society of Northumbria]] founded in 1829, London Natural History Society (1858), [[Birmingham Natural History Society]] (1859), [[British Entomological and Natural History Society]] founded in 1872, [[Glasgow]] Natural History Society, [[Manchester]] Microscopical and Natural History Society established in 1880, Whitby Naturalists' Club founded in 1913,<ref name="whitbynaturalistsclub">{{cite web |url=http://www.whitbynaturalists.co.uk/ |title=Whitby Naturalists' Club |publisher=whitbynaturalists.co.uk |access-date=January 23, 2018 |archive-date=January 24, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180124070550/http://www.whitbynaturalists.co.uk/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Scarborough Field Naturalists' Society and the Sorby Natural History Society, [[Sheffield]], founded in 1918.<ref name="WMBC-Oldest">{{cite web|url=http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/club/older|title=Older Organisations|last=Mabbett|first=Andy|date=20 November 2010|publisher=[[West Midland Bird Club]]|access-date=11 February 2015|url-status=unfit|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523040849/http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/club/older |archive-date=23 May 2013}}</ref> The growth of natural history societies was also spurred due to the growth of British colonies in tropical regions with numerous new species to be discovered. Many [[civil servants]] took an interest in their new surroundings, sending specimens back to museums in the [[UK|Britain]]. (See also: [[Indian natural history]])

Societies in other countries include the [[American Society of Naturalists]] and [[Polish Copernicus Society of Naturalists]].

Professional societies have recognized the importance of natural history and have initiated new sections in their journals specifically for natural history observations to support the discipline. These include "Natural History Field Notes" of ''[[Biotropica]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Powers |first1=Jennifer S. |last2=Carlo |first2=Tomás A. |last3=Slade |first3=Eleanor M. |last4=Slik |first4=Ferry |date=2021 |title=Biotropica announces a new paper category: Natural History Field Notes |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/btp.12944 |journal=Biotropica |language=en |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=352–353 |doi=10.1111/btp.12944 |bibcode=2021Biotr..53..352P |issn=0006-3606}}</ref> "The Scientific Naturalist" of [https://www.esa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ESA-Scientific-Naturalist-Guidelines.pdf ''Ecology''], "From the Field" of [[Waterbirds (journal)|''Waterbirds'']],<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sundar |first=K. S. Gopi |date=2022 |title=Editorial: Transitioning Editorial Boards Through a Global Pandemic |url=https://doi.org/10.1675/063.045.0101 |journal=Waterbirds |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=i–iii |doi=10.1675/063.045.0101 |issn=1524-4695}}</ref> and the "Natural History Miscellany section" of the [https://www.amnat.org/announcements/CallNHM.html ''American Naturalist''].

==Benefits of Natural History==
Natural history observations have contributed to scientific questioning and theory formation. In recent times such observations contribute to how conservation priorities are determined. Mental health benefits can ensue, as well, from regular and active observation of chosen components of nature, and these reach beyond the benefits derived from passively walking through natural areas.<ref name="Fleischner-2025" />
{{clear}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Earth sciences|Ecology|Environment|Evolutionary biology}}
* [[Evolutionary history of life]]
* [[History of evolutionary thought]]
* [[Naturalism (philosophy)]]
* [[Nature documentary]]
* [[Nature study]]
* [[Nature writing]]
* [[Russian naturalists]]
* [[Timeline of natural history]]
* [[Natural science]]

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading==
{{Library resources box | by=no | onlinebooks=no | others=no | about=yes | label=Natural history}}
{{refbegin}}
* {{Citation | last = Allen | first= David Elliston | title = The Naturalist in Britain: a social history | publisher = Princeton University Press | location = New Jersey | year = 1994 | pages = 270 | isbn = 0-691-03632-2}}
* {{Citation | last = Liu | first = Huajie | title =  Living as a Naturalist | publisher = Peking University Press | location = Beijing | year = 2012 | pages=363 |isbn = 978-7-301-19788-2}}
* Peter Anstey (2011), [http://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/2011/01/two-forms-of-natural-history/ ''Two Forms of Natural History''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809125036/https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/2011/01/two-forms-of-natural-history/ |date=2011-08-09 }}, ''[http://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/ ''Early Modern Experimental Philosophy''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721051523/https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/emxphi/ |date=2011-07-21 }}.
* {{Citation | last = Atran | first= Scott | title = Cognitive Foundations of Natural History: Towards an Anthropology of Science| publisher = Cambridge University Press | location = Cambridge, UK | year = 1990 | pages = 376 | isbn = 978-0-521-43871-1}}
* Farber, Paul Lawrence (2000), ''Finding Order in Nature: The Naturalist Tradition from Linnaeus to E. O. Wilson''. Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore.
* [[Robert E. Kohler|Kohler, Robert E.]] (2002), ''Landscapes and Labscapes: Exploring the Lab-Field Border in Biology''. University of Chicago Press: Chicago.
* Mayr, Ernst. (1982), ''The Growth of Biological Thought: Diversity, Evolution, and Inheritance''. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: Cambridge, Massachusetts.
* Rainger, Ronald; Keith R. Benson; and Jane Maienschein (eds) (1988), ''The American Development of Biology''. University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Natural history}}
{{Wikisource portal|Natural History and Biology}}
* [http://esapubs.org/bulletin/current/history_links_list.htm ''A History of the Ecological Sciences''] by Frank N. Egerton
* ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73702 The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 07 (of 10)]'', London: Macmillan and Co., 1904

{{Natural history}}
{{History of biology}}
{{Environmental humanities}}
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[[Category:History of Earth science]]
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