Sloth bones and anteater tongues: Collecting American nature in the Hispanic world (1750–1808)

Abstract

This article explores the collection and display of natural history specimens in eighteenth-century Spain. Focusing primarily on the zoological collections in the Real Gabinete de Historia Natural, it examines the mechanisms through which naturalists in Madrid procured natural objects from across Spain's vast empire, which included both state-sponsored scientific expeditions and written decrees soliciting material and information from colonial subjects. The article considers why Spanish bureaucrats serving in the Americas responded to repeated demands for specimens to exhibit in the metropolitan museum, and assesses the extent to which their offerings corresponded to the wishes of museum curators back in Europe. It argues that the collection of natural knowledge and physical specimens in Bourbon Spain represented not only a major logistical challenge, but a constant dialogue between Spain and its American colonies, in which metropolitan naturalists and colonial correspondents sought objects, information and recognition.

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