A history of Liverpool natural history collections

Abstract

EARLY HISTORY The history of natural history museums in Liverpool is related to the prosperity of the city. In the seventeenth century Liverpool was a small town with an insignificant port. However, with the development of the first commercial enclosed dock in Britain in 1715 the city started to become one of the world's greatest deep sea ports (Hyde, 1971). It served the rapidly expanding industries in the midland and northern counties of England and linked them with all parts of the world. Amongst the early traders was John Blackburne (1693—1787) who had a salt works alongside the Salthouse Dock in Liverpool. Salt was mined in Cheshire and was brought to Liverpool before being shipped overseas as one of the most important exports of the eighteenth century. John Blackburne had many trading links which created the wealth and time for him to establish and enjoy a fine garden at his home near Warrington. It was here that one of his children, Anna (1726—1793), became especially interested in natural history. She corresponded or was friendly with many leading natural historians of her day. These included Carl Linnaeus, Peter Simon Pallas, Johan Reinhold Forster, and Thomas Pennant. In the course of time she amassed a substantial museum which Pennant in particular used extensively. Some of the specimens were collected by her brother, Ashton, on his travels to North America but most were probably acquired by gift or exchange. Her museum is thought to have survived until the early years of this century when it was housed at Hale Hall near Liverpool. The contents of Hale Hall were sold in 1924 and the Hall demolished, but although there is no record of the sale of natural history specimens Anna Blackburne's Museum has now disappeared (Wystrach, 1977). At this point it is interesting to note that a first cousin of Anna Blackburne was Ashton Lever of Alkrington Hall near Manchester. Like Anna he acquired a natural history museum but he was to become much more famous and moved to London. The Leverian Museum is recognised as one of the great early museums and contained valuable specimens collected, for example, on Cook's voyages of discovery. Eventually it was dispersed in 1806 (Whitehead, 1971) but much more is known about the subsequent history of individual specimens, some of which are now at the Merseyside County Museums in Liverpool. Despite the relationship between Ashton Lever and Anna Blackburne no evidence has been found so far that they exchanged specimens. Warrington was the centre of cultural life in the north west of England during the 1760s and 1770s and Anna Blackburne was very much connected with it. This centre of interest was due to the establishment of the Warrington Academy, a nonconformist college aspiring to rival the cultural standards of the established universities of Oxford and Cambridge. It attracted Joseph Priestley (1733—1804) as tutor in Languages and Belles Lettres in 1761, and in 1768 J. R. Forster was appointed lecturer in Modem Languages and Natural History.