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Description: | In 1888, the Hunterian received a gift of natural history and ethnographical material from the Andersonian Museum in Glasgow.
Anderson's College was a rival higher educational establishment in Glasgow founded by John Anderson (1726 - 1796), former professor of natural philosophy at Glasgow University. He had built up significant personal collections of natural history specimens and scientific instruments and these were the nucleus of his museum. However, the Andersonian Museum shut down in the 19th century and dispersed its collections. The Hunterian received natural history specimens including a fine mounted young elephant skeleton and a thylacine (a recently extinct marsupial carnivore), both treasured items in the collection today.
Dr John Scouler (1804-1871), a Scottish physician and naturalist was the curator of the Andersonian and collected numerous specimens, many on foreign expeditions of discovery. Some of his own zoological specimens such as reptiles and fish have been re-identified recently. Most remarkable is nearly three metres long, a stuffed bluefin tuna fish (Thynnus thynnus) which was taken in Gareloch in the Clyde Estuary in 1830 and acquired by Scouler from local fishermen. | Subjects: | John Scouler natural history thylacine elephant Andersonian | Source: | Hunterian Museum | Address: | University of Glasgow,
University Avenue,
G12 8QQ | Creator: | Maggie Reilly | Contributor: | Andersonian Museum | Identifier: | C-0058 |
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