The art of classification: Brian Houghton Hodgson and the “Zoology of Nipal” (Patron's review)

Abstract

Brian Houghton Hodgson's “Zoology of Nipal” is one of the great “what ifs” of nineteenth-century natural history. The product of over 20 years' research, incorporating thousands of pages of notes and drawings that detailed many species new to European science, it was intended to be the standard work on Himalayan animals. However, it was never published, and Hodgson gave up his zoological studies after 1859. Based on research at the Zoological Society of London, which holds eight albums of Hodgson's drawings, this paper explores and analyses the scientific and institutional factors that shaped Hodgson's work on Himalayan fauna. It sets Hodgson in the context of colonial natural history, demonstrating that he was able to keep up-to-date with the fierce debates that transformed zoology in London's scientific institutions. In particular, Hodgson's admiration for the Quinarian ideas of William Sharp Macleay, Nicholas Aylward Vigors and William Swainson is identified as key to his own attempts to classify Himalayan animals, supported by an analysis of the form and content of his collections of zoological illustrations. As well as seeking to broaden our understanding of Hodgson himself, this review seeks to demonstrate the potential of zoological imagery to throw a new light on pre-Darwinian natural history, a complex field with considerable scope for further study.