Mammoth Bones, Plant Robberies and Bird Skins from Mexico

A Research Project on the Zoological and Botanical Collections at the University of Heidelberg

by Dr. Susann Liebich, Christian Stenz, Carlotta Kallenbach and Lara Horras

The Archives of the University of Heidelberg contain a wide range of documents relating to the establishment and expansion of the university’s botanical and zoological collections during the ‘long’ nineteenth century. In addition to the material objects in the collections, these archival records provide extensive insight into the everyday practices of scientific collecting and collections. However, the archival records have received little attention to date, largely because they are relatively little known and access to the physical documents has so far only been possible in Heidelberg. A new research project at the Department of History in cooperation with the University Archives and the University Library aims to rectify these limitations in access and visibility by making a substantial selection of these documents available in digital form. In addition, by holding a series of specific outreach and networking events to highlight the value of these collections it intends to reach out to international researchers and experts from museums and archives. The project is funded by the University of Heidelberg within its strategic research cluster ‘Cultural Dynamics in Globalised Worlds.’ This research focus supports, among others, projects in the humanities that deal with the history of knowledge and collections. This blog post intends to give a first impression of the various research possibilities the archival records offer, which cover a time span from the 1750s to 1920 and which might be of interest to many colleagues in the SciCoMove project and beyond.

Stolen Plants, Hunting Students and Mammoth Bones

The archival records provide ample evidence of local, everyday practices and the broad range of different actors involved in the (re-)establishment and expansion of the university’s scientific collections. Within the university, assistants, conservators and caretakers were hired to organise, classify and maintain the collections. At the same time, the growing collections and institutional changes posed constant challenges. Over the course of the ‘long’ nineteenth century, the locations where the various collections of objects and specimens were housed changed several times and researchers debated with the university administration about funding and premises. Thereby, and especially in regard to the scientific collections, the university was not an isolated space, separate from its local surroundings. On the contrary, the archival records contain, for example, orders and receipts for customised cabinets and boxes from local carpenters, showing the need to work with and rely on professionals outside the academic context.

Unsurprisingly, the interaction and negotiation processes inside and outside the university were not always free from conflict. For example, while hunters and foresters sometimes actively contributed to the university collections, they also repeatedly complained about students hunting animals without permission. In this way, additionally to everyday practices of collecting, discussions about the value and use of such collections in a local, socially heterogeneous environment also become visible. Hunters, students, foresters and researchers used their skills and knowledge to actively engage with ‘nature’, whereby their interests sometimes overlapped but could also diverge and lead to outright conflict. In another quite different case, a member of the university apparently stole ‘valuable’ plants from the botanical gardens. Transforming some botanical specimen into precious loot, the records on this obviously illicit activity provide further insights into the value of such objects in different contexts and for different people.

Such local everyday practices, processes of interaction and negotiation, and debates on the value and use of collections and its objects are usually omitted in the books and journal articles published by researchers in the ‘long’ nineteenth century. Therefore, it is crucial to make archival records like the ones stored in the university archives more visible and accessible to historians of knowledge and collecting. Furthermore, the documents can provide valuable source material beyond the study of collections and collecting practices on the local scale. The discovery of a mammoth bone in a riverbed near Heidelberg in 1848 soon attracted regional attention. In the hope of uncovering more bones and perhaps even a ‘complete’ skeleton, the zoologists in Heidelberg applied not only to the university but also directly to the regional government for funding. Apart from a few hints, not much is known so far about such collecting activities in the wider region. However, considering the fundamental socio-ecological transformation that the region underwent through the canalisation of rivers and the expansion of industry during the ‘long’ nineteenth century, it would be worth studying these regional entanglements in more detail. By examining the archival records, it might become clearer to what extent the university collections were intertwined with this mainly economically motivated engagement with the region’s soil.

Bird skins from Mexico and specimens supplied by the East India Company

Beyond the regional integration, the zoological and botanical collections in Heidelberg also depended on and actively participated in the circulation of ‘scientific’ objects on a global scale. Former students, academics and citizens who travelled to distant places (from the perspective of Heidelberg) on the globe maintained close ties to the university and were a major source for the expansion of the university’s collections. Ludwig Posselt, for example, studied and worked as a pharmacist in Heidelberg until he had to flee to Mexico after the failed political revolution of 1848. Posselt, nevertheless, remained connected to Heidelberg and its university. When he returned in the 1860s, he brought with him a collection of stuffed mammals, birds and reptiles from Mexico. Other objects from this region were donated by the merchant Carl Adolf Uhde, who in 1836 bought a little castle in Handschuhsheim near Heidelberg, where he created a small private museum with his extensive collections from Mexico, Central and South America on display.

One of the most striking aspects, however, are the continuing connections to the Dutch East India Company. In the 1820s, Salomon Müller, the son of a saddler and tavern owner in Heidelberg, visited lectures in natural history and apparently taught himself how to hunt, stuff and conserve animals to produce zoological specimens. Impressed by these skills, the aspiring zoologist Heinrich Boie took Müller with him on his journey to what was then the Dutch East Indies. While Boie died shortly after arriving in Buitenzorg (Bogor), Müller continued his collecting activities on behalf of the Natural History Museum in Leiden. With 15 mammals, 194 birds and 49 reptiles, he brought a small part of the vast collection destined for Leiden to Heidelberg. This was not the only case when objects related to the East India Company came to Heidelberg. Another large number of objects (52 mammals and 148 birds) from the same source is recorded in a book on the University’s zoological collections for the year 1854. So far, however, neither the regional integration nor the global connections of the zoological and botanical collections of the University of Heidelberg have been studied in great detail.

Back to the project

In the course of the research project funded by the University of Heidelberg’s ‘Cultural Dynamics in Globalised Worlds’ Research Cluster, we do not intend to systematically analyse all the topics mentioned above. Rather, the aim of the project is to increase the accessibility and visibility of the historical records necessary for such further studies. To do so, we already published some of the documents online via the website of the university library, which contains many historical documents in digital form: https://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/helios/digi/unihd_zoologie_botanik.html. Further, we organized a first workshop in September 2024 and will host a second workshop in May 2025 to connect with archivists, curators, museum practitioners and other researchers working on the history of university collections. Finally, in the upcoming summer term, we will work with undergraduates on the documents and try to reconstruct the history of some objects and parts of the large collection. First results will be published in a research blog on the website of the History Department. With this blog post on the SciCoMove website, we hope to have illustrated the potential and possibilities of the Heidelberg collections and the associated historical records for your own research and further studies.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
alexiacomte (April 3, 2025). Mammoth Bones, Plant Robberies and Bird Skins from Mexico. SciCoMove — Scientific Collections on the Move. Retrieved June 12, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/13ofc


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