Centenary Talk: Serengeti to South Kensington

Charlottle Wood, PhD Archaeology Student

Serengeti to South Kensington: reconstructing the reciprocal links between field practices, taxidermy and museum curation in the Natural History Museum’s specimen supply chain Have you ever wondered why natural history galleries seem to share a distinctive ‘look’? Or why taxidermy specimens were presented in specific ways? Bringing an archaeological perspective to natural history museums, I analyse how natural historical collections came into being by reconstructing how specimens were collected, transported and prepared. I draw on my PhD research on the Natural History Museum’s East African mammals and show how the display of specimens in museum galleries recursively shaped big game hunting practices in the field. I ask: how did British museums acquire their East African specimens? Who shaped these processes of collecting and determined the best ways to prepare and present specimens? How did the logistics of this ‘specimen supply chain’ influence the character of collections today? How did the choice of case, base or shield change a specimen’s meaning? And how did these trends in ornamentation in turn affect how collectors selected specimens in the field? If we learn to look carefully at specimens in museum galleries, we can ‘read’ the collecting practices written into their material features and styles of preparation. My talk recreates this specimen supply chain and invites new ways of looking at specimens today. I end by highlighting the reciprocal links between museum galleries and game reserves and outline the drivers of collecting in nineteenth- and twentieth-century East Africa.