Examining the Colonial Legacies of the Hunterian’s Mineralogical and Petrological Collection: New Perspectives on Geoscience Collections

Abstract

The origin of the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery’s mineralogical and petrological collection can be traced back to Sir William Hunter’s bequest of his collections to the University of Glasgow upon his death in 1783. Examination of the collection’s colonial legacies is only in its nascent stages, reflecting that the scrutiny of colonial legacies is still in its infancy in geoscience museums. Here I review the history of the collection, its composition and usage, and I put those factors into the broader perspective of museums’ colonial legacies.

Among the issues I consider are the extent to which the collection contains international specimens and the extent to which these objects are accessed by their source nations. Also explored are the biases which exist in the limited provenance ascribed to objects in the collection and how certain individuals or types of information may be excluded from documentation. The purpose of these investigations is to consider whether the collection continues to contribute to colonial legacies of the museum sector.

After an examination of these aspects of the collection, new ways of working for geoscience collections are proposed, including standards for gathering data; expanding the collection’s reach to more users; and repatriating objects. These initial measures can change the power imbalances apparent in the Hunterian collection and the geosciences more broadly.