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Join us for February’s Winter Lecture as we look at extinct species on display within museums across the world.
In the halls of natural history museums all over the world, you can peer through the glass and come face-to-face with the ghosts of extinction. Extinction has been going on as long as there has been biological life – in fact over 99% of all species that have ever existed on Earth are extinct – but extinction usually happens at a slow pace. We are now, however, living through the Sixth Mass Extinction, with species rapidly going extinct because of human actions. These are the ghosts of extinction in museums.
In this talk, based on the new book Ghosts Behind Glass, our speaker will take visitors to encounter the extinct. Journeying through the halls of over 80 museums worldwide, Dolly identified trends, similarities, and differences in display techniques and storytelling with remains of the extinct. In conversation with the Extinction Voices intervention at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery several years ago, this talk proposes the need to unveil the extinct and face them.
Speaker
Dolly Jørgensen is Professor of History at the University of Stavanger, Norway. Her research focuses on cultural histories of animals. Her newest book is Ghosts Behind Glass: Encountering Extinction in Museums (University of Chicago Press, 2025).
How to take part
Thanks to the generous sponsorship from the Friends of Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives , this season’s Winter Lectures will be held in person at M Shed and online via Zoom.
If you are attending in-person, please arrive 15 minutes before the advertised start time to take your seat. Parking in the area can be difficult so you may want to allow extra time to find a space if you are driving to the venue.
If you are attending online, this lecture will take place over Zoom. Details of how to join the session will be in your registration email.
