Outline of the Australian mammal collection project
The University Museum of Zoology has an exceptional Australian collection, which has underpinned research into evolution and natural history, but the human social stories it can tell have not been well explored. Starting in 2022, this project has uncovered untold narratives of how colonial collectors worked, and who they worked with. It has shed light on the links between natural history and troubling colonial history. It has sought to identify those people who contributed so much expertise to the history of science and museums, but who were typically omitted from popular accounts of these histories, such as women and Indigenous collectors.
This research was undertaken by the Museum’s Assistant Director, Jack Ashby, primarily in 2022 and 2023. The project was made possible through a Headley Fellowship with Art Fund.
These webpages are arranged by the person the Museum received specimens from, or the “collector” associated with different batches of specimens (although in reality the named “collector” often obtained the specimens from un-named First Nations Australians). They are intended to be of interest to anyone curious about how colonial collections come together, as well as for other museums in Europe and Australia which have collections associated with the same people. These pages do not represent all the people associated with our Australian mammal collections, but rather those whose stories are most representative of colonial-era practices.
Which collectors are we researching?

How one man built a scientific reputation by trading in thylacines and Indigenous remains

George Baden-Powell (1847 - 1898)
Encouraging Europeans to emigrate to Australia, but by insulting their wildlife

William Edward Balston (1848-1918)
How Western Australia’s ecosystems have been impacted by colonisation, and how our understanding of it was shaped by Indigenous knowledge

Collecting whilst charting Australia’s coast for the Admiralty

Diamantina Bowen (1832/1833-1893)
Gifts to a colonial governor’s wife

Patrick (Paddy) Byrne (1856 - 1932)
The unacknowledged labour of Indigenous Australians in Central Australia

William Caldwell (1859 - 1941)
Europe would only believe platypuses laid eggs once they heard if from one of their own, but this work was impossible without First Nations expertise

William Crowther (1817 - 1885)
How genocide drove demand for Tasmanian remains in museums


Robert Humphrey Marten (1867 - 1933)
Australian mammal declines

Amschel Schwarzchild (1815 - 1896) & Co
Natural history for sale

How Western Australia’s ecosystems have been impacted by colonisation, and how our understanding of it was shaped by Indigenous knowledge

Grafton Elliot Smith (1871 - 1937)
The unacknowledged labour of Indigenous Australians in Central Australia

Walter Baldwin Spencer (1860 - 1929)
The unacknowledged labour of Indigenous Australians in Central Australia

Edward Charles Stirling (1848 - 1919)
The complex lives of colonial figures, and their contributions to science

William Swainson (1789 - 1855)
Unusual ideas about categorising nature

Lionel William Wiglesworth (1865 - 1901)
The personal cost of colonial collecting

James Fowler Wilcox (1823 - 1881)
Should we name animals after people?

This project was made possible with support from Art Fund