Provenance, Science & Profit: Natural History Museums and the Global Network of the Umlauff Natural History Trading Houses

Natural history traders have been crucial, yet under-researched contributors to museum collections. The Hamburg-based J.F.G. Umlauff family company, founded in the mid-19 th century, exemplifies this significance. For nearly 100 years, members of the Umlauff family supplied zoological and ethnographic specimens to museums all over the world. During a two-day workshop, an interdisciplinary group of museum practitioners, archivists, as well as scholars from the fields of History and Cultural Studies, mapped Umlauff's impact on natural history collections, particularly in German museums, by reconstructing their global trading networks. Research questions include identifying beneficiary institutions nationally and internationally and tracing interdisciplinary procurement practices, especially for collections from colonial contexts.

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Publication Details

Journal
Research Ideas and Outcomes
Published
2026-02-05
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.12.e181653
Primary Topic
History of Science and Natural History
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Provenance, Science & Profit: Natural History Museums and the Global Network of the Umlauff Natural History Trading Houses

Richard Tsogang Fossi, Jana Reimer, Charlotte Marlene Hoes, Marie Muschalek et al.
Research Ideas and Outcomes
History of Science and Natural History
article

Provenance, Science & Profit: Natural History Museums and the Global Network of the Umlauff Natural History Trading Houses

Richard Tsogang Fossi, Jana Reimer, Charlotte Marlene Hoes, Marie Muschalek, André Koch, Rainer F. Buschmann, Sabine von Mering, Hilke Thode‐Arora, Katja Kaiser, Bernhard Wörrle, Britta Lange, Annekathrin Krieger, Callum Fisher, Simon Ville, Joël Zouna, Hannah Kressig, Eva Bischoff
article en

Abstract

Natural history traders have been crucial, yet under-researched contributors to museum collections. The Hamburg-based J.F.G. Umlauff family company, founded in the mid-19 th century, exemplifies this significance. For nearly 100 years, members of the Umlauff family supplied zoological and ethnographic specimens to museums all over the world. During a two-day workshop, an interdisciplinary group of museum practitioners, archivists, as well as scholars from the fields of History and Cultural Studies, mapped Umlauff's impact on natural history collections, particularly in German museums, by reconstructing their global trading networks. Research questions include identifying beneficiary institutions nationally and internationally and tracing interdisciplinary procurement practices, especially for collections from colonial contexts.

Research Ideas and OutcomesVol. 12
Museum für Naturkunde (DE), University of Basel (CH), California State University, Channel Islands (US), University of Wollongong (AU), Deutsches Museum (DE), Lower Saxony State Museum (DE), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (DE), Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (DE), Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (DE), Five Continents Museum (DE), Museum am Rothenbaum (DE), Technische Universität Berlin (DE), University of Göttingen (DE), Universität Trier (DE)
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Openalex Percentile: Top 72%
History of Science and Natural History
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