A history of North American and European governments supporting paleontology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the motivation behind it.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, North American and European governments generously funded the discoveries of such famous paleontologists and geologists as Henry de la Beche, William Buckland, Richard Owen, Thomas Hawkins, Edward Drinker Cope, O. C. Marsh, and Charles W. Gilmore. In Patrons of Paleontology, Jane Davidson explores the motivation behind this rush to fund exploration, arguing that eagerness to discover strategic resources like coal deposits was further fueled by patrons who had a genuine passion for paleontology and the fascinating creatures that were being unearthed. These early decades of government support shaped the way the discipline grew, creating practices and enabling discoveries that continue to affect paleontology today.

“This slim book, graced with beautiful facsimile reproductions of gorgeous paleontological folio art, is a treasure trove of vertebrate paleontological history, sacred and arcane.” —The Quarterly Review of Biology

“Patrons of Paleontology is a good introduction to the ambitious individuals and institutions that pursued their own, national, and institutional interests over centuries in a variety of contexts.” —Journal of American History

“Who pays for palaeontological research and why? Patrons of Paleontology will be a useful reference guide for anyone interested in the early history of the subject and some of the social and historical context in which it occurred.” —Paul Barrett, Priscum, The Newsletter of the Palentological Society