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Lot 484
WARREN MASTODON: EXHIBITION BROADSIDE. Great American Mastodon!! Now Exhibiting at the Hall. [United States: c.1846.]
5 December 2018, 14:00 EST
New YorkSold for US$2,500 inc. premium
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WARREN MASTODON: EXHIBITION BROADSIDE.
Great American Mastodon!! Now Exhibiting at the Hall. [United States: c.1846.]
Large broadside, 610 x 435 mm (visible in mat), announcing the discovery and exhibition of a large mastodon skeleton, offsetting of text, probably from another copy of the broadside, some spotting, matted.
"NO ANIMAL LIVING APPROACHES THIS IN SIZE." Rare broadside advertising the exhibition of the nearly complete mastodon skeleton unearthed in 1845 near Newburgh, New York on the farm of Nathaniel Brewster by workers digging for peat fuel. One of the most famous finds in the annals of American paleontology, the skeleton was purchased from the Brewster family by the noted surgeon Dr. John Collins Warren, who wrote a monograph on the specimen in 1852 and kept it on display in a small Boston museum. The Warren Mastodon was later acquired by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where it is remains on display. "The discovery of the mastodon skeleton, and Warren's serious treatment of it, mark the beginning of vertebrate paleontology in this country" (Expedition [AMNH gallery guide] 46).
Warren recalls in his memoir that he had learned of the skeleton after "it was brought into New England, shown in various towns, and ultimately in Worcester" (Life..., vol 2, pp 223); that the broadside does not state a locale other than "the Hall" suggests that the broadside was designed for this traveling exhibition.
Large broadside, 610 x 435 mm (visible in mat), announcing the discovery and exhibition of a large mastodon skeleton, offsetting of text, probably from another copy of the broadside, some spotting, matted.
"NO ANIMAL LIVING APPROACHES THIS IN SIZE." Rare broadside advertising the exhibition of the nearly complete mastodon skeleton unearthed in 1845 near Newburgh, New York on the farm of Nathaniel Brewster by workers digging for peat fuel. One of the most famous finds in the annals of American paleontology, the skeleton was purchased from the Brewster family by the noted surgeon Dr. John Collins Warren, who wrote a monograph on the specimen in 1852 and kept it on display in a small Boston museum. The Warren Mastodon was later acquired by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where it is remains on display. "The discovery of the mastodon skeleton, and Warren's serious treatment of it, mark the beginning of vertebrate paleontology in this country" (Expedition [AMNH gallery guide] 46).
Warren recalls in his memoir that he had learned of the skeleton after "it was brought into New England, shown in various towns, and ultimately in Worcester" (Life..., vol 2, pp 223); that the broadside does not state a locale other than "the Hall" suggests that the broadside was designed for this traveling exhibition.



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