In *Ghosts Behind Glass*, Dolly Jørgensen delivers a haunting and incisive meditation on the intersection of natural history, extinction, and museological memory. This is not a book about specimens alone—it is about presence and absence, grief and display, and the way institutions preserve life by rendering it still. With profound philosophical resonance, Jørgensen interrogates how museums shape our understanding of species loss, and what it means to encounter extinction as a curated experience.

Drawing from history, environmental humanities, and museum studies, the book takes readers deep into the cultural logic of taxidermy, diorama, and exhibition. What do we feel when we stand before the glass—fascination, sorrow, guilt, reverence? Jørgensen probes these emotions and their ethical implications, arguing that museums are not merely sites of knowledge, but of affect, narrative, and moral responsibility.

The writing is lucid and lyrical, informed by both academic rigor and poetic awareness. Jørgensen moves with ease between detailed case studies—such as the mounted thylacine or the passenger pigeon—and larger theoretical concerns about how extinction is remembered and represented. She challenges readers to think critically about the stories we tell through static forms and the ghosts we invoke when we place lost species in frames of permanence.

One of the most striking aspects of the book is its confrontation with silence—the silence of vanished species, the muffled atmosphere of the gallery, the institutional tendency to depoliticize ecological catastrophe. In this, *Ghosts Behind Glass* is not only a study in museology, but a quiet manifesto: a call to render extinction visible not only as natural history, but as cultural mourning.

**Final Verdict**:
*Ghosts Behind Glass* is a profound, elegiac, and necessary work. With intellectual clarity and emotional depth, Dolly Jørgensen reframes the museum not as a sanctuary of the past, but as a site where extinction becomes intimate, unsettling, and ethically charged. For scholars of environmental history, museum curators, and readers invested in the politics of memory and loss, this is essential reading.

**Rating**: ★★★★★

*Disclaimer: I read an advance copy provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

This is an intriguing concept although I must confess I found the writing a bit drier than anticipated, given the subject matter. Still, there's a lot of interesting information here and I suspect if I had read a physical book, in which I could really see the pictures, instead of a kindle version in which I really could not, the blending of mystery with extinction would have felt a lot more compelling.

A great look into the different ways we can study the animals and organisms who lived before us. Examples include skeletons, taxidermy, and eggs

I recently finished Ghosts Behind the Glass by Dolly Jorgensen, and it was such a unique and fascinating read. The book explores the intersection of history, technology, and the supernatural in a way that I hadn’t encountered before. Jorgensen’s writing is engaging and thought-provoking, and she does a fantastic job of blending eerie moments with intellectual exploration.

What stood out to me most was the way Jorgensen connects the idea of ghosts and technology, making the supernatural feel both relevant and intriguing in today’s world. The pacing was great, with just enough suspense to keep me hooked without feeling rushed. If you're into stories that mix the paranormal with deeper reflections on human experience, Ghosts Behind the Glass is a must-read.

I thoroughly enjoyed this brilliant book about how the world interacts with the extinct and the potentially extinct. Jørgensen does a wonderful job of explaining extinction to a wide audience, and I was fascinated by the various ways in which she approached the topic from multiple angles. If you've ever wandered through a natural history museum or viewed a cabinet of curiosities and wondered why the curators chose to pose those animals that way, or to put animals and plants from different time periods or places together, or thought about whether de-extincting is really possibly, or pondered on the fate of the thylacine, passenger pigeon, dodo, quagga, and other species killed off by humans and/or human intervention, this book will be a treat. I will offer guidance that some of the images of wet preserved and taxidermied specimens might be a little disturbing. The thylacine pup made me cry.

I do not typically pick up books about endangered species and museum, however the title left me curious about the contents. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the museums through the lens of their thesis of understanding the dead. We learn so much from these ghosts in the museums and how our environment has changed without them. There was a lot to learn from the author with the authors pictures they had taken throughout their visits. The pictures were well paced with the appropriate text to compliment the picture. It felt like a lively discussion you would hear on a museum tour. We are haunted by the history we choose to ignore, and I feel like this is the sentiment the author was getting at by teaching us about these museum collections. A well researched read that makes you think about just how work is put into museum curations. Thank you, Net Galley and University of Chicago Press!