Article ID: CBB983226557

How collections and reputation were built out of Tasmanian violence: Thylacines (Thylacinus cynocephalus) and Aboriginal remains from Morton Allport (1830–1878) (2023)

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Through European colonization, First Nations peoples were subjected to systematic and violent actions to dispossess them of their land and sovereignty. In Tasmania, this involved government-sponsored bounties as well as militaristic and diplomatic efforts to remove Indigenous peoples from the landscape. At the same time, and using similar rhetoric, thylacines (Thylacinus cynocephalus (Harris, 1808)) suffered similarly from settler colonists. Thylacines (also known as Tasmanian tigers or Tasmanian wolves) were the largest marsupial carnivores of modern times, but became extinct in the twentieth century. There are several parallels between the treatment and representation of thylacines and Indigenous Tasmanian people, and how their remains were traded. This allows for analysis of how the environmental and human costs of the colonial project were enmeshed with practices of natural history. A central figure in the export of both thylacines and Indigenous remains from Tasmania was Morton Allport (1830–1878). This paper shows that Allport actively built his scientific reputation by exchanging specimens for honours. It asks whether this was a widespread model for other colonial figures who may have used specimen-based philanthropy to develop a form of soft power through associations with respected institutions such as learned societies, universities and museums. Figures like Allport played the role of a type of colonial settler-intermediary, valued for providing privileged access to specimens to the metropole. Allport also worked to augment scientific work in Tasmania and the economic reputation of the colony, demonstrating that the development of social networks and scientific reputations of colonial figures were entwined with the status and success of the colonies themselves.

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Authors & Contributors
Achim, Miruna
Cameron, Fiona Ruth
Dickenson, Victoria J. V.
Harrison, Simon
Knapman, Gareth
Longair, Sarah
Journals
Archives of Natural History
History and Anthropology
Notes and Records: The Royal Society Journal of the History of Science
Publishers
Berghahn Books
Duke University Press
Manchester University Press
Palgrave Macmillan
Reaktion Books
Ian J. Mason
Concepts
Collectors and collecting
Specimen exchange
Biological specimens
Collections
Natural history
Museums
People
Ellis, John
Banks, Joseph
Cuvier, Frédéric Georges
Gould, John
Hirohito, Emperor of Japan
Mueller, Ferdinand, Baron von
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century
20th century, early
21st century
17th century
Places
Great Britain
Australia
India
Mexico
Germany
Japan
Institutions
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Zoological Society of London
Museum of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia)
East India Company (English)
McGill University (Canada)
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