Philip Henry Gosse, The Aquarium

[bookofchange]

Hey ho!

I'm doing research and I was looking for a copy of Gosse's, The Aquarium (1854).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Henry_Gosse

I'm from the PNW, and I'd like to have a look at this book. But, I am having a hard time finding it via the library system, Amazon, and UW only has it available in their closed stacks.

Have any of you seen this book in person, and would you recommend that it's worth the effort to track down? Do you have a copy of it? Have you seen a softcover anywhere?

*want want need need*

I have seen some of the prints from within the 1st edition book and they are gorgeous. I can not see any reason why the Aqua Community should not find some way to sponsor having this book created into a PDF ebook for free distribution. It is an invaluable bit of history concerning the modern aquarium... and we all deserve to have a peek inside.



However, that would require that someone could get their hands on a 1st edition... and that cost is prohibitive.

 

[Curtswearing]

WOW!!! Over $600 for a book.

 

[bookofchange]

WOW!!! Over $600 for a book.

And possibly worth every penny for its historical significance to the aqua community. If I could ever get my hands on a copy of it I would consider submitting it for republishing in a color softcover version.

If there are any other individuals who might be interested in this project they are welcome to email me. I have a publisher, and it would be a project I would dearly love to work on.

 

[liveforphysics]

I dont know if its this book in perticular, but one of these really old naturalist books talks about King Solomon's coral reefkeeping. Limestone pools chipped into the baserock his palace was on, lots of liverock from the reef, lots of corals getting natural sunlight, and women with big clay pots to scoop up water and dump it back in every few minutes for water circulation.

Supercool stuff. Some tile mosaic's showing the pools with many brightly colored corals were shown on the history channel. Appearently greeks and romans were enjoying coral reefkeeping even long before Solomon.

I would love to see the methods for coral keeping a 150year old book would recomend. Things that are pre-psudoscience darkage are so neat to see.

I will ask the rare/old book shop guy in tacoma if he has a copy that I could photograph.

 

[bookofchange]

I dont know if its this book in perticular, but one of these really old naturalist books talks about King Solomon's coral reefkeeping. Limestone pools chipped into the baserock his palace was on, lots of liverock from the reef, lots of corals getting natural sunlight, and women with big clay pots to scoop up water and dump it back in every few minutes for water circulation.

Supercool stuff. Some tile mosaic's showing the pools with many brightly colored corals were shown on the history channel. Appearently greeks and romans were enjoying coral reefkeeping even long before Solomon.

I would love to see the methods for coral keeping a 150year old book would recomend. Things that are pre-psudoscience darkage are so neat to see.

I will ask the rare/old book shop guy in tacoma if he has a copy that I could photograph.

It sounds like you are interested in the history of aquaria... I would recommend picking up a book called "The Ocean at Home: An Illustrated History of the Aquarium" by Bernd Brunner. Most library systems carry it, and it's a popular read. I have a copy sitting in front of me right now. You can pick a copy up from Amazon for around $16. It contains small slides of pictures from The Aquarium and much more.

:idea: If he does have a copy of the book, or knows how to track one down please let me know. I would consider creating a fundraiser to purchase a copy of the book, have it professionally scanned, and then reproduced as an ebook. Once the book has been scanned I would donate it to the PSAS library (if they have one).