Specimens of Settler Colonialism: Collecting and Displaying Natural History at the University of St Andrews, 1838-1917 (Thesis Data)

Data sets provide provenance information relating to two collections of natural history specimens sent to the Literary and Philosophical Society of St Andrews and the University of St Andrews during the nineteenth century. This includes a collection of Australian birds sent by John Gould (1804-1881) in 1844, and a collection of Australian marsupials and monotremes sent by Dr Edward Pierson Ramsay and the Australian Museum, Sydney in 1888. The data compiled comes from numerous archival sources involving the transcription of museum records in MS excel spreadsheets. These files include provenance data relating to the identification, place of origin, date of collection, supplier identity, transcription of original labels, and legacy numbers of extant and not-extant specimens. While specimen records and matching data for extant specimens remains incomplete, these data sets illustrate the history of museum collections, historical agents in the specimen trade, the cataloguing practices of institutions, and St Andrews' connections with the British Empire.