OUGD603 - Brief 6 - Research Brief - Terrariums - Research - The Accidental Invention of Terrariums by Matthew Wills (JStor)

The Accidental Invention of Terrariums by Matthew Wills (JStor)

- Wards doctors practice was in Whitechapel - 'surrounded by, and enveloped in, the smoke of numerous factories'
- pollution was high here which made it difficult for him to grow ferns 
- 1829 - 'a small fern spore sprouted inside a bottle he was using to hatch a chrysalis' Margaret Flanders Darby 
- 'tightly sealed glass containers could be used to control humidity and air quality
- 'although the Victorians could not see the armful fumes and microscopic carcinogens of combusted coal, they could watch their uncovered houseplants wither from exposure to the air that they themselves were breathing every day'
- the Wardian cases provided a miniature, unpolluted world'
- middle and upper classes - the cases allowed them 'to indulge in the chimera of nature restored to a preindustrial state of perfection'
- 'typically feature cases fully stocked with robust flora: the splendor of nature effectively preserved from the ravages of modern industry'
- 'many put their Ward's cases in front of windows, where they could screen out the view of factory chimneys'
- 'a vehicle for environmental scrutiny'
- 'such tiny 'yet thought - provoking' gardens connected home and planet'
- ' a climate within a climate, a little world within a little world'

https://daily.jstor.org/the-accidental-invention-of-terrariums/