ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the introduction of photography at the British Museum with particular reference to its role in re-presenting and promoting the museum's natural history collections. It describes the emergence and role of photography at the British Museum, as well as its diffusion beyond that institution to an imperial and global public. Paper museums had a venerable history before the advent of photography, which Martin Rudwick describes with regard to Georges Cuvier's vast collection of 'proxy specimens'. The chapter examines the British Museum's attempt to introduce a formal photographic program during the 1850s and compares the approaches taken by staff in the departments of natural history and antiquities. It analyses some of the specific efforts made by museum officers to utilise photography in their professional and imperial networks and to use it to further their own research agendas, cultivate new knowledge and address deficiencies within their collections.
