Whose insect cabinet is on display at the AMNH?
© D. Finnin/AMNH
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) has currently on display a cabinet with a collection of specimens thought to belong to Alfred Russell Wallace, the great Victorian naturalist considered to be the father of biogeography and co-discover of natural selection. The cabinet currently belongs to a private owner who purchased it from an antique dealer in Arlington, Va. in 1979.
The New York Times has a piece with the story of this find that explains the cabinet’s importance: prior to this discovery, it was thought that the only existing Wallace collection consisted of the fewer specimens housed at the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London.
But not everybody is sure about the Arlington cabinet authenticity. George Beccaloni, curator of Orthoptera at the NHM, has a post in his blog, dedicated to no other than Wallace, where he lists a number of reasons as to why he thinks it is unlikely that the cabinet belonged to this nineteenth century naturalist and explorer. Among them is the observation that Wallace always used circular labels for his specimens, something that seems not to be the case in the collection on exhibit at the AMNH.
In a message posted in the online discussion forum Taxacom, Beccaloni has promised to write a further post in his blog about a letter from Wallace addressed to Henry Walter Bates that may provide more clues about why the cabinet is not likely Wallace’s.
The Arlington cabinet is a truly beautiful example of a natural history collection of the Nineteenth century, and it will be interesting to know who really put it together and how did it ended in Philadelphia, where the antique dealer first purchased it from an unclaimed baggage sales.
5 Comments to Whose insect cabinet is on display at the AMNH?
I saw the story in the NYTimes, very cool! I didn’t know that its provenance was so controversial, though- thanks for blogging it.
I have finally gotten around to commenting on this story further. Please see my blog post here:- http://wallacefund.info/en/insect-cabinet-display-amnh-not-wallaces
More on the insect cabinet on display at the AMNH | Archetype
January 5, 2010
January 5, 2010
[…] previously wrote about a beautiful insect cabinet currently on display at the American Museum of Natural History […]
David Grimaldi January 7, 2010
Hi Roberto and colleagues,
I am very extremely familiar with the cabinet and its collections, since it is I who has studied it and arranged its display here at the AMNH. I will be writing a scholarly article on the collection, addressing Beccaloni’s little blog. He has never seen the collection; he simply dismisses (and misrepresents) compelling evidence (such as identical handwriting on labels, provenance of specimens, etc..), and uses minutiae to make his case. Rather than starting objectively, he has assumed the collection is not a Wallace collection and then gathers trivial evidence to try supporting it (not the way science proceeds). Again, before casting conclusions, allow the evidence to be presented/published.
Roberto: I look forward to finally seeing your ant work published.
Regards,
Dave Grimaldi
Thank you for the comment Dave. It will be good to be able to read more about the cabinet from a formal scholar report in addition to the journalistic ones that have appeared.
December 1, 2009