Unsure quite where to start, and thinking about the Victorian domestication of nature, attitudes to animals, pets and also the beginnings of mass image reproduction, I went looking for Victorian etchings of capuchin monkeys! The Biodiversity Hirtage Library has a huge catalogue of old images of nature available for public use, so I spent a long evening looking through its 70-something pages of albums, looking specifically for capuchins… After collecting them in a document, I got them printed and made a quick animation from them… Not sure this worked that well but it was a starting point:
I also found some old illustrations of Victorian garden plans on The Biodiversity Library Flickr account and have been playing around with them too. I might try and create some sort of sculpture of a Victorian Garden. I’ve also been pressing some flowers using an iron(!), as flower pressing was a common hobby in the Victorian era. Still don’t quite know where I’m going with all this but trying not to worry too much and just explore…
