24-714: The Leverian collection was a natural history and ethnographic collection assembled by Ashton Lever . It was noted for the content it acquired from the voyages of Captain James Cook . For three decades it was displayed in London, being broken up by auction in 1806. The first public location of the collection was the Holophusikon, also known as the Leverian Museum, at Leicester House , on Leicester Square , from 1775 to 1786. After it passed from Lever's ownership, it
48-690: A guinea each. The winner, James Parkinson , later put the collection up for auction in 1806, when the largest purchasers were the British naturalist Edward Donovan and Leopold von Fichtel , bidding on behalf of the Natural History Museum, Vienna . Purchasers included the Earl of Derby and William Bullock , who had a large private collection. Lever's collection was catalogued by George Shaw . Heinrich Friedrich Link Johann Heinrich Friedrich Link (2 February 1767 – 1 January 1851)
72-448: A purpose-built Rotunda building , at what would later be No. 3 Blackfriars Road . Leicester House itself was demolished in 1791. A catalogue and guide was printed in 1790. Parkinson also had George Shaw write an illustrated scientific work; the artists involved included Philip Reinagle , Charles Reuben Ryley , William Skelton , Sarah Stone , and Sydenham Edwards . Some of John White 's specimens were put on public display there for
96-522: The Imperial Museum of Vienna . The contents of the museum are well recorded, from a catalogue of the museum created in 1784, and the sale catalogue in 1806, with a contemporary series of watercolours of its contents by Sarah Stone. There are also sale catalogue annotations allowing, for example, the counting of 37 lots bought by Alexander Macleay . The Royal College of Surgeons bought 79 lots, and notes by William Clift survive. Purchases from
120-559: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences , which elected him a foreign member in 1840. He trained a whole new generation of natural scientists, such as Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (1795–1876). Throughout his life, he travelled extensively throughout Europe. He benefited from his knowledge of foreign languages, including Arabic and ancient Sanskrit . He died in Berlin on 1 January 1851, a month before his 84th birthday. He
144-477: The auction in 1806. 82 specimens still survived in 1812, 74 in 1823, and at least 29 in 1850. Among the present collections of World Museum are 25 study skins (relaxed mounts) of 22 species recognized as having originated from the Leverian Sale. Nine are recognized as having been collected during the second voyage of James Cook and third voyage of James Cook . A number of ethnographic objects survive in
168-492: The botanical garden. In 1827, he named with him the cacti genera Echinocactus and Melocactus . Most of the fungi that he named, are still recognised under the original name, proving the high quality of his work (such as Cordyceps , Creopus , Fusarium , Leocarpus , Myxomycetes , Phragmidium ). He was elected member of the Berlin Academy of Science and many other scientific societies, including
192-790: The collection was free, but visitors who arrived on foot were turned away; only those who could afford a carriage or riding horse were welcome. He decided to exhibit the collection in London as a commercial venture, charging an entrance fee. Lever acquired a lease of Leicester House in 1774, converting the principal rooms on the first floor into a single large gallery running the length of the house, and opened his museum in February 1775, with around 25,000 exhibits (a small fraction of his collection) valued at over £40,000. The display included many natural and ethnographic items gathered by Captain James Cook on his voyages. The museum took its name from its supposedly universal coverage of natural history , and
216-481: The collection, so Lever obtained an Act of Parliament in 1784 to sell the whole by lottery . He only sold 8,000 tickets at a guinea each – he had hoped to sell 36,000. The collection was acquired by James Parkinson , a land agent and accountant. It continued to be displayed at Leicester House until Lever's death in 1788, at a reduced entrance fee of one shilling. Parkinson transferred the Leverian collection to
240-548: The collections of the British Museum. Ashton Lever Sir Ashton Lever FRS (5 March 1729 – 28 January 1788) was an English collector of natural objects, in particular the Leverian collection . Lever was born in 1729 at Alkrington Hall . In 1735 Sir James Darcy Lever, his father, served as High Sheriff of Lancashire . Lever began by collecting seashells in about 1760, and gradually accumulated one of
264-508: The existence of oxygen instead of phlogiston . He was also a proponent of the attempts of Richter to involve mathematics in chemistry, introducing stoichiometry in his chemistry lessons. In 1806, he set up the first chemical laboratory at Rostock in the "Seminargebäude". He began to write an abundant number of articles and books on the most different subjects, such as physics and chemistry, geology and mineralogy, botany and zoology, natural philosophy and ethics, prehistoric and early history. He
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#1732801722720288-465: The first time. The museum also served as a resource and opportunity for women. Ellenor Fenn wrote A Short History of Insects (1796/7), which also served as a "pocket companion" for the museum. The artist Sarah Stone continued to work for Parkinson, as she had done for Lever. Parkinson had some success in getting naturalists to attend the museum, which was easier at the time to visit than the British Museum. Heinrich Friedrich Link , who visited in 1799,
312-792: The museum was a young Philip Bury Duncan , who went on to become keeper of the Ashmolean Museum . Among the objects displayed was the large Viking silver thistle brooch from the Penrith Hoard , discovered by a boy in Cumbria in 1785. In 1787, a print of it was published, claiming that it was the insignia of the Knights Templar . It was bought by the British Museum in 1909 (M&ME 1909,6-24,2). The British Museum and Catherine II of Russia both refused to buy
336-519: The public in Leicester Square . Captain James Cook was impressed by Lever's collection, and donated objects from his own voyages to the museum. Lever continued to buy items until he became bankrupt , at which point the collection contained 28,000 specimens. Both the British Museum and the Empress of Russia declined to buy it, so it was disposed of by lottery: 8,000 tickets were sold at
360-696: The richest private collections of natural objects, including live animals. He opened it to the public in April 1766, in Manchester , moving the museum to his family home at Alkrington Hall, near Rochdale , Lancashire , in 1771. In the same year he founded Archers' Hall, Inner Circle, Regent's Park, London for the Archers' Company of the Honourable Artillery Company . In 1774, Lever moved to London, and next year his Holophusicon opened to
384-551: The rocky beds around Göttingen). One of his teachers was the famous natural scientist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752–1840). He became a private tutor ( Privatdozent ) in Göttingen. In 1792, he became the first professor of the new department of chemistry , zoology and botany at the University of Rostock . During his stay at Rostock, he became an early follower of the antiphlogistic theory of Lavoisier , teaching about
408-408: The sale founded the collection of Richard Cuming . In all 7,879 lots were sold over 65 days. The specimens purchased by Edward Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby, were bequeathed to the people of Liverpool upon his death in 1851 and were part of the founding collection of what is now World Museum , National Museums Liverpool . Stanley bought approximately 117 mounted birds, representing some 96 species, at
432-622: Was a German naturalist and botanist . The standard author abbreviation Link is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name . Link was born at Hildesheim as a son of the minister August Heinrich Link (1738–1783), who taught him love of nature through collection of 'natural objects'. He studied medicine and natural sciences at the Hannoverschen Landesuniversität of Göttingen , and graduated as MD in 1789, promoting on his thesis "Flora der Felsgesteine rund um Göttingen" (Flora of
456-428: Was complimentary. Parkinson also tried to sell the contents at various times. One attempt, a proposed purchase by the government, was wrecked by the adverse opinion of Sir Joseph Banks . In the end, for financial reasons, Parkinson sold the collection in lots by auction in 1806. Among the buyers were Edward Donovan , Edward Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby , and William Bullock ; many items went to other museums, including
480-456: Was displayed for nearly twenty years more at the purpose-built Blackfriars Rotunda just across the Thames, sometimes called Parkinson's Museum for its subsequent owner, James Parkinson (c. 1730-1813). Lever collected fossils, shells, and animals (birds, insects, reptiles, fish, monkeys) for many years, accumulating a large collection at his home at Alkrington , near Manchester . Admittance to
504-539: Was elected to the prestigious Leopoldina Academy , the oldest school for natural history in Europe. In 1808, he was awarded a prize at the Academy of Saint Petersburg for his monography Von der Natur und den Eigenschaften des Lichts (nature and characteristics of light). His scientific reputation grew and became widely known. In 1811, he was appointed professor of chemistry and botany at Breslau university, where he
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#1732801722720528-560: Was equally elected twice rector of the university. After the death of Carl Ludwig Willdenow in 1815, he became professor of natural history, curator of the herbarium and director of the botanic garden ( Hortus regius Berolinensis ) in Berlin until he died. This period became the most fruitful period of his academic life. He augmented the collection of the garden to 14,000 specimens, many of them rare plants. He worked in close collaboration with Cristoph Friedrich Otto (1783–1856), conservator at
552-450: Was essentially a huge cabinet of curiosities . Lever charged an entry fee of 5s. 3d., or two guineas for an annual ticket, and the museum had a degree of commercial success; the receipts in 1782 were £2,253. In an effort to draw in the crowds, Lever later reduced the entrance fee to half a crown (2s. 6d.). Lever was constantly looking for new exhibits. However, he spent more on new exhibits than he raised in entrance fees. One admirer of
576-422: Was twice elected rector of the university. In 1793, he married Charlotte Juliane Josephi (1768?–1829), sister of his colleague at the university Prof. Wilhelm Josephi (1763–1845). During 1797–1799, he visited Portugal with Count Johann Centurius Hoffmannsegg , a botanist, entomologist and ornithologist from Dresden . This trip made him finally choose botany as his main scientific calling. In 1800, he
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