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SUMMARY:Beetles in a haystack: collecting insects via the eighteenth‐cen
 tury British slave trade - Kathleen Murphy (California Polytechnic State U
 niversity)
DTSTART:20180430T120000Z
DTEND:20180430T130000Z
UID:TALK104875@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Sebestian Kroupa
DESCRIPTION:In 1766\, a British ship captain in the Gabon Estuary\, just n
 orth of the equator in the Gulf of Guinea\, found one of the largest beetl
 es then known floating in the river. The Goliath beetle\, as it came to be
  called\, quickly became an object of desire among natural history collect
 ors. This talk traces the efforts of Dru Drury\, a British silversmith and
  entomologist\, to acquire a specimen of the Goliath beetle by means of th
 e slave trade. The silversmith's correspondence\, account books\, museum i
 nventory and remarkable ledger of prospective specimen‐collectors allow 
 us to trace how a naturalist in the mid‐eighteenth century might utilize
  British commercial and naval circuits to Africa in the pursuit of a parti
 cular specimen. The dramatic expansion in British participation in the sla
 ve trade by the middle of the century facilitated the efforts of naturalis
 ts such as Drury to collect specimens through the same circuits that colle
 cted enslaved Africans. Drury believed that Britain's commercial networks 
 would not only enable him to acquire various new African specimens but\, i
 n particular\, to obtain a Goliath beetle for his own museum. To encourage
  mariners to become collectors\, Drury provided collecting supplies\, imag
 es of what he desired\, directions\, and cash payments for each specimen d
 elivered to his London home. In the search for the Goliath beetle\, the na
 turalist repeatedly articulated ways that collecting slaves might lead to 
 collecting specimens.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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