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Loci of New Data: Collections 1786–1830

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The Emergence of Ornithology as a Scientific Discipline: 1760–1850

Part of the book series: Studies in the History of Modern Science ((SHMS,volume 12))

Abstract

The half century that witnessed the enormous influx of ornithological data also witnessed a corresponding transformation in natural history collections. Until the end of the 1790’s these collections continued as they had been for nearly a century, that is, in the amateur cabinet d’histoire naturelle tradition. They were general collections of natural history objects: shells, insects, minerals, a few quadrupeds and some birds, and often formed but a subsection of a larger general collection of objects d’art, antiquities, and books.1 The owner was normally not a naturalist, nor did he or she publish anything other than an occasional catalogue, usually a sale catalogue.2 The conception of a natural history cabinet therefore was more that of a collector’s than of a savant’s, and consequently aesthetic considerations were as important as scientific ones.3 These aesthetic concerns are reflected in the enormous attention paid to display.

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  1. An example of one of the most splendid of these can be glimpsed from the sale catalogue of Margaret Cavendish Harley, Duchess Dowager of Portland: A Catalogue of the Portland Museum, lately the property of the Duchess Dowager of Portland, Deceased: Which will be sold by auction, by Mr.Skinner & Co., n.p., n.p., 1786.

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  2. See E. Mendes da Costa, “Notes and Anecdotes of Literati, Collectors, &c. from a ms. by the late Mendes de [sic] Costa, and Collected between 1747 and 1788”, The Gentleman’s Magazine, 1812, (1):205–207 and 513–516.

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  3. A. J. Desallier d’Argenville, La Conchyliologie ou Histoire naturelle des coquilles… Troisième édition par MM. de Favanne de Mont cervelle père et fils, Paris, DeBure, 1780, p. 193.

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  4. British Museum, Add. ms. 28540, fol. 156. The nine volumes of da Costa’s correspondence in the British Museum (Add. mss. 28534–28546) provide an excellent picture of natural history collecting in the second half of the eighteenth century.

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  5. Ibid. See Altick, The Shows of London, for a description of the popularity of collections.

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  6. W. H. Mullens, “Some Museums of Old London. I. The Leverian Museum”, The Museums Journal 1915, 15:123–129 and 162–172.

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  7. Quoted in Mullens, “Some Museums of Old London, I.”, p. 126.

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  10. After his death the collection was purchased by the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society and later formed the nucleus of the Hancock Museum. See Russell T. Goddard, History of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle Upon Tyne 1829–1929, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Reid, 1929, pp. 12–57. George Townshed Fox in his Synopsis of the Newcastle Museum, Newcastle, Hodgson, 1827, p. vi, commented on the historical significance of the Tunstall collection when he noted that the catalogue was valuable “as enabling students in Zoology to compare and identify the actual specimens of many subjects which have become, in some degree classical, by their having served for the original descriptions and delineations of authors; particularly of Mr. Pennant in his various works, Brown in his ‘Illustrations of Zoology’, Dr. Latham in his ‘Synopsis of Birds’, Col. Montagu in his ‘Ornithological Dictionary’”. He could have added the name Bewick, as well.

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  11. See Jacques Berlioz, “Les collections ornithologiques du Muséum de Paris”, L’Oiseau, 1938, (2):237–260

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  15. Although, perhaps not as much as was thought. See M. Boeseman, “The Vicissitudes and Dispersal of Albertus Seba’s Zoological Specimens”, Zoologische Mededelingen, 1970, 44(13): 177–206, which suggests that some specimens were hidden and not removed to France.

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  20. For example, William Kirby (1759–1850) wrote to Alexander Macleay in 1817, “Every part of the Museum is in beautiful order, systematically arranged, so that every student may in a moment find every object that he wants, and every facuity is afforded to him that he can desire. I wish the zoological department of the British Museum was in similar order”. Linnean Society, Macleay Correspondence, Letter of June 25, 1817.

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  21. Deleuze, Histoire, p. 436.

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  22. British Museum, Add. ms. 28544 fol. 148. Letter of March 4, 1784.

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  27. Catalogue, p. 4.

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  28. See my article, “The Type-Concept in Zoology during the First Half of the Nineteenth Century”, Journal of the History of Biology, 1976, 9(1): 93–119.

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  29. John Latham, A General History of Birds, Winchester, Jacob and Johnson, 1821–4, Vol. l,p.ix.

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  30. See The History of the Collections in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum, London, British Museum, 1904–6, and Albert Gunther, A Century of Zoology at the British Museum through the Lives of Two Keepers 1815–1914, London, Dawsons, 1975.

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  31. Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers (Commons), “Report from the Select Committee on the Condition, Management and Affairs of the British Museum”, 1835–36, 1:217. (Hereafter referred to as Report from the Select Committee.) This two-volume report is extremely valuable in that it contains testimony from the leading figures of the period.

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  32. Ibid., pp. 242–243.

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  33. See Charles Cowan, “Horsfield, Moore and the Catalogues of the East India Company Museum”, Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 1975, 7(3):273–284. Although the collection originally was very impressive, many of the specimens were poorly preserved and were ruined by the time they were moved to the British Museum (1863). One better appreciates the importance of Dufresne and other successful taxidermists when one realizes the extent of damage done to bird skins by faulty preserving.

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  34. Bibliothèque du Muséum National d’Histoire naturelle, ms 2613, no. 3545, letter of July 7, 1828. For the popularity of the Zoological Society also see John Bastin, “The First Prospectus of the Zoological Society of London: New Light on the Society’s Origins”, Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 1975, 5(5):369–388,

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  35. John Bastin, “A Further Note on the Origins of the Zoological Soceity of London”, Ibid., 1973, 6(4):236–241.

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  36. Also: Henry Scherren, The Zoological Soceity of London London, Cassell, 1905.

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  37. This point was made emphatically in the Report from the Select Committee, Vol. 1, p. 203.

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  40. For its history see Agatha Gijzen, ’s Rijksmuseum

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  42. The following discussion is drawn from Gijzen, ’s Rijksmuseum

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  43. See T. G. Ahrens, “The Ornithological Collections of the Berlin Museum”, Auk, 1925, 42:241–245

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  45. and Gottfried Mauersberger, “Über wertvolle Stücke der Vogelsammlung des Berliner Naturkundesmuseums”, Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 1970, 17:152–155. Although interesting studies have been done on the development of scientific research (mostly in the physical sciences or in physiology) in the German university, the history of the development of German natural history museums remains relatively untouched.

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  46. Erwin Stresemann, “Die Entwicklung der Vogelsammlung des Berliner Museums unter Illiger und Lichtenstein”, Journal für Ornithologie, 1922, 70:500.

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  47. By 1854 Lichtenstein could report that the collection had 13,760 specimens representing 4,070 species. See M. H. K. Lichtenstein, Nomenclator Avium Musei Zoologici Berlinensis, Berlin, Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1854, p. viii.

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  48. [G. Heldmann], Johann Jakob Kaup: Lehen und Wirken des ersten Inspektors am Natur alien-Cabinet des Grossherzoglichen Museums 1803-1873, Darmstadt, Selbstverlag des Verfassers, 1955, C. E. Hellmayr, “The Ornithological Collection of the Zoological Museum in Munich”, Auk 1928, 45

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  49. Otto Taschengerg, “Geschichte der Zoologie und der zoologischenSammlungen an der Universität Halle 1694–1894”, Abhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft zu Halle, 1894, 20:1–177.

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  50. Einai Lonnberg, “The Natural History Museum (Naturhistoriska Riksmuseum) Stockholm”, Natural History Magazine, 1933, 4(27):77–93

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  51. Ragnar Spärck, Zoologisk Museum i Kbenhavn gennen tre aarhundredar Copenhagen, Munksguard, 1945

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  52. L. J. Fitzinger, “Geschichte des kais. kön. Hof-Naturalien-Cabinet zu Wein”, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Classe, 1856, 21: 433–479.

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  53. C. J. Temminck, Catalogue systématique du cabinet d’ornithologie et de la collection de Quadrumanes, Amsterdam, Sepp, 1807, gives a good idea of the extent of the collection.

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  55. British Museum, Egerton ms. 3147, fol. 71. Letter of Sept. 7, 1828.

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  56. A Catalogue of the Menagery and Aviary at Knowsley, formed by the late Earl of Derby, K. G., Liverpool, Walmsley, 1851.

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  57. Louis Fraser, Catalogue of the Knowsley Collections, Belonging to the Right Honourable Edward (Thirteenth) Earl of Derby, K. G., Knowsley, by author, 1850, p. iii.

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  58. Ibid., pp. iii—iv. The collection ultimately went to the town of Liverpool where it served as the foundation for the very popular Derby Museum.

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  59. See [Jules Verreaux], Catalogue des oiseaux de la collection de feu Mr. Le B on de La Fresnaye de Falaise, n.p., n.p., n.d., and Outram Bangs, “Types of Birds Now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology”, Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 1930, 70(4):147–426. La Fresnaye’s collection was sold at public auction four years after his death. The entire collection was purchased by the city of Boston and now resides in the Museum of Comparative Zoology.

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  60. See Thomas Renard, “Lafresnaye”, Auk, 1945, 62(2): 227–233.

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  61. Catalogue des oiseaux de la collection de M. le Baron Langier de Char-trouse, Arles, [Garcin], 1836.

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  62. See Catalogue de la magnifique collection d’oiseaux de M. Le Prince d’Esling, duc de Rivoli, Paris, Schneider & Langrand, 1846. The entire collection of over 10,000 specimens was purchased by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

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  63. See J. A. Allen, “On the Maximillian Types of South American Birds”. The American Museum of Natural History purchased Maximillian’s collection of 4,000 mounted birds in 1870. It was an especially valuable collection due to the number of types, as described in the Allen article.

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  64. Ernest Hartert, “Eine bedeutende Vogelsammlung des 18. Jahrhunderts”, Omithologische Monatsberichte, 1923, 31(4):73–75 has a description of the duke’s collection

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  65. Wilhelm Petry, “Eine bedeutende Vogelsammlung des 18. Jahrhunderts”, Ornithologische Monatsberichte, 1938, 45(5):157–162 describes the destruction of the duke’s collection.

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  66. See, for example, William Blanpied, “Notes for a Study on the Early Scientific Work of the Asiatic Society of Bengal”, Japanese Studies in the History of Science, 1973, 12:121–144

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  1. Department of General Science, Oregon State University, USA

    Paul Lawrence Farber

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© 1982 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland

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Farber, P.L. (1982). Loci of New Data: Collections 1786–1830. In: The Emergence of Ornithology as a Scientific Discipline: 1760–1850. Studies in the History of Modern Science, vol 12. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7819-5_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7819-5_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-009-7821-8

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