The Nature Study Idea in New South Wales: The Role of Charles Tucker Musson (1856–1928)
Dorothy Kass
Historical Records of Australian Science
24(2) 225 - 241
Published: 12 November 2013
Abstract
Charles Tucker Musson was a highly respected teacher at Hawkesbury Agricultural College from 1891 to 1919 and a prolific contributor of articles to scientific and other journals in New South Wales. In addition, he became a strong advocate of Nature Study, a subject widely discussed as it was introduced to schools throughout the English-speaking world in the early twentieth century but since fallen into obscurity within historical research. Musson's understandings of ecology and adaptation promoted a holistic study of nature. For him any action that affected the natural environment had wider implications that needed to be understood. He came to believe that environmental understanding required more than factual scientific investigation and thus embraced the additional appeal to emotional attachment and aesthetic appreciation that Nature Study endorsed. A study of his life and writing thus provides insight into the particular ideology of Nature Study as it was introduced into New South Wales schools and its wider connection with conservationist and preservationist thought.https://doi.org/10.1071/HR13004
© Australian Academy of Science 2013