Journal of the History of Collections Advance Access originally published online on September 8, 2006
Journal of the History of Collections 2006 18(2):187-199; doi:10.1093/jhc/fhl019
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Migrating objects
The Bohemian National Museum and its scientific collaborations in the early nineteenth century
The Bohemian National Museum was officially founded in 1822. It had been under preparation since 1818 by its founders, Kaspar Sternberg (1761–1838) and Franz Sternberg-Manderscheid (1764–1830), with the intention of preserving the nation's cultural heritage of scientific and historical collections so as to form a national monument as well as to enhance the population's awareness of their national identity. Research programmes on the collections were co-ordinated with those of other institutions and scientists within and beyond the Habsburg monarchy. Such co-operation, mainly scientific, rather than cultural, was often carried out without official sanction and formed the beginnings of ‘extra-museal’ scientific networking in central Europe. This paper traces the paths of the collected specimens from their accession to their publication; it also analyses the implication of scientific networks in terms of their benefit to the Museum's scientific collections and its position as a national status symbol.
1 G. Cuvier, Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles de quadrupèdes, où l'on rétablit les caractères de plusieurs espèces d'animaux que les révolutions du globe paroissent avoir détruites (Paris, 1812).
2 S. J. Knell, ‘Altered values: searching for a new collecting’, in S. J. Knell (ed.), Museums and the Future of Collecting (Aldershot, 2004), pp. 1–46.
3 M. J. S. Rudwick, The New Science of Geology: Studies in the Earth Sciences in the Age of Revolution (Aldershot, 2004), pp. 51–68.
4 W. Nebesk
, Geschichte des Museums des Königreiches Böhmen (Prague, 1868), p. 1.
5 See, for example, M. Raffler, ‘Das Nationalmuseum als Wille und Vorstellung’, Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas 1 (1999), pp. 254–81.
6 M. Sommer, ‘Museum, Gedächtnis, Identität: Museologisch-kulturwissenschaftliche Beiträge zur Geschichte des steiermärkischen Landesmuseums Joanneum’, PhD thesis (Vienna, 2003).
7 See: H.-J. Rösler, ‘Friedrich Mohs – Leben und Wirken’, in Bergakademie Freiberg, Carl Friedrich Christian Mohs (1773–1839). Professor der Mineralogie in Freiberg, Wien und Graz, Entdecker der Moos'schen Härteskala. Wissenschaftliches Kolloquium anläßlich des 150. Todestages von Mohs (Freiberg, 1989), pp. 5–30.
8 For his autobiography, see: K. M. Sternberg, ‘Materialien zu meiner Biographie’, in W. Helekal (ed.), Ausgewählte Werke des Grafen Kaspar Sternberg, vol. II, Bibliothek Deutscher Schriftsteller aus Böhmen 27 (Prague, 1909).
9 F. A. Kolowrat-Liebsteinsk, ‘Aufruf an die vaterländischen Freunde der Wissenschaften’, Prager Zeitung 45 (1818), pp. 375–6.
10 For example in the letter from Kaspar Sternberg to the Austrian minister Franz, Graf von Saurau (1760–1832), 24 April 1818, Signature RNM 1818–1852, A/1/13, Archive of the Bohemian National Museum.
11 See Nebesk, op. cit. (note 4), pp. 263–6.
12 C. Schweizer, ‘Bohemian mineralogy in the early 19th century: the Vaterländisches Museum in Prague’, in C. F. Winkler Prins and S. K. Donovan (eds), Proceedings of the VII International Symposium ‘Cultural Heritage in Geosciences, Mining and Metallurgy: Libraries–Archives–Museums’ "Museums and their Collections" held at Leiden (The Netherlands), 19–23 May, 2003, Scripta Geologica, special issue 4 (2004), pp. 237–48.
13 See Rösler, op. cit. (note 7), p. 9.
14 C. S. Weiss, ‘Uebersichtliche Darstellung der verschiedenen natürlichen Abtheilungen der Krystallisationssysteme’, Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 21 (1814–15), pp. 290–336.
15 R. Laudan, From Mineralogy to Geology: The Foundations of a Science, 1650-1830 (Chicago, 1993), p. 107.
16 E. L. Malus, Théorie de la double réfraction de la lumière dans les substances cristallisés: mémoire couronné par l'Institut, dans la séance publique du 2 janvier 1810 (Paris, 1817).
17 R.-J. Haüy, Traité des caractères physiques des pierres precieuses, pour servir à leur determination lorsqu elles ont été taillées (Paris, 1817).
18 F. Mohs, Die Charaktere der Klassen, Ordnungen, Geschlechter und Arten, oder die Charakteristik des naturhistorischen Mineralsystems (Dresden, 1820), p. 44.
19 See Mohs, op. cit. (note 20), pp. 72–3.
20 F. Mohs, Treatise on Mineralogy or the Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom, Translated from the German, with Considerable Additions, by William Haidinger (Edinburgh, 1825).
21 Signature Allgemeine Akten/Mohs No. 676/1870/1, Archive of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
22 F. Mohs, Leichtfaßliche Anfangsgründe der Naturgeschichte des Mineralreiches (Vienna, 1832).
23 The term Physiographie is meant here in the sense of the minerals' configuration and not in the English sense of ‘physical geography’.
26 See Schweizer, op. cit. (note 12).
27 Signature Allgemeine Akten/Mohs No. 676/1870/9, Archive of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
31 See also preface by Zippe to F. Mohs, Die Charaktere der Klassen, Ordnungen, Geschlechter und Arten, oder die Charakteristik des naturhistorischen Mineralsystems, revised by F.-X. Zippe (Vienna, 1858).
32 F. Mohs, Leichtfaßliche Anfangsgründe der Naturgeschichte des Mineralreiches, volume 1: Terminologie, Systematik, Nomenklatur und Charakteristik (Vienna, 1836), F.-X. Zippe, vol. II: Physiographie (Vienna, 1839).
33 W. Haidinger, ‘Description of sternbergite, a new mineral species’, lecture held on 9 December 1826 at the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
34 W. Haidinger, ‘Beschreibung des Sternbergits, einer neuen Mineralspecies, aus dem Englischen’, Monatschrift der Gesellschaft des vaterländischen Museums 2/11 (1827), pp. 39–48.
35 This formula proved to be correct, although it has later been quoted incorrectly by various authors; F.-X. Zippe, ‘Chemische Untersuchung des Sternbergits’, Monatschrift der Gesellschaft des vaterländischen Museums 3/8 (1828), pp. 151–6.
36 Biographical data not available.
37 Signature Allgemeine Akten/Sternberg No. 676/1870/5, Archive of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
39 W. Haidinger, ‘Zur Erinnerung an Franz Zippe’, Jahrbuch der k. k. Geologischen Reichsanstalt 13 (1863).
40 K. M. Sternberg, Versuch einer geognostisch-botanischen Darstellung der Flora der Vorwelt 1–8 (Ratisbon, Leipzig and Prague, 1820–38). The first parts of this work were translated into French by Sternberg's friend G. de Bray (1765–32), Essai d'un exposé géognostico-botanique de la flore du monde primitif 1–4 (Regensburg, 1820–26).
41 C. Schweizer, ‘Geological travellers in view of their philosophical and economical intentions: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) and Caspar Maria Count Sternberg (1761–1838)’, in P. Wyse Jackson (ed.), Geological Travelers (New York, forthcoming 2006).
42 E. F. Schlotheim, Die Petrefactenkunde auf ihrem jetzigen Standpunkte durch die Beschreibung seiner Sammlung versteinerter und fossiler Überreste des Thier-und Pflanzenreichs der Vorwelt erläutert (Gotha, 1820).
43 A. T. Brongniart, Sur la classification et la distribution des végétaux fossiles (Paris, 1822).
44 Signature Buckland/15/H/6, Památník Národního Písemnictví, Prague.
46 For the drawing by James Sowerby, see Sternberg, op. cit. (note 42), issue 3 (1822), p. 36, table xxx.
47 For drawings by Morland, Sternberg added to the description (in German): ‘Communicated by Buckland’, op. cit. (note 40), issue 3 (1822), p. 38, tables xxxviii and xxxix.
48 See Sternberg, op. cit. (note 40), issue 3 (1822), p. 38.
49 See Sternberg, op. cit. (note 42), issue 3 (1822), p. 38. Sternberg added to the respective figures (3 and 4): ‘Communicated by Dr. Buckland.’
50 Sternberg added to the prints' description (in German): ‘Both from the boghead coal mines from Durham, communicated by Dr. Buckland’; see Sternberg, op. cit. (note 40), issue 3 (1822), p. 36.
51 For the drawing by Morland, see Sternberg, op. cit. (note 40), issue 3 (1822) p. 36–7: ‘Communicated by Dr. Buckland’, table xxxiv.
52 See Sternberg, op. cit. (note 8), p. 132.
53 Sternberg added to the species' description: ‘Communicavit clar.[issimus] Rosthorn, in cuius honorem species nuncupata est’. See Sternberg, op. cit. (note 40), issue 6 (1833), p. 36.
54 See Sternberg, op. cit. (note 40), issue 6 (1833), p. 76.
55 See Sternberg, op. cit. (note 40), issue 6 (1833), p. 135.
56 See Sternberg, op. cit. (note 40), issue 6 (1833), p. 147.
57 See H. Kadletz-Schöffel, Metternich und die Wissenschaften (Vienna, 1992), pp. 460–2.
Address for correspondence Claudia Schweizer, Am Modenapark 13/11, A-1030 Vienna, Austria. c.schweizer{at}gmx.at