Collecting Curiosities

Collecting curiosities Eighteenth-century Museum Stobaeanum and the development of ethnographic collections in the nineteenth century Naum, Magdalena; Ingvardson, Gitte 2020 Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Naum, M., & Ingvardson, G. (Eds.) (2020). Collecting curiosities: Eighteenth-century Museum Stobaeanum and the development of ethnographic collections in the nineteenth century. Lund University. 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LUND UNIVERSITY PO Box 117 221 00 Lund +46 46-222 00 00 Collecting curiosities EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MUSEUM STOBÆANUM AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTIONS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Magdalena Naum & Gitte Tarnow Ingvardson (eds.) In 1735, professor Kilian Stobæus donated his collections to Lund University laying the foundation for the university’s first museum. The ‘Museum Stobæanum’ contained over 3000 natural history, historical and ethnographic objects typical of the cabinets of curiosity. This richly illustrated book is the first comprehensive history of these collections. Eighteen chapters, written by an interdisciplinary group of scholars, explore Stobæus as a researcher and collector; the concept, organization and development of the museum through time; as well as the culture of collecting, including its scientific and symbolic meaning. The authors also investigate specific examples of museum objects: fossils, plants enclosed in a herbarium, a crocodile, seashells and insects, North American artefacts, an Egyptian mummy, coins and medals, the skull of Descartes, Guyana war clubs and ethnographic objects from the South Pacific. The book contributes to a better understanding of Stobæus and his peers in their pursuit of knowledge through collecting as well as the complex processes that enabled early modern museums. On a broader level, it illuminates the global connections and intellectual environment of eighteenth-century Lund and Sweden. 9 789172 674257 ISBN 978-91-7267-425-7 (tryck) ISBN 978-91-7267-426-4 (pdf) COLLECTING CURIOSITIES Collecting curiosities Eighteenth-century Museum Stobæanum and the development of ethnographic collections in the nineteenth century edited by magdalena naum & gitte tarnow ingvardson Cover image Representation of four classical elements made by Johan Leche for Kilian Stobæus. Water (Sa- lacia) made of seashells, corals and seaweed; fire (Vulcan) made of stone; air (Jupiter) made of bird feathers and butterflies; and earth (Ceres) made of seeds, grain, and plants. These elements connected with the major categories of objects collected by Stobæus and displayed at Museum Stobæanum. Photo: Gunnar Menander. Copyright: The authors, 2020 ISBN 978-91-7267-425-7 (tryck) 978-91-7267-426-4 (pdf) Cover design and typesetting: Gunilla Albertén Printed in Sweden at Media-Tryck, Lund University, Lund 2020 Contents 1. Introduction Magdalena Naum & Gitte Tarnow Ingvardson 7 Part I. Kilian Stobæus as a scholar and collector 2. Kilian Stobæus – a brief biography Magdalena Naum 14 3. Collecting networks of Kilian Stobæus Magdalena Naum 22 Part II. Museum Stobæanum 4. ‘The Brown Art Cabinet’ at Museum Stobæanum. Reconstructing the collection of artificialia within the eighteenth century Museum of Natural History at Lund University Andreas Manhag 32 5. The ‘Indian Idol’ of Samuel Hesselius. Dutch fur trade, Caribbean conches and cultural entanglement in New Netherland Andreas Manhag 60 6. The Egyptian mummy: curious collectors and contested commodities in the eighteenth century Joachim Östlund 70 7. Reconstructing Stobæus’s lost collection of coins and medals Gitte Tarnow Ingvardson & Line Bjerg 78 8. The crocodile Ulf Johansson Dahre 90 9. The true skull of Descartes? – A source critical study Andreas Manhag & Per Karsten 98 10. Petrified organisms: the fossil collection of Kilian Stobæus Anders Lindskog, Per Ahlberg & Mats E. Eriksson 116 11. Kilian Stobæus’s natural history collection: objects from high in the sky to deep in the sea Maria Mostadius 124 12. Herbarium Vivum – a necessity in every gentleman’s collection Ulf Arup & Maria Mostadius 134 Part III. Development of ethnographic collections in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 13. The South Seas objects and the development of ethnographic collections in the nineteenth century Ulf Johansson Dahre 146 14. Two ‘Guiana war clubs’ Christian Feest 154 15. Penobscot model canoe and moccasins Magdalena Naum 166 16. Arrows and bow from Oregon and Northern California Magdalena Naum 174 17. Exhibiting Stobæus. Ethnographic collections on display in Lund from the eighteenth century to the present day Per Karsten 184 Postscript 18. The return of the cabinet of curiosity Ulf Johansson Dahre 198 Bibliography 207 1. Introduction Magdalena Naum & Gitte Tarnow Ingvardson Museum Stobæanum was the first public museum in Lund and one of about 55 collections known to exist in early eighteenth century Sweden.1 The museum was founded by Kilian Stobæus (1690–1742), a key Swedish academic figure of the early Enlightenment. Stobæus assembled the museum over several decades, and regarded it as a major accomplishment of his personal and professional life. He took immense pleasure in organizing and handling the collections, which supported his research, provided material for his teaching and were an endless source of enjoyment for him and for visiting guests. After the collection was donated to the university in 1735, it became a major at- traction for visiting scholars, students and curious guests. In the late eighteenth century, however, the museum fell into disrepair, suffering from poor storage conditions. In 1805, a decision was made to split the collections. The natural history specimens were moved to the newly established Zoological Museum while the culture-historical and ethnographic collections formed the basis of the Historical Mu- seum. In the early and mid-nineteenth century, the ethnographic and archaeological collections increased, mostly through non-systematic means of gifts, exchanges and purchases. At that time, the method of collecting artefacts had remained close to that employed by Stobæus. Personal interests of the curators and researchers connected with the Historical Museum, most notably Sven Nilsson (1787–1883)2, con- tinued to shape the patterns of acquisition. At the same time, and under the lead- ership of Nilsson, natural history collections at the Zoological Museum increased exponentially and underwent process of systematization. 1 Löwegren 1952, 336–70. 2 Nilsson was a zoologist and archaeologist. He was a professor of Natural History at Lund Univer- sity from 1832 to 1856 during which time he was actively engaged in the work of the Historical and Zo- ological museums. He was involved in organizing and managing natural history collections since 1812. 7 Introduction There has been very little research on Stobæus’s collections and the subsequent ‘life’ of the museum, including its split and development of modern institutions.3 The project Beyond Curiosity and Wonder—Understanding the Museum Stobæanum aimed at a better understanding of the collections and the processes of collecting. Our goal has been to identify and document the original collection that belonged to Stobæus, generate historical knowledge about the provenance of objects and so- cio-cultural conditions of collecting and to unite the collections, currently split between different institutions, on a digital platform open to the public.4 We also wanted to initiate research on the nineteenth century ethnographic acquisitions and their connection to the history of colonialism and global engagements. The eclectic character of the collections demanded a collaborative effort of our multidisciplinary team, which consisted of the curators of the Biological Museum in Lund – botanist Ulf Arup and conservator Maria Mostadius; curators of the Historical Museum at Lund University – archaeologists Per Karsten and Andreas Manhag and numismatist Gitte Tarnow Ingvardson, as well as scholars from Lund University: anthropologist Ulf Johansson Dahre, geologists Per Ahlberg, Mats E. Eriksson and Anders Lindskog, historian Joachim Östlund, historian of science Håkan Håkansson, and Latinist Cajsa Sjöberg; Aarhus University – archaeologist Magdalena Naum, and University of Western Australia – historian Jacqueline Van Gent. Contents This book presents some of the research results of the project, and is divided into three parts. Part I introduces Kilian Stobæus as a scientist and collector. In chapter 2, Naum provides insight into Stobæus’s

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