ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the traffic in natural history between individuals and institutions at the centre and periphery of the British Empire as well as the complex meanings and expectations that were part of those exchanges. It traces the rise and consolidation of natural history networks and their key function in the development of the colonial museum. The significance of photography in the progress of natural history, and its role in colonial museums, was a subject that often appeared in nineteenth-century writings, usually generated by those naturalists travelling to and working in the colonies. The chapter addresses contemporary perceptions of the colonial masculine ideal and the Victorian 'self-made man', and, more particularly, their role in the ascendance and increasing legitimacy of colonial naturalists operating within an imperial class structure. It identifies the different circumstances within which the exchange of specimens took place and the conventions governing this exchange.
