Creatures 

People in the old days had a much lesser understanding of creatures and physics than we do today. This exhibit will explore how these ideas were interpreted then and how these ideas have changed and grown over the years as more resources have become available. We will visually show, as well as talk about, how these ideas have changed.

The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft 

 

John Webster, The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft (1677), England

This artifact from John Webster is one of his most influential. The physician and
theologian challenges the belief that witchcraft was real and is what controlled physics and mechanics. This book was written at a time when scientific reasoning was not a thing, so as Michael Hunter writes about in his journal, Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, it was incredibly difficult for Webster to get the church to publish this book. Webster eventually went to the Royal Society to get his book published, which they did. However, Hunter suggests that the only reason the Royal Society approved the book is because Sir Jonas Moore, the vice president who approved it, was an old friend of Webster. In this book, Webster argues that supposed acts of witchcraft can be explained through natural causes or misinterpretation. This book is one of the earliest known works of someone arguing against accusations of witchcraft and suggesting a more evidence based approach to unexplainable events.

 




“The Rhinoceros as ‘Mid-Wife to Divine Wonderment’

This is an article about an old animal book from 1607, written by a minister named Edward Topsell. At that time, most Europeans had never seen a rhinoceros before, so it was super exotic and strange to them. Topsell included in his book that famous picture of a rhinoceros that actually was wrong. It depicted the rhino with weird armor plating and with a small horn on its back that does not exist in real life. The picture came from a German artist by the name of Albrecht Dürer, who had never seen a rhinoceros himself, either. Topsell wasn't writing merely for fun, however. As a religious minister, he felt the study of animals was a way to understand and appreciate God's creation. He wanted everyday people to read his book and feel in awe of God's work. This article explains how this wrong rhino picture became super famous, then was copied over and over.




The Conjoror's Magazine

Johann Caspar Lavater, The Conjuror’s Magazine (1792-1793), London

The Conjuror’s Magazine by Johann Caspar Lavater is a periodical that talks about the
supernatural with the growing interest in science and psychology at the time. This artifact talks about Lavater’s popular theories such as one’s moral character could be determined from the features of their face. This artifact is extremely unique in the sense that it attempts to blend magic and science. It offers a mixture of magical instruction, dream interpretations, and astrological charts as well as scientific diagrams, which gives the reading both entertainment and knowledge. This artifact heavily talks a bout contradiction of the culture of the time. At the time there was a desire for enlightenment and revolutionary social change as well as a large fascination with mystical and magical things. This artifact talks a lot about the people of the time searched for answers in a way that blended both science and superstition. Lavater suggested that in order to find these answers, people must pick either a scientific or superstitious approach. Reading The Conjuror’s Magazine in today's word, we can see it as a prime example of how the culture at the time shaped modern understandings of the natural world. The artifact is one of the best examples of how people transitioned from magical to scientific explanations to search for answers