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This volume is an edited collection of primary sources which throw light on the interplay between zoology and visual culture in nineteenth-century Britain. A great extension of knowledge of the natural world in the Victorian era was accompanied by a flowering of new forms of scientific illustration, which ranged from prints and taxidermy to dioramas and early photography. The notion of ‘survival of the fittest'inspired imaginative artists such as Landseer, who expressively pictured animals'strife and suffering in the wild. At the same time, however, wild nature was presented as a thing of beauty, especially in decorative designs featuring birds in natural settings – often influenced by Japanese art. Finally, the book exemplifies the Victorians'strategies for communicating new scientific knowledge visually to the lay public, whether in museum displays, zoos, aquaria, popular publications or illustrated lectures that combined education with entertainment. This title will be of great interest to students of the History of Science and Art History.

Women against cruelty is the first book to explore women's leading role in animal protection in nineteenth-century Britain, drawing on rich archival sources. Women founded bodies such as the Battersea Dogs'Home, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and various groups that opposed vivisection. They energetically promoted better treatment of animals, both through practical action and through their writings, such as Anna Sewell's Black Beauty. Yet their efforts were frequently belittled by opponents, or decried as typifying female ‘sentimentality'and hysteria. Only the development of feminism in the later Victorian period enabled women to show that spontaneous fellow-feeling with animals was a civilising force. Women's own experience of oppressive patriarchy bonded them with animals, who equally suffered from the dominance of masculine values in society, and from an assumption that all-powerful humans were entitled to exploit animals at will.

This is the first book to explore women's leading role in animal protection in nineteenth-century Britain, drawing on rich archival sources. Women founded bodies such as the Battersea Dogs'Home, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and various groups that opposed vivisection. They energetically promoted better treatment of animals, both through practical action and through their writings, such as Anna Sewell's Black Beauty. Yet their efforts were frequently belittled by opponents, or decried as typifying female ‘sentimentality'and hysteria. Only the development of feminism in the later Victorian period enabled women to show that spontaneous fellow-feeling with animals was a civilising force. Women's own experience of oppressive patriarchy bonded them with animals, who equally suffered from the dominance of masculine values in society, and from an assumption that all-powerful humans were entitled to exploit animals at will.