Article
ID: CBB384688070

Notes on the birds collected by Giovanni Emilio Cerruti during his journey to New Guinea (1869–1870) (2023)

unapi
Science and government Natural history Colonialism Collectors and collecting Birds Travel; exploration 19th century New Guinea Cerruti, Giovanni Emilio Museo Calderini Museo di Scienze Naturali di Torino

In the later decades of the nineteenth century, some Italian explorers carried out expeditions to the Indonesian archipelago and New Guinea, with the aims of concluding diplomatic agreements, strengthening commercial networks and obtaining territorial concessions. During these expeditions, collecting animal specimens and artefacts, later deposited in several museums, was fairly common, increasing the scientific renown of post-unitarian Italy. Giovanni Emilio Cerruti (fl. 1860–1875) was a traveller, little known today, who visited those then remote lands. He was a merchant and a strong supporter of colonial policies. Through the mediation of government officials, he managed to obtain a commission from the Italian government to identify one or more places close to New Guinea where a penal colony could be established. Although the trip was commissioned exclusively for diplomatic purposes, Cerruti collected some interesting ornithological specimens, which were later donated to Italian natural history museums. We reconstruct Emilio Cerruti’s journey, using his letters to illuminate the most interesting details of its natural history. Fifty of Cerruti’s specimens, extant in the collections of the Museo di Scienze Naturali di Torino and Museo Calderini di Varallo Sesia, are recorded in an annotated catalogue.

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Authors & Contributors
Medway, David G.
Aso, Michitake
Bloch, D.
Choi, Tina Young
Dean, W. R. J.
Fellers, Gary M.
Journals
Archives of Natural History
Marchand, Suzanne L.
Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science
History of Science
Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History
Journal of Pacific History
Publishers
University of Oklahoma
Cambridge University Press
Sasquatch Books
University of Wisconsin at Madison
Concepts
Collectors and collecting
Natural history
Birds
Travel; exploration
Ornithology
Colonialism
People
Banks, Joseph
Baudin, Nicolas
Brooks, Allan Cyril
Chinnery, Ernest William Pearson
Cook, James
Douglas, David
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
18th century
20th century
16th century
20th century, late
Places
Africa
Australia
New Guinea
Great Britain
Northern Ireland
Caribbean
Institutions
American Museum of Natural History, New York
Cornell University
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (University of California, Berkeley)
California Academy of Sciences
Rothschild Museum (England)
Cornell Library of Natural Sounds
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