Colonial Objects in Academia: The Relationship between the East India Company and the University of Heidelberg
Julian Stephan, Christian Seibold und Irenäus Hartmann
In 1854, the University of Heidelberg received a donation from the British East India Company (EIC). In addition to some mammal skulls from East India and Java [1], the Company also sent numerous mammals and bird skins of 148 different species [2]. The university thanked the Chief Secretary of the EIC, James Cosmo Melvill, who, at the suggestion of the university itself, had made the donation possible [3]. As early as the 1830s, the University of Heidelberg expanded its collection with zoological specimens brought back from Sumatra by Salomon Müller. Müller came from Heidelberg and participated in an expedition to East Asia in the service of the Dutch East India Company [4]. Through these zoological collections, the university became part of the vast network of global and colonial structures.
In order to expand their knowledge and consolidate their position, colonial institutions often hired scientists, doctors and officers to collect scientific objects and hunt animals [5]. The objects acquired in this way, in the case of the EIC, were either exhibited in their own museum collections or used to expand the existing collections of the colonial metropolis [6]. As the collections grew, many duplicates were added, which became a ‘second currency’ within the colonial network [7]. Colonial institutions sold these duplicates to other collections, exchanged them to obtain other zoological objects to complete their own collection with objects that were not otherwise available in. In some cases they also donated some specimen to other European institutions [8]. With its extensive network, trading posts and colonial infrastructure, the British East India Company became a central knot within the colonial collection network [9]. However, as the following example will show, the colonial collection network was not only characterized by competition, but also by scientific cooperation between colonial institutions and European universities and museums.
In the 19th century, the scientific focus shifted towards an approach of systematic comparison. Therefore, it was necessary to have as many different animal specimens as possible in a collection. Since there were no German colonies at that time, let alone a German state that could have established colonies, many german-speaking universities and museum established ties to colonial institutions like the EIC. On 30. July 1854, Heinrich Georg Bronn, the director of the zoological museum in Heidelberg, wrote to the Großherzoglichen Engeren Akademischen Senat that the Board of Directors of the EIC had agreed to donate a collection of 57 skulls of larger and smaller mammals, worth 800-1000 guilders, to the zoological museum [10]. Bronn also informed the university senate that the EIC had additionally sent mammal skins from 32 and bird skins from 148 different specis [11], such as an Indian marabou [12] or a gibbon [13]. He then asked the Senate to write a letter of appreciationon behalf of the university, highlighting that the EIC had supported the university to expand its collections of specimens from Southeast Asia established with the specimens from Salomon Müller's expedition to the Dutch East Indies [14]. The collection was to be made available to both researchers and students. In its letter of appreciation, written in English, the university senate expressed their gratitude to the Board of Directors of the EIC for its ‘generous donation’ and particularly to Chief Secretary James Cosmo Melvill for the difficulties he had taken upon himself in this matter [15]. They apparently wished to continue and deepen the institutional relationship. As Chief Secretary of the EIC, James Cosmo Melvill held the most influential position in the Company from 1836 onwards and thus had a duty to pursue the interests of the EIC and could influence the Company’s exchange practices and institutional relations between the EIC and other institutions [16].
Scientific objects were and are not merely objects within the academic community, but are above all part of the large imperial-colonialist network that led to rivalries for prestige, knowledge and power in the colonies and within Europe. However, cooperation existed as well between colonial institutions and museums from other empires or regions without colonial territories. The East India Company, with its powerful position, was able to offer a range of zoological specimen from India and Malaysia, which could be sent to museums and universities in Central Europe. Nowadays, it is difficult to locate the zoological specimen from the EIC in the current collections at the University of Heidelberg. Some of the specimen donated by the EIC have probably been lost due to structural institutional changes over the last 150 years. This has also resulted in the loss of information about the specimens, their whereabouts and provenance. Thus, this topic requires further research to determine where the objects are located and how the University of Heidelberg established and eventually maintained ties to colonial institutions like the EIC.
[1] Brief von Heinrich Bronn an den Großherzoglichen Engeren Akademischen Senat vom 30. Juli 1854, Universitätsarchiv Heidelberg (UAH), RA 5344.
[2] Brief von Heinrich Bronn an den Großherzoglichen Engeren Akademischen Senat vom 20. Dezember 1854, UAH, RA 5344.
[3] Brief des Senats der Universität Heidelberg an James Cosmo Melvill vom Dezember 1854, UAH, RA 5344.
[4] Catalog des zoologischen Museums in Heidelberg, Universitätsbibliothek Heideberg (UBH), Heid. HS. 726, S. 3.
[5] Petts, Rachel: The East India Company and Natural History Collecting [2021], online: NatSCA, https://natsca.blog/2021/04/22/the-east-india-company-and-natural-histo… [18.07.2025].
[6] Coote, Anne et.al.: When Commerce, Science, and Leisure Collaborated. The Nineteenth-Century Global Trade Boom in Natural History Collections, in: Journal of Global History 12/3 (2017), S. 319–339.
[7] Petts: The East India Company.
[8] Coote et.al.: When Commerce, Science, and Leisure Collaborated.
[9] Hedinger, Daniel/Heé, Nadine: Transimperial History. Connectivity, Cooperation and Competition, in: Journal of Modern European History 16/4 (2018), S. 429-452.
[10] Brief von Heinrich Bronn an den Großherzoglichen Engeren Akademischen Senat vom 30. Juli 1854, UAH, RA 5344.
[11] Brief von Heinrich Bronn an den Großherzoglichen Engeren Akademischen Senat vom 20. Dezember 1854, UAH, RA 5344.
[12] Zettelkatalog zu den Vögeln in der Zoologischen Sammlung, Centre for Organismal Studies, Universität Heidelberg.
[13] Catalog des zoologischen Museums in Heidelberg, UBH, Heid. HS. 726, S. 3.
[14] Brief von Heinrich Bronn an den Großherzoglichen Engeren Akademischen Senat vom 20. Dezember 1854, UAH, RA 5344.
[15] Brief des Senats der Universität Heidelberg an James Cosmo Melvill vom 20. Dezember 1854, UAH, RA 5344.
[16] Finn, Margot/Smith, Kate: The East India Company at Home. 1757–1857, online: UCLPress, https://ucldigitalpress.co.uk/Book/Article/39/64/2909/ [18.07.2025].
Published 04.08.2025.