In the halls of natural history museums all over the world, you can peer through the glass and come face-to-face with the ghosts of extinction. Extinction has been going on as long as there has been biological life – in fact over 99% of all species that have ever existed on Earth are extinct – but extinction usually happens at a slow pace. We are now, however, living through the Sixth Mass Extinction, with species rapidly going extinct because of human actions.
In this talk, based on her new book Ghosts Behind Glass: Encountering Extinction in Museums (University of Chicago Press, 2025), our speaker will take visitors on a journey to encounter the extinct. Dolly Jørgensen is Professor of History at the University of Stavanger, Norway. Her research focuses on cultural histories of animals.
To book a place for the in-person talk or to register for the simultaneous online broadcast, click here to visit the museum’s website.
The Museum Winter Lecture series is sponsored by The Friends