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Peering through the Mists of Time: Charles R. Knight and the Art of Imagining Dinosaurs
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- Author / Creator
- Anger, Karin
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This thesis examines Charles R. Knight’s images of dinosaurs produced around the turn of the nineteenth century in comparison to natural history images of living animals. Using a combination of scholarship from animal studies and an analysis of the side of production, it argues Knight used visual strategies and methodologies of depicting living animals to show dinosaurs as animals like those alive in the present moment. As well as putting forward specific theories about the dinosaur species in question, Knight’s images argue that dinosaurs were once alive, and that they were not that different from living animals. This thesis seeks to explore how Knight’s images articulate the idea of a dinosaur as a group of animals that were once alive, and how Knight constructed images of animals as living beings. I situate Knight in the history of paleontology while examining how the broader history of science and settler colonialism impacted that history. In the second section of the thesis, I place Knight’s work in the context of paleoart, natural history illustration, and his role with the American Museum of Natural History before comparing a selection of Knight’s illustrations of Mesozoic dinosaurs and living animals. My analysis centers on the ways in which these images navigate the tensions inherent in depicting extinct animals as though they are alive, as well as the flexibility, anxiety, and uncertainty inherent in creating images of the distant past. Furthermore, this thesis puts forward a suggestion to scholars to consider paleoart as it relates to animal art and animal studies
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- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Fall 2023
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Arts
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.