Trading moa bones - how the museum began

Dunedin historian Rosi Crane looks up at the Otago Museum's 16m-long juvenile fin whale skeleton,...
Dunedin historian Rosi Crane looks up at the Otago Museum's 16m-long juvenile fin whale skeleton, from a whale found on a Nelson beach in 1882. PHOTO: GERARD O'BRIEN
Historical detective work by Dunedin researcher Rosi Crane is shedding more light on the colourful stories behind how the Otago Museum acquired many of its exotic animal exhibits in the 19th century.

A giraffe skeleton, a stuffed lion, several monkeys and many birds from Australia, Europe, India and New Zealand were present when the Otago Museum opened in its new building in Great King St in 1877.

From the start, the museum's collections were international.

Many of the exotic animals came to Dunedin from commercial dealers from London, Sydney, and Prague, as well as from Bremen, Germany, where a dealer, fittingly named Otto Finsch, provided many bird specimens.

Some of the purchase money came from limited museum funds but most was from trading moa bones.

Kiwi and kakapo skins were also valuable, but not as valuable as moa.

Museum honorary curator of science history Rosi Crane will outline the story of global historical commercial trade practices and the museum, in a talk, titled "Dealing to the Otago Museum" at Toitu Otago Settlers Museum this Sunday afternoon.

"A few scraps of correspondence have survived which tell us the price that these animals fetched, what else the dealers had to offer and what the curators wanted to fill perceived gaps," Dr Crane said.

"The business of supplying museums with specimens was extensive and Dunedin was part of this global network of supply and demand," she said.

The Otago Museum, initially based in the Exchange area, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.

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