Better than TV!

The concept of the glass-encased aquarium filled with exotic fish had a long and strange gestation, according to Bernd Brunner in his fascinating and beautifully illustrated The Ocean at Home (Princeton Architectural Press, $24.95). Brunner, a German writer and journalist, tells us about the British aquarium mania that swept the country in the 1850s, abetted by the growth of dealers who handled the difficult task of capturing and transporting the denizens of the deep. But since there was little knowledge about how to actually keep sea creatures alive, the craze was short-lived. By the 1880s, the freshwater aquarium (with attached aerators so large they had to be in another room) was gaining ground, and fantastic designs for tanks--mounted in windows, on walls--appeared. It wasn't long before large aquariums began to appear at world's fairs and exhibitions. Not surprisingly, P.T. Barnum caught on to the trend and offered fish tanks at his American Museum in New York. The still-extant New York Aquarium opened in 1876 and included whales among its attractions! The Ocean at Home is a fun and educational read.