Natural history collections

Food security in West Africa could be improved if basic taxonomic information about pests and biocontrol agents was readily available for the region. Because predatory ladybeetles have been important elements in pest management programs in other regions of the world, we reviewed the literature, conducted field surveys, and visited natural history museums in order to produce a catalogue of the Coccinellidae (Coleoptera) of West Africa. The catalogue includes 250 species representing 38 genera and 18 tribes, as well as summaries of available biological and distributional data.

Through examining Cole’s own life and his fascination with the textual and corporeal narratives of anatomy, this paper looks to explore the merging of scientific knowledge, bibliographic expertise and narrative to perform interdisciplinary ‘readings’, simultaneously challenging both the nineteenth-century emergence of subject discipline and the twentieth-century ‘two cultures’ divide.

Chapter 10 [in:] Treasure Hunting? The Collectors and the Collecting of Indonesian Artefacts. (Reimar Schefold and Han Vermeulen, eds.) Leiden: Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), University of Leiden. Mededelingen van het Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, no. 30, pages 221-239.
This chapter offers one reading of the Smithsonian’s collections assembled by William Louis Abbott (1860-1936), focusing especially on Abbott’s motivation as a collector, and the dialectic that developed between the collector (Abbott) and the collecting institution (Smithsonian). By drawing upon correspondence between Abbott and museum scientists, and upon Abbott’s letters to his family, a portrait emerges of Abbott’s self-imposed mission, his methods and criteria for selection, and the extent to which they corresponded to the needs and desires of a collecting institution. By placing Abbott and his collections in the context of museum (especially Smithsonian) anthropology from the 1890s to today, we discover why Abbott’s collecting activity was so important to turn-of-the-century Smithsonian anthropologists. Yet we also find that his ethnological collections were later relatively neglected, due to the decline in the importance of material culture studies from which anthropology suffered until quite recently.

One of France's colonial enterprises in the eighteenth century was to acclimatize nutmeg, native to the Maluku islands, in the French colony of Isle de France (today's Mauritius). Exploring the acclimatization of nutmeg as a practice, this paper reveals the practical challenges of transferring knowledge between Indo-Pacific islands in the second half of the eighteenth century. This essay will look at the process through which knowledge was created-including ruptures and fractures-as opposed to looking at the mere circulation of knowledge. I argue that nutmeg cultivation on Isle de France was a complex process of creolizing expertise originating from the local populations of the plants' native islands with the horticultural knowledge of colonists, settlers, labourers and slaves living on Isle de France. In this respect, creolization describes a process of knowledge production rather than a form of knowledge. Once on Isle de France, nutmeg took root in climate and soil conditions which were different from those of its native South East Asian islands. It was cultivated by slaves and colonists who lacked prior experience with the cultivation of this particular spice. Experienced horticulturalists experimented with their own traditions. While they relied on old assumptions, they also came to question them. By examining cultivation as an applied practice, this paper argues that the creolization of knowledge was a critical aspect in French colonial botany.

The concept of ’natural heritage’ has become increasingly significant with the threat of dwindling resources, environmental degradation and climatic change. As humanity’s impact on the condition of life on earth has become more prominent, a discernible shift in the relationship between western society and the environment has taken place. This is reflective of wider historical processes which reveal a constantly changing association between humanity’s definition and perception of what ’nature’ constitutes or what can be defined as ’natural’. From the ornate collections of specimens which formed the basis of a distinct concept of ’nature’ emerging during the Enlightenment, this definition and the wider relationship between humanity and natural history have reflected issues of identity, place and politics in the modern era.

This book examines this process and focuses on the ideas, values and agendas that have defined the representation and reception of the history of the natural world, including geology and palaeontology, within contemporary society and addresses how the heritage of natural history, whether through museums, parks, tourist sites or popular culture is used to shape social, political, cultural and moral identities. It will be of interest to scholars and practitioners within heritage studies, public history, ecology, environmental studies and geography.

This dissertation aims to illuminate the role of botanical collections around the United Kingdom, seeking to understand their display and usage, as well as their presence and value within museums, society and science. From this study, it is hoped that botanical collections can be better understood and therefore displayed. It is also felt that this dissertation can be used to help current museum professionals know how their collections can be used and try to uncover what their future will be. A final aim of this paper is to provide information on the potential display of objects and specimens, which can be used to assist curators in the absence of dedicated natural history staff. As there is currently no comprehensive study on the display of botanical collections as a whole, this dissertation will close a gap in the literature that currently exists. The belief is that it is time to evaluate collections as a whole in an attempt to discern their future, especially at a time when their scientific importance is so valuable for research into global climate change and species loss. Research has been conducted by analysing literature, visiting collections and speaking with curators. From this research it was discovered that these objects and specimens could be well represented and displayed in museum exhibitions. But only 3 of the 20 museums investigated had substantial botanic exhibits. It was also found that there is a very strong scientific usage for these collections. Unfortunately, with the current dwindling interest in natural science, the future for these collections does not look good. It is the hope that this paper will be able to show the value of these collections and rekindle enough interest to save them for the future.

Antonio Augusto Carvalho Monteiro was born November 27th 1848 in Rio de Janeiro where he lived with his parents until age 9. The family eventually relocated to Portugal, settling in Coimbra where Carvalho Monteiro pursued his studies, receiving a law degree from the University of Coimbra in 1871.
Driven by a growing passion for entomology, Carvalho Monteiro took a trip to Dresden in late1871 to meet Otto Staudinger, who was then considered the best butterfly specialist in the world. In addition to his passion for butterflies, his interests in science also included malacology, botany, and ornithology.
In 1873 he married Perpetua Augusta Pereira de Melo, and soon after, returned to Brazil in order to have a more profound study of the natural sciences. They settled in Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro, which at the time was also known as the imperial city, as it was the summer residence for the Brazilian monarchy and aristocracy. Surrounded by Mountains and tropical forests and rich in biodiversity, it was the perfect place for those interested in studying natural science.
Through the worlds of Luis Antonio Alves de Carvalho Junior, first cousin of Carvalho Monteiro, we have the opportunity to take a glimpse of the daily life of him and his family while in Petropolis. This diary is currently under the possession of the Library of Congress in Washington DC, and describes the daily happenings in the life of Carvalho Monteiro and his wife, such as their lunches and cricket games with the royal family. Majority of the diary, however, talks heavily about the activities with his collection of various insects and plants.
Carvalho Monteiro and his wife returned to Portugal in late 1876 where he became heavily invested in his academic career. He became a member of numerous scientific societies in Europe and the Americas, such as the Geography Society of Lisbon and the Portuguese Society of Natural Sciences.
Within these academic societies, Carvalho Monteiro was considered to have the best butterfly library in Portugal. Paulino de Oliveira, head of zoology at the University of Coimbra said �In Portugal, we have a top-notch lepidopterist. Even though Mr. Monteiro never published any of his findings, he has done many descriptions of various species through drawings and sketches of these organisms.� His collection has numerous specimens and is particularly noteworthy for the descriptions of many unknown species in Brazil, and for the impeccable preparation of specimens. There is unfortunately no known catalogue of this collection, but many of the books from this library can also be found at the Library of Congress.
In 1833, Carvalho Monteiro published an article with the description of a new type of butterfly, Satyrus actaea from Serra da Estrela that he named f. mattozi in honor of his friend and contemporary Mattozo Santos. He and Carvalho Monteiro were pioneers for the study and collecting of butterflies in Portugal
Following his death in 1920, the descendants of Carvalho Monteiro decided to sell his extensive collections of butterflies, hummingbirds and Herbarium, in addition to his wide array of books, pamphlets, and other media to various recipients in Coimbra, Lisbon, London, Lyon, Paris, and Washington DC.
Translation credit: Opong Brown, Keabra

Museums preserve cultural materials of the past for future generations. The natural history collections in museum consist of astonishing richness and full of immense significance. They act as a vital source for primary information on the diversity of life on earth, for today and for our coming generations. However, in India the different varied temperature and humidity of the tropical climate lead to severe biodeterioration. Insect pests are a major problem for museums, even with repeated treatments for insect control. Due to lack of appropriate and unsafe environments are provided in the collection storage and display, the insect infestation regenerate. Therefore, appropriate plans for prevention and control of biodeterioration in museums are critically important measures. In this paper, repellent activity of Nigella sativa, Syzygium aromaticum and Azadirachta indica essential oils were evaluated at the knockout time of 4 hours against the larvae of Anthrenus verbasci. Dose of 1.25ml/cm 3 of clove essential oil was sufficient for 100% repulsion rate (PR%), whereas in case of blackseed oil and neem oil, at dose of 2ml/cm 3 ,-20% and 50% repulsion rate (PR%) was revealed. The entire experimental set up and the controls were arranged in a laboratory with temperature fluctuating between 25 ± 7ºC and 64 ± 8% RH in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Four replications were conducted for each dose that I have used in this study.

Réflexions sur la place des spécimens et des objets d’Histoire naturelle (animaux naturalisés, ivoires sculptés, patrimoine géologique) dans la catégorie des biens culturels, par l’étude de leur commerce actuel.

L'étude du commerce des spécimens et objets d'Histoire naturelle met en lumière la notion de « biens culturels ». Cette expression utilisée dans le cadre de conventions internationales, puis reprise dans des textes européens et français, s'applique à la régulation de la circulation d'une liste de biens (interdictions d'importations, d'exportations et de transferts illicites de propriété), dont font partie les spécimens et objets d'Histoire naturelle.

Un stage réalisé à l'Office central de lutte contre le trafic des biens culturels (OCBC), dont les données ont été complétées par des recherches relatives au commerce, notamment sous la forme d'entretiens et d'échanges avec des professionnels, ont permis d'amorcer une réflexion relative à la place et la reconnaissance des spécimens et objets d'Histoire naturelle dans la catégorie des biens culturels. Dans cet objectif, certains spécimens ont été choisis pour l'occasion, à savoir les animaux naturalisés, les ivoires sculptés et quelques éléments du patrimoine géologique, tels que les fossiles, les minéraux et les météorites.

Il résulte de cette étude, d'une part, que leur commerce, et sa réglementation, empruntent les circuits traditionnels du marché de l'art, aux côtés de biens culturels plus "classiques" (de type beaux-arts ou archéologiques). D'autre part, qu'ils ne sont pas pleinement reconnus comme des biens culturels au sein des institutions spécialistes de biens culturels "classiques", et qu'enfin, leur origine naturelle prime sur leur transformation culturelle et les distingue, en cela, de tous les autres biens culturels. Ce qui n'est pas sans conséquences, notamment en termes d'expansion du commerce illégal de tels biens.

Mais plus qu'une réflexion à propos de la pertinence de la catégorie des biens culturels, le commerce des spécimens et objets d'Histoire naturelle nous amène à réfléchir sur le transfert successif de propriété de ces biens culturels si particuliers, traduisant le résultat de « l'oeuvre de la nature ».

(le document n'est pas complet, certaines parties ont été enlevées pour des raisons de confidentialité des données, notamment sur l'OCBC)

"Natural history collections, are among others, used for studies in biochemistry, genetics and ecology. Avoidance of the use of chemical substances is necessary to avoid loss or modification of the structure, chemical and genetic components of the specimens that reduce their scientific value and stability. The practice of preventive conservation is imperative, for the slowdown of chemical, mechanical and biological damage.
In natural history collections of fossils, minerals, rocks, stuffed animals and birds, animal tissues in ethanol, dried plants bottles etc,  damages observed include pyrite disease, delaminations, oxidations, discolourations, cracks, photomechanical and plastic damage. To avoid damage, it is necessary to control environmental parameters such as temperature, relative humidity, radiation and pollutants, provide proper storage condition and perform regular recording of the collections.
Preventive conservation becomes a real challenge in the case of fossil-bearing areas. Conservators are invited to in situ protect the objects from extreme weather variations and anthropogenic disasters. "

The purpose of the African Chiroptera Report is to collate published information on, and collate specimen records of, African bats. The advent of the internet provides an opportunity for large amounts of information to be easily and economically updated and accessible, which is particularly important for taxonomic information. The electronic, web-based nature of the information is intended to allow information on African bats to be corrected/updated more frequently than a printed format allows, and to be available to users in an affordable form that can be manipulated to their specific requirements. It is hoped this tool will facilitate research and conservation planning, and possibly stimulate interactions across different areas of research. The report is generated from data collated in the African Chiroptera Database and will hopefully grow and develop with the addition of new and corrected information.
The incorporation of information other than taxonomic (see the various section headings in the description of the layout below), is still patchy in its execution across the taxa. Information that may answer specific requirements of a user, i.e. more information about the voucher specimens, or specimen collectors, has been drawn from across the database and is presented in separate appendices. Published identification keys for African bat species, have, where necessary, been updated to include current names, and are presented in appendix 5. In appendix 6 images of type specimens are included as they become available.

This thesis is an inquiry into the supposed imperialistic and nationalist aspect of nineteenth century zoological societies. By comparing three of the oldest zoological societies, the aim is to get a full view on how these institutions were connected to the colonies and whether the embodiment of an imperialist ideology was an important aspect of the early zoological societies. Subject of research are the Zoological Society of London (1826), the Amsterdam society Natura Artis Magistra (1838) and The Antwerp Royal Society for Zoology (1843).
Chapter 1 serves as an introduction on the founding of each Society. From the mission statements of each Society, it is clear that they aimed to contribute to the building of collective pride, which was often related to national commercial and political successes, as well as royal patronage. The view on nature that was displayed was utilitarian, with the acclimatisation project of the Zoological Society of London as the clearest example.
Chapter 2 explores the ways in which these societies gained their collections and whether a colonial network existed. In general, the animals were donated by members or benefactors. These can be divided into three categories: members of the respective royal houses, foreign politicians or nobility and gifts by colonial officials who were members of the societies. The majority of animals in each garden came from the colonies of the respective country. The act of giving helped constructing a sense of collectivity. Together with the status of the animals as a colonial commodity, this helped strengthen the ideological element of these institutions.
Chapter 3 concerns the way the collections were presented and experienced in the gardens of the societies. Attention is paid to four different topics: architecture, the animals, cases in which exotic humans were showcased and the people who visited these early zoological gardens. Zoo buildings often had a strong exotic influences. The animals were seen and presented as representatives of their colonized homelands. The presence of indigenous handlers, albeit in a working and paid position, helped adding an exotic dimension to a zoo visit. Experiencing all this colonial splendour in the city, provided self-affirming pride to the spectators, most importantly the paying and contributing members and royals.
The conclusion is that there was definitely an imperialist element to these institutions, at least because of the way animals were brought to the zoo either as diplomatic gifts or gifts from colonial officials. However, it was one of many aspects. Zoos were not purely a ‘tool of the empire’, but this aspect of their history is not be ignored either. Moreover the expression of imperialism differed in each zoo researched here.

The book "focuses on one of the signal developments in natural history: the growth and transformation of collecting practices and museums from antiquity through the nineteenth century. The twelve essays in this volume offer a rich and diverse spectrum of examples culled from virtually every region in Europe. The result is a very useful snapshot of the role of collecting in natural history and allied fields such as anatomy and chemistry, not to mention emerging specialties such as geology.”

Natural history collections and museums made their appearance in the Ottoman in late 19th century through various attempts to build collections through field excursions, donations and exchanges among researchers, individuals and institutions around the world. Among them, the Imperial Medical School of the Ottoman Empire, schools of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) and other American educational groups and French colleges stand out with their vast collections from various parts of the Ottoman Empire and beyond. While these museums were created and built by eminent curators and researchers, a considerable amount of work was carried out by uncredited staff and the students. The history of these museums was often obscured by catastrophic events such as the great fires in Istanbul, the passing of the curators and other administrators and, particularly, the devastating effects of the First World War. However, long-lasting commercial science objects networks and the establishment of global natural history collections and museums are still operational today, supported by scientific exchange between other countries and the Ottoman Empire during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Drawing an outline of the history of the natural history collections of the Ottoman Empire can shed light on the evolution of both the naturalistic movement within the Ottoman society and an embryonic scientific network around the Middle East and the rest of the world.

This pathbreaking and stunningly illustrated book recovers the intersections between natural history, politics, art, and philosophy in the late sixteenth-century Low Countries. Insect Artifice explores the moment when the seismic forces of the Dutch Revolt wreaked havoc on the region’s creative and intellectual community, compelling its members to seek solace in intimate exchanges of art and knowledge. At its center is a neglected treasure of the late Renaissance: the Four Elements manuscripts of Joris Hoefnagel (1542–1600), a learned Netherlandish merchant, miniaturist, and itinerant draftsman who turned to the study of nature in this era of political and spiritual upheaval. Presented here for the first time are more than eighty pages in color facsimile of Hoefnagel’s encyclopedic masterwork, which showcase both the splendor and eccentricity of its meticulously painted animals, insects, and botanical specimens.

Marisa Anne Bass unfolds the circumstances that drove the creation of the Four Elements by delving into Hoefnagel’s writings and larger oeuvre, the works of his friends, and the rich world of classical learning and empirical inquiry in which he participated. Bass reveals how Hoefnagel and his colleagues engaged with natural philosophy as a means to reflect on their experiences of war and exile, and found refuge from the threats of iconoclasm and inquisition in the manuscript medium itself. This is a book about how destruction and violence can lead to cultural renewal, and about the transformation of Netherlandish identity on the eve of the Dutch Golden Age.

https://press.princeton.edu/titles/13413.html

Birds of the Orinoquian region of Colombia: A review on its records. A catalog of bird species recorded in the Orinoquian region of Colombia is presented. Records were compiled from the databases of 36 museums or scientific collections, acoustic recordings, and online platforms to compile bird sightings. An extensive literature review was also conducted. The compiled list includes about 12,000 specimens of 761 species, 435 genera, 106 families, and 26 orders. Families presenting the largest number of genera and species are Tyrannidae (59 genera/102 species), Thamnophilidae (27/57), Thraupidae (22/53), Furnariidae (24/43), and Trochilidae (25/42). The 20 families presenting the greatest richness account for 72.4% richness at the specific level and 69.1% at the generic level. Genera presenting the largest number of species are Sporophila (11), Tangara (10), Myrmotherula (9), Thamnophilus (9), Euphonia (8), and Phaethornis (8). Thirty-seven species of international conservation interest (Near Threatened, Vulnerable, and Endangered) were recorded, and 14 species recorded as endemic to the Orinoquia were found. The distribution of about 20 species in the Orinoquian region of Colombia was either confirmed or expanded. Long-term studies should be conducted on local and regional avifauna, and those species of conservation interest should be closely monitored. To consolidate the bird inventory for the Orinoquian region of Colombia, further explorations in frontier areas and other little-explored areas are urgently needed.

Systematic biology is a discipline rooted in collections. These collections play important roles in research and conservation and are integral to our efforts to educate society about biodiversity and conservation. Collections provide an invaluable record of the distribution of organisms throughout the world and through recent and geological time, and they are the only direct documentation of the biological, physical, and cultural diversity of the planet: past, present, and future. Recent developments in bioinformatics and cyberinfrastructure are transforming
systematics by opening up new opportunities and as a result major digitization efforts have increasingly made
available large amounts of biodiversity data. The collections-based systematics community needs to train the next generation of systematists with integrative skills, address grand questions about biodiversity at different scales, develop a community-wide cyberinfrastructure, effectively disseminate systematic data to biologists and the public, and proactively educate the public and policy makers on the importance of systematics and collections in the biodiversity crisis of the Anthropocene. Specifically, we call for a new global Biodiversity CyberBank, comparable to GenBank for genetic data, to be the repository of all biodiversity data, as well as a World Organization of Systematic Biology to lead major initiatives of the field. We also outline a new workflow for taxonomic monographs, which
utilizes both the traditional strengths of synthesizing diverse collections-based taxonomic data and the capacity of
online resources and bioinformatics tools.

For the new facsimile of Maria Sibylla Merian's principal work, Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium from 1705, (facsimile published in October 2016) Bert van de Roemer wrote one of the introductory essays. When Maria Sibylla Merian settled in Amsterdam in 1691 she could have chosen no better place to develop to the full her talent and passion as a naturalist and painter. She describes in the preface of her book how she was stimulated in her entomological research by the insects she found in the many cabinets of curiosities the city harbored. She also took part in a lively network of collectors, naturalist and publishers. This essay describes her relation towards three collectors: Simon Schijnvoet (a fellow naturalist who supported her work), Frederik Ruysch (a distinguished professor in anatomy and botany), and Levinus Vincent (a rival merchant and collector).

What began as an exploration of origins and functions of museum-spaces across cultures became a study of so many things, bound to one another by secret knots. My thesis is broken into a Preface, an Introduction, and three chapters that I have already uploaded as separate, individual pieces. I have included the full thesis for those who might be interested in a sort of "road map" to the connections between the contents of these seemingly disparate works, and the personal encounters and influences that led me to these case studies.

Recipient of the 2013 John Thackray Medal awarded 2014 by the Society for the History of Natural History (London).

Recipient of the 2013 Faculty of Arts Research Output Prize, University of Hong Kong.

Widely studied for his writings on politics, philosophy, morality and education, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s interest in botany has been deemed a mere curiosity. In this radical reinterpretation I demonstrate how this seemingly marginal activity shaped and was shaped by his philosophy.

Rousseau’s botanical project was informed by his belief in the superiority of nature over artifice – a principle illustrated in his famous Lettres élémentaires sur la botanique, in which he used the ‘natural method’ of plant classification, a ground-breaking system which would eventually triumph over rival systems. Based on a wide range of original sources, I trace and re-assesses Rousseau’s botanical education, the complex history of his plant collections, and his participation in scientific correspondence networks. I also reveals how his botanical writings were manipulated and misinterpreted following his death.

In this richly illustrated study, supported by inventories of his botanical library, correspondents and herbaria, I provide an unprecedented insight into Rousseau’s study and practice of botany. Not simply an intellectual pursuit, it became part of his physical and psychological self-discipline, a precursor to today’s ‘environmental therapy

​Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The ‘remède dans le mal’
2. Rousseau’s Botany: The chemical background
3. Helvetia mediatrix: the atmosphere of eighteenth-century Swiss science
4. Patriotism in a new key: Rousseau encounters Neuchâtel botany
5. Sex, plants and classification
6. ‘Se tracer un plan à sa guise’: Rousseau and the natural method
7. Modes of mediation: botanical books and binomial names
8. The herbarium as boundary object
9. A forged legacy: the strange fates of Rousseau’s botanical works
10. Reading Rousseau on botany at the end of nature

Appendix 1: Rousseau’s botanical sources
Appendix 2: Rousseau’s botanical correspondents and contacts
Appendix 3: Rousseau’s herbaria: summary table

Bibliography

Index

Efforts to digitize the collections of natural history museums are producing enormous amounts of data. Digital production lines, high-throughput pipelines, and biodiversity discovery factories aim to increase accessibility, facilitate worldwide research, rationalize collection management and aid the preservation of specimens. Accompanying these intramural efforts is a lively development of global portals, standards and tools, which seek to make biodiversity data both sensible and workable. Driven by the prospect of irrecoverable loss and decay and the promises of a globally coordinated biodiversity science, the production of digital specimens has thus emerged as a key response to environmental and political pressures. By examining data practices at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, this talk will outline some of the problems posed by data specimens to the ordering of nature, nation and history/heritage.

Edited by Arthur MacGregor, University of Oxford
Interposed between the natural world in all its diversity and the edited form in which we encounter it in literature, imagery and the museum, lie the multiple practices of the naturalists in selecting, recording and preserving the specimens from which our world view is to be reconstituted. The factors that weigh at every stage are here dissected, analysed and set within a historical narrative that spans more than five centuries. During that era, every aspect evolved and changed, as engagement with nature moved from a speculative pursuit heavily influenced by classical scholarship to a systematic science, drawing on advanced theory and technology. Far from being neutrally objective, the process of representing nature is shown as fraught with constraint and compromise.

With a Foreword by Sir David Attenborough

Contributors are: Marie Addyman, Peter Barnard, Paul D. Brinkman, Ian Convery, Peter Davis, Felix Driver, Florike Egmond, Annemarie Jordan Gschwend, Geoff Hancock, Stephen Harris, Hanna Hodacs, Stuart Houston, Dominik Huenniger, Rob Huxley, Charlie Jarvis, Malgosia Nowak-Kemp, Shepard Krech III, Mark Lawley, Arthur Lucas, Marco Masseti, Geoff Moore, Pat Morris, Charles Nelson, Robert Peck, Helen Scales, Han F. Vermeulen, and Glyn Williams.

The purpose of this paper is to alert biodiversity researchers, especially natural history collection administrators and affiliated professionals to the risk of disasters and their potential catastrophic impact on irreplaceable scientific specimens. First, the paper puts emphasis on the importance of identifying risk that can lead to different emergency scenarios. Next, it focuses on the importance of developing a disaster response plan during a non-emergency time to minimize damage to collections. Finally, the paper discusses the benefit of building partnerships and networks in emergency preparedness and response activities.

The Jardin des Plantes menagerie was established in the context of the French Revolution in opposition to princely and commercial menage- ries. Considered by historians as the first zoological garden, it would become a model, inspiring the foundation of other, powerful institutions, such as the London Zoo (1828). Its designers intended to resolve old tensions regarding the status of wild animals and to build more symmetrical relationships with them. This article aims to shed additional light on this movement, from the revolutionary seizures of animals deposited at the National Museum of Natural History to the construction of the first permanent building erected for the ‘ferocious beasts’ (1818-1821). Taking into account the animal side of history, in line with the recent animal turn, it posits that the designers of the Jardin des Plantes menagerie reinforced precisely the carceral constraints some of them intended to renounce. In so doing, they determined and shaped modes of interacting with nonhuman animals that, ever since, have continued to permeate our relationships with them.

The (art) collection of Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553-1595) is widely unknown when it comes to early-modern Habsburg collections. Ernest, younger brother of Emperor Rudolf II (b. 1552) and educated at the Madrid court, was appointed Governor-General of the Netherlands by King Philip II of Spain, his uncle, in summer 1593. Ernest relocated his court from Vienna to Brussels in early 1594 and was welcomed there with lavish festivities: the traditional Blijde Inkomst, Joyous Entry, of the new sovereign. Unfortunately, the archduke died in February 1595 after residing in Brussels for a mere thirteen months. This investigation aims to shed new light on the archduke and his short-lived collecting ambitions in the Low Countries, taking into account that he had the mercantile and artistic metropolis Antwerp in his immediate reach. I argue, that his collecting ambitions can be traced back to one specific occasion: Ernest’s Joyous Entry into Antwerp in June 1594. There the archduke received a series of six paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569) known as The Months (painted in 1565), hanging today in separate locations in Vienna, New York and Prague. These works of art triggered Ernest’s collecting ambitions and prompted him to focus mainly on works of art and artefacts manufactured at or traded within the Netherlands during the last eight months of his lifetime. Additionally, it will be shown that the archduke was inspired by the paintings’ motifs and therefore concentrated on acquiring works of art depicting nature and landscape scenes from the 1560s and 1590s. On the basis of the archduke’s recently published account book (Kassabuch) and of the partially published inventory of his belongings, it becomes clear that Ernest of Austria must be seen in line with the better-known Habsburg collectors and that his specific collection of “the painted Netherlands” can be linked directly to his self-fashioning as a rightful sovereign of the Low Countries.

In this paper, I explore the different practices of collecting mineral specimens by looking at the German naturalist Johann Reinhold Forster (1729-1798). After his voyage with James Cook from 1772 to 1775, Forster started to collect minerals. His interst in mineralogy intensified in the early 1780es, when he was appointed Professor of mineralogy and natural history at the University of Halle.
At the end of his life, Forster had amassed a vast collection of minerals, mostly by exchanging them with other naturalists, but also by traveling and visiting other mineral collections as well as buying mineral specimens. By the help of Forster's correspondence, I trace the complex processes of those scientific practices.

Esta tese analisa a viagem do naturalista britânico Henry Walter Bates ao Brasil, entre 1848 e 1859, enfocando suas relações com os habitantes locais e observando de que forma estes colaboraram para o êxito da expedição. Durante os seus 11 anos de estadia no país, Bates coletou espécimes de aproximadamente 14 mil espécies brasileiras, sendo cerca de oito mil até então desconhecidas na Europa e, a partir de suas observações, propôs a teoria hoje conhecida como mimetismo batesiano. Ademais, relatou sua vivência na Amazônia em um dos livros de viagem mais aclamados e bem-sucedidos de seu tempo, sendo reeditado até os dias de hoje. A viagem ao Brasil foi essencial para a inserção de Bates nos círculos científicos ingleses e para sua ascensão social e profissional. Por este motivo, é fundamental olhar para a sua passagem pelo Brasil para compreender o papel transformador de sua viagem e as estratégias empregadas por Bates para garantir o sucesso de sua empreitada. Sem apoio governamental, institucional ou financeiro, reunir uma ampla e diversificada rede de colaboradores locais foi essencial ao naturalista. Ao longo de seu relato de viagem, Bates faz referência a um total de 221 indivíduos, frequentemente nomeando e descrevendo aqueles que o auxiliaram. Desta forma, o livro de viagem, assim como os cadernos de campo mantidos pelo naturalista e algumas de suas correspondências pessoais, são fontes importantes para a compreensão da infraestrutura humana que tornou possível a sua expedição científica. Ao longo desta tese, a análise destas fontes é utilizada como base para a identificação de alguns dos principais indivíduos que compunham a rede de colaboradores de Bates no Brasil e para a observação das formas e dos momentos em que o naturalista buscava suporte na população local. Após a análise textual, uma visualização da rede de colaboradores de Bates foi criada com o software Gephi para complementar a leitura das interações dentro da rede. Observar como se davam estas interações é uma forma de compreender melhor a sociabilidade inerente ao trabalho naturalista de campo e de chamar atenção para uma complexa rede de indivíduos geralmente tornados invisíveis nas narrativas sobre as grandes viagens científicas do século XIX, mas frequentemente mencionados pelos próprios naturalistas em seus relatos de viagem por suas constantes colaborações.

This paper presents the current results of
the ongoing research project ‘Heritage preservation
and ethnobotany. Analysis of the
influence of conservation treatment on genetic
material comprised in historic herbaria’,
no. 2014/13/N/HS2/03118, funded by the National
Science Centre in Poland. The project explores
conservation issues concerning historic
herbaria. It aims at defining the possible impact
of conservation-restoration treatment methods
on genetic material in plant specimens.
This paper presents the outline of the project
and concentrates in detail on the instrumental
analysis of three historic herbaria from the
18th century. This part of the research included
analysis of pesticides (MA-XRF, GC/MS SPME),
inks (MA-XRF), dyes and pigments (MA-XRF and
HPLC).