Uncovering the early history of the Georgia Museum of Natural History, 1785–1900

Abstract

Abstract Although it holds one of the largest university-based natural history collections in the United States, little has been known historically about the early development of the Georgia Museum of Natural History at the University of Georgia in Athens. Formally established in 1978, it was recognized as the state museum of natural history in 1999, but the findings presented here reveal that the origins of the museum’s collections date to much earlier: the early 1800s. Research conducted at the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Library tells the previously unknown story of the museum’s founding and growth during the nineteenth century. This paper details key aspects of the development of the collection, its changing location on campus, and the museum’s relationship with the university’s library and botanical gardens; it also identifies researchers in charge of the collections in the early and pivotal years of the institution.