"Love, War & Empire" (3 Viewers)

[PolarBear]

I am beginning a new thread which I will be developing that will examine such things as the Colonial Wars of the 19th Century, the relations of the sexes (G-rated), fashion, and toy soldiers. This exploration will include aspects of anthropology, evolutionary theory, military and cultural history. It will utilize images from 19th Century art, photography, illustration, and the soldiers of Wm. Hocker to make its points.

The key or "Rosetta Stone" to my discussion will be the work of Charles Darwin represented here in Mr. Hocker's set commemorating the 200th Anniversary of Darwin's birth (1809) and the 150th Anniversary of the publication of Darwin's Origin of Species (1859).

So if this subject appeals to your interests look for new posts on this thread in the new Wm. Hocker section of the forum.

 

[PolarBear]

“Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was the most famous and significant natural scientist of the his century [the Victorian Era]. His theories about evolution and the origins of the human race profoundly affected the intellectual, cultural, and social lives of his contemporaries and are still of great consequence for us today.” –Endless Forms: Darwin, Natural Science and the Visual Arts.

Darwin’s Century is coterminous with the high point of the British Empire which witnessed Britain’s continued colonization especially in Africa and South Asia. Although the era between the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) and the outbreak of World War I (1914) is often referred to as the Pax Britannica, Britain was heavily involved in the Crimean War (1853-1856) and numerous smaller colonial wars such as the Indian Mutiny (1857-1858)), the 2nd Afghan War (1878-1880), the Zulu War (1879), and the Anglo-Sudan War (1881-1899). At home, social and cultural changes were occurring, as seen, for example, in the rise of the New Woman and its impact on gender relations. Darwin’s ideas had come to permeate society to such an extent that his theories were often cited in conjunction with both Imperialism and gender relations. These are the aspects of Darwin’s theories that will concern us in this thread.

 

[PolarBear]

In our examination of “Love, War, and Empire” the toy soldiers of Wm. Hocker provide an excellent example from our hobby to illustrate the ideas under review. Indeed a large portion of Bill’s creations represent “Types of The British Empire” and record aspects of both the colonial wars and the relations of Victorian men and women.

 

[thebritfarmer]

Looking forward to this Randy. The first set of Darwin & the Chimpanzee is a great little set. Is it discontinued?

 

[PolarBear]

Looking forward to this Randy. The first set of Darwin & the Chimpanzee is a great little set. Is it discontinued?

Scott

The Darwin set is not Extinct and is still available from Mr. Hocker. It just came out in 2009 for the 200th Anniversary of Darwin's birth.

http://wmhocker.com/index.php?s=specials

Randy

 

[thebritfarmer]

Scott

The Darwin set is not Extinct and is still available from Mr. Hocker. It just came out in 2009 for the 200th Anniversary of Darwin's birth.

http://wmhocker.com/index.php?s=specials

Randy

Thanks Randy,

For some reason I always forget to look in the specials section.

 

[Russell]

I didn't know that Bill had sculpted a Darwin Commemoration Set. I hope it won't upset any creationists among us.

I'm really happy that we have this Bill Hocker thread now.
I also hope to see more of other forum members' sets.

Cheers

 

[PolarBear]

Big Questions

To get a better idea of the context of the ideas and writings of Charles Darwin, I am presenting a painting (now in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts) painted in French Polynesia by the French artist Paul Gauguin. The painting is entitled "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?" In this art work, Gauguin has presented us with the Big Questions being asked in the 19th Century about the Human Condition. These same questions about human existence and destiny were asked by Darwin 38 years earlier with the publication of The Origin of Species (1859): How did the world begin? Where did people come from? and Where are we headed? Gauguin's painting should be read from right to left showing the evolution from birth to old age and death. The figure with upraised arms grasping a piece of fruit is possibly a reference to Eve and the Garden of Eden. Gauguin often painted Christian subjects in Polynesian settings. In the 19th Century people sought answers to the Big Questions either in religion or science leading to conflicting views that are still present today.

 

[PolarBear]

Imperial Resources

Both Gauguin and Darwin sought their answers to the these questions by leaving Europe and entering the colonial environment of 19th Century imperialism. Gauguin, who had earlier served as a sailor in the French Navy, left France in 1891 for the French colony of Tahiti. Sixty years earlier,in 1831, Darwin departed England aboard the Royal Naval vessel HMS Beagle as part of a military survey expedition to South America. Its purpose was to map ocean routes in response to Britain's desire for new markets for its industrial products and in return natural resources through expanded trade with this region of the world.

HMS Beagle by Conrad Martens (artist on the expedition)

 

[Russell]

Beautiful images Randy.

 

[PolarBear]

Sea Power

That Darwin carried out his global quest for data to support his evolutionary theories aboard a Royal Navy 10 gun warship on an imperial survey mission should not come as a surprise. The British military often collaborated with scientists who were part of the industrial and technological culture of the Victorian Era to ensure that the information they were sent to gather around the globe was as accurate and as up to date as possible. The Royal Navy had by this time become an important extension of Britain's imperial project.

The British example was to provide a model for the United States at the end of the 19th Century through the writings of Alfred Thayer Mahan who taught at and was later president of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Mahan's book The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 which examined the success of the British Navy in extending England's power, exerted a significant influence upon America's military planners during the Spanish American War and and the nation's own bid for empire. By this time Darwin's ideas had permeated American culture in the form known as Social Darwinism which emphasized the concepts of "the struggle for existence" and "the survival of the fittest". Mahan was a believer in these ideas as was Teddy Roosevelt who served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1897-1898.

Illustrations:

Alfred T. Mahan
The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783

 

[PolarBear]

Playing With Sea Power

As evidence of the role played by the Royal Navy in colonization and the imperial project as represented in the area of toy soldiers here are two examples from Wm. Hocker's Types of The British Empire series.

 

[PolarBear]

SLAVERY

During Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle he was confronted by the issue of slavery. In 1807 the British Parliament had abolished the transatlantic slave trade and in 1833, while Darwin was on his around the world voyage, the Abolition of Slavery Act which abolished slavery throughout the British Empire was passed. Although Robert FitzRoy, the captain of the HMS Beagle shared a love of natural history, Darwin and he were at odds over the issue of slavery. FitzRoy was a pro-slavery advocate while Darwin like many Englishmen in the 19th Century was opposed to it. Darwin’s mother Susanna was the daughter of pottery manufacturer Josiah Wedgwood who was an early supporter of abolition. The Wedgwood Pottery even created a jasperware anti-slavery medallion picturing a black slave in chains surrounded by the words “Am I Not A Man and A Brother?”. Proceeds from the sale of the ceramic were used to support the anti-slavery cause. Darwin was appalled by the condition of black slaves when the Beagle stopped in Brazil.

Darwin and FitzRoy eventually agreed not to discuss the issue of slavery while on the Beagle. Despite the passage of the Abolition of Slavery Act in 1833, FitzRoy maintained his belief in the institution and during the American Civil War was a staunch supporter of the Confederacy. When the South lost the war in 1865, FitzRoy was so distraught that he committed suicide.

Illustrations:
Captain FitzRoy
Wedgwood” “Am I Not A Man And A Brother”
Slave Market Brazil









.

 

[PolarBear]

Slavery & Toy Soldiers

Wm. Hocker in his extensive series on the American Civil War has produced these two sets illustrating the opposing views of North & South.

 

[thebritfarmer]

Most interesting Randy. I was not aware that Darwin's grandfather was Josiah Wedgewood.

 

[PolarBear]

Victorian Nature

It is significant that Charles Darwin lived and worked in the 19th Century, for this was the great century of nature and the study of nature. During this time period landscape painting from the Hudson River School in America to the Impressionists in France flourished. This 19th Century love of nature extended to literature from the poems of William Wordsworth to Emerson's 1836 essay "Nature" and Henry David Thoreau's Walden. The movement of Romanticism was a key source for this interest. For many nature became a source of comfort in a world that was rapidly undergoing the process of Industrialization.

The scientific study of nature was called Natural History and scientists like Darwin were called Naturalists. The Victorian love of nature extended to collecting and cataloging its many wonders. This daguerreotype of a Butterfly Collector is a perfect symbol of the culture that formed and was transformed by Darwin, perhaps the most famous naturalist of the century.

 

[PolarBear]

Organizing Nature & Empire:

Nature:

In the England of Charles Darwin, Natural History, the scientific study of plants and animals was a subject of interest to both professionals and amateurs. As noted previously in this thread those who took up this pursuit either as a profession or a hobby were known as naturalists, which is the term that best describes Darwin. Naturalists were usually collectors and travelers and in many instances illustrators. Victorian homes as well as academic institutions often had cabinets of drawers filled with specimens catalogued and organized for further study. The 19th Century saw an increased level of bureaucratization and organization and this extended into all areas of knowledge. In 1876, the American librarian and educator, Melvil Dewey, developed the Dewey Decimal Classification System to better organize the collections of books in libraries, a system still used by most American public libraries to this day.

Empire:

The British Empire through it's governmental bodies and the military was characterized by this penchant for organizing and classifying as a means of maintaining order and control in its overseas colonies. Imperial organization and control were dependent upon the gathering and transmission of data, often sending it back to London. The two sets by Wm. Hocker illustrated below, show these two aspects of imperial data. In a century fascinated by landscape views of nature, the observation balloon was an appropriate tool for information gathering such as topographic map production or the reconnaissance of enemy positions in the field. The telegraph provided the means of rapidly sending such data back to the metropolitan centers.

Illustrations:

A typical 19th C Cabinet of Specimens
Wm. Hocker Set 1 (Types of the British Empire)
Wm. Hocker Set 124 (Types of the British Empire)

 

[PolarBear]

The Natural Woman

Victorian women of the leisure class as seen in Wm. Hocker's Set 400 are representative of the 19th C. woman described in a 1988 art exhibition catalog of paintings and photographs depicting Americans at leisure between 1865 and 1914 entitled Idle Hours. In a section of the catalog called "Flora and Fauna" we find this comment describing the era's view of womanhood:

"A woman's purpose, as explained by Thorstein Veblen (author of The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), was to beautify the household of which she should be the 'chief ornament'. Certainly there were women who chose to refute or disregard this social ideal, but most who aspired to high social status adhered to those precepts. When not actively displaying to her social peers that she had ample leisure time for entertaining or being received by her friends, the woman of affluence could pursue aesthetic and quasi-intellectual pursuits such as collecting butterflies or wildflowers."

Two of the art works in the show depict women pursuing the collecting of these examples of the natural world that were at the same time playing a key role in the development of a Darwinian science. By the time these paintings were made, Americans were very much aware of the writings and ideas of Charles Darwin.

Note the potted palm in Wm. Hocker's set: a typical Victorian idea of bringing exotic nature into the home. The women in their ball gowns were part of this same 'natural' aesthetic environment. There are countless 19th C paintings showing a woman surrounded by flowers and plants suggesting that she was the 'natural woman'. See for example Winslow Homer's painting "Morning Glories" from the 1870s

Illustrations:

Wm Hocker Set 400 "Our Silver Jubilee Souvenir"
Winslow Homer "The Butterfly Girl" 1878
De Scott Evans "Botanizing" 1891
Winslow Homer "Morning Glories" 1870s

 

[PolarBear]

Natural History and the Popular Media

The 19th Century pictorial press such as the Illustrated London News or Harper's Weekly were quick to pick up on the public's current leisure interests. Here is an example from the September 27th, 1873 issue of Harper's Weekly entitled "Amateur Naturalists" depicting three young women collecting butterflies. The publication that had brought visual depictions of the American Civil War to its readers in the 1860s, turned its attention in the Gilded Age to more pleasant subjects. Winslow Homer who had worked as a 'special artist' for Harper's Weekly during war was attentive to the public's interests and the popularity of natural history among young women may have influenced his decision to paint "The Butterly Girl" during the same decade.

 

[PolarBear]

Peter Rabbit and Natural History

Among the best known English women who took up the study of natural history in the Victorian era was Beatrix Potter, who would eventually achieve fame as the author of the books about Peter Rabbit (1901) and his friends, perhaps the most popular and long-lived of children's book series. Potter's love of plants and animals had originally led to a desire to be a professional naturalist. She was thwarted, however, in her attempts to study at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew because she was a female. She continued research on her own and became an expert on fungi and wrote scientific papers on the topic. Once again, however, due to her gender she was not allowed to read one of her papers at a scientific conference. Since women were banned from attending meetings, her uncle presented the paper for her. Ultimately, her great skill in natural history illustration and love of animals led to her decision to both write and illustrate her own series of books for children.

Illustrations:

Book Cover: A Victorian Naturalist
Potter "Caterpillars"
Potter "Beetles"
Potter "Fuschia Flowers"