The American Henry Augustus Ward (1834-1906) was the most prominent natural history dealer in the United States, even when he went bankrupt in 1874 and 1884, the mass of material offered by Ward’s Natural Science Establishment surpassed the holdings of Fred L. Jencks of Providence, A. E. Foote of Philadelphia, J. M. Southwick of Providence/Boston Wallace and Hollingsworth of New York, dealers in minerals, shells, fossils, skins, and a variety of natural history specimens throughout the world. Among other, he offered mounted skeletons of South American fossil mammals, such as the mighty GLYPTODON and MEGATHERIUM. Ward’s models for these mammals changed along the years, the first were based on the Royal College of Surgeons specimens, the later ones, on the specimen from Paris.
Establishments of this kind proliferated in London, Paris, Hamburg and many other European cities. Paris had, among other, the Comptoir Central d’Histoire Naturelles and the Maison Émile Deyrolle, which runs until very recently. The oldest establishment of this kind still in business is located in Bonn: Dr. F. Krantz, Rheinisches Mineralien-Kontor, founded in 1833 and specialized in minerals and geological materials. Universal and national exposition showcased their merchandise but most important, their modes of mounting and exhibition: similar things can be found from Australia to La Plata, either as a result of this global commerce of as a result of the local imitation of the depictions published in their catalogs and publications.

References:
- Sally Gregory Kohlstedt (1980): Henry A. Ward: the Merchant Naturalist and American Museum Development, in: Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History (now the Archives of Natural History) 9, 647-661.
- José Antonio Pérez Gollán (1995): Mr. Ward en Buenos Aires, in: Ciencia Hoy, Vol. 5, Nº. 28, 52-58.
- Susan Sheets-Pyendon 1985: Henry Augustus Ward And Museum Development in the Hinterland, in: University of Rochester library bulletin 38, 38–59.
- The Ward Project: <https://wardproject.org/>, accessed March 22, 2025.

The American Henry Augustus Ward (1834-1906) was the most prominent natural history dealer in the United States, even when he went bankrupt in 1874 and 1884, the mass of material offered by Ward’s Natural Science Establishment surpassed the holdings of Fred L. Jencks of Providence, A. E. Foote of Philadelphia, J. M. Southwick of Providence/Boston Wallace and Hollingsworth of New York, dealers in minerals, shells, fossils, skins, and a variety of natural history specimens throughout the world.

Turtle skeleton

cabinet of curiosities, turtle, Museo de La Plata, trade in collections, 19th century

Project: SciCoMove - Scientific Collections on the Move: Provincial Museums, Archives and Collecting Practices (1800-1950).
Funding: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101007579.
The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the SciCoMove consortium and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union.

„Turtle Skeleton of the Museo de La Plata Similar to the one Shown in Ward’s Natural Science Establishment ,” SciCoMove, zuletzt aufgerufen am 11. Mai 2025, https://ausstellungen.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/scicomove/items/show/48.