The Wagner Free Institute of Science

Our class visit yesterday to the Wagner Free Institute of Science was proof that this building is still actively involved with its original mission of providing public education.  We gathered in the same auditorium seats where over a hundred years ago, many students have also received the opportunity of enriching their knowledge through classes and research.

William Wagner, the institute’s nineteenth century founder, like Medici, Rudolf II, and many of the collectors we have read about in class, acquired his collection of objects that were of interest to him.  However, unlike these early Renaissance collections, Wagner made his available to the public, creating his cabinet to not only house his collection but classes as well.  

The public display of his collection would have provided the visuals for the education; therefore, the objects he collected and the way in which they are exhibited presents Wagner’s (and his curator, Joseph Leidy) world view and idea of knowledge.  The compilation of animals, fossils, minerals, insects, bones, and shells were displayed in a rational hierarchy to offer a comprehensible explanation of the order of the natural world.  Insects were in cases with other insects grouped according to their size, birds were grouped with birds, reptiles with reptiles, monkeys with other monkeys, and so on in an order of evolution around the room, ending with a human skeleton in the final case—representing the relationship between microcosm and macrocosm, man and nature.  According to the director, this was a revolutionary concept for the time, a different view of the world and its development.  The Wagner continues to be revolutionary in today’s society, preserving the display and labels of the collection identically to the late nineteenth century. 

I find the Wagner Institute fascinating.  It presents a view of science and nature from a perspective when humans were still learning and observing, when we did not yet have the knowledge and technology that we have today.  It is a small, intimate place where the visitor can almost get lost in time. 


I visited the Wagner once before with my printmaking class in 2009, where we made a series of etchings inspired by the collection.  Here are a few of my prints: