CSIRO PUBLISHING Historical Records of Australian Science, 2017, 28, 66–75 http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/HR17901 Reviews Compiled by Peter Hobbins Department of History, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Email: peter.hobbins@sydney.edu.au Jean Fornasiero, Lindl Lawton and John West-Sooby: The Art of Science. Wakefield Press: Adelaide, 2016. 175 pp., illus., ISBN: 9781743054277 (PB), $39.95. The voyage led by Nicolas Baudin and its extraordinary scientific achievements are well known to most historians of Australian biol- ogy. One of the most expensive and scientifically well-equipped expeditions of discovery, Baudin’s voyage returned to France with a bounty of Australian ethnographic, cartographic and biological material. Over 200,000 specimens and an unparalleled collection of living plants and animals swelled the basements of what is now the Muséum d’histoire naturelle in Paris, as well as the greenhouses of the Empress Josephine. Baudin’s legacy may have been tarnished for decades by his sur- viving officers, particularly François Peron, but his work has recently been more objectively examined for its achievements and failures. Generations of Australian researchers, in particular, have led the charge in rediscovering Baudin. The scientific value of Baudin and Peron’s biological collec- tions was greatly diminished by the early death of so many of the officers and scientists, but one collection remained in the pos- session of the surviving artist, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, who ultimately left it to the Muséum d’histoire du Havre. The collec- tion’s acquisition by a smaller regional museum, rather than being swallowed by larger Parisian archives, has allowed a stronger focus on promoting the material and building strong connections with Australia—particularly indigenous communities. The Art of Science, edited by Jean Fornasiero, Lindl Lawton and John West-Sooby, accompanies an impressive exhibition showcas- ing the art and achievements of Baudin’s voyage. The opportunity to develop the exhibition came about, in part, through a redevel- opment at Le Havre, an opportunity and a challenge seized by the South Australian Maritime Museum in collaboration with four other Australian museums. Circulating between these five museums until late 2018, the exhibition contains more than 350 objects from the Le Havre Museum, as well as previously undisplayed material from the National Archives in Paris, such as logbooks, coastal profiles and hand-drawn maps. For many academics the written word dominates the commu- nication of knowledge. But for scientists, art has long played a crucial role in accurate and effective communication. Nowhere is that more obvious than on the voyages of discovery where both maritime knowledge (in the form of cartography) and biological knowledge (in descriptions of new species) must be rendered in visual forms. The drawing of knowledge, as much as the writing of it, was paramount, highlighting the value of artists like Lesueur and Petit on voyages of discovery. The text of the book accompanying the exhibition may not be new to readers familiar with work in this field, and generally provides a breadth of information, rather than depth of analysis. Despite that, there are some interesting discussions on the role and development of the artwork by Gabrielle Baglione and Cédric Crémière, as well as by Sarah Grishin, which are particularly pertinent to the topic. The main value of this book, however, as with this exhibi- tion, lies in the illustrations. The intimate and personal portraits of Aboriginal men and women, for example, with names, details and circumstances, suggest an unusually sensitive level of engagement with Indigenous Australians. These are portraits of individuals, of acquaintances, rather than just subjects, representatives of race or culture. The images have many facets, shifting as we look at them. In one glance they might appear intensely romantic, or extraordinar- ily realistic, while simultaneously encoding scientific information about form and shape. The intermingling of science and art in the zoological images is likewise breathtaking—best appreciated with a magnifying glass. While the book includes an array of images from all of the exhi- bitions, each venue features different objects and themes. Objects too, bring a resonance that neither text nor images can ever fully convey. The exhibition’s premiere in South Australia, for example, focused on the natural history of Kangaroo Island. Baudin’s fair copy logbook is on display here for the first time, its sheer size evi- dence of the vast scale of the captain’s paperwork (particularly given his propensity to communicate with his officers by letter). Peron’s dynameter, for measuring native strength, a contemporary artists’ travelling palette, the copper plate from which was printed the first complete map ofAustralia, the Berthoud’s chronometer that allowed the French ships to calculate longitude accurately: all these objects shift our perceptions and assumptions about the voyage. The exhibition travels in the first half of 2017 toTasmania, where displays at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launce- ston and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart will focus on the important anthropological work completed at Maria Journal compilation © Australian Academy of Science 2017 www.publish.csiro.au/journals/hras