Curators' Perspectives

Co-curator, researching James Trail and John McPherson

I am a historian of Latin America, interested in museums and the history of science. Since coming to Aberdeen in 2012, I have been researching objects and texts related to Latin America in our museum collections and in the library’s Special Collections. There’s a real intellectual satisfaction in re-discovering objects’ biographies, and making the link from Aberdeenshire to the Americas. Trail’s unpublished diaries, held in Special Collections, pointed me towards his donations in the museum’s collections. Work in the museum collections itself brought John McPherson to my attention, which is particularly exciting because twentieth-century Mexico is one of my research areas. The extent of McPherson’s donations, plus the fact that he remained in Mexico even during the upheaval of the Revolution, are intriguing. I will be travelling to Mexico this summer, to investigate McPherson’s time there, and will continue to investigate Trail’s life after the Amazon, in Aberdeen.

Co-curator, researching James and Isabella Duncan

I am a social anthropologist specialising in the Andes region and have worked in Aberdeen since 2009. My research interests include human-animal relations and mining, so during my fieldwork in Bolivia I have walked the mountains with llama herders and gone underground with miners. Llamas and mines go together since the animals were formerly used to transport minerals. The province where I did my fieldwork was important for silver mining in previous centuries, so I have a longstanding interest in mining history. James Duncan’s story and his photographs resonated with my existing interests and brought to light unexpected connections between North East Scotland and Bolivia. It has been exciting to work with the material since it dates from a period of mining history still not well researched: the transition from silver to tin at the turn of the twentieth century. The research is ongoing and I am currently making plans to do archival work in Bolivia on Duncan’s mining company. 

Trail’s mata mata turtle, which Melia re-discovered in the Zoology Museum

Co-curators, researching John Lindsay and other collectors

When we started planning this exhibition with the academic co-curators, we knew that the museum had extensive Latin American collections but there was a shortage of information about them. The name ‘J. W. Lindsay' kept coming up as a donor associated with material from Paraguay. We had no more information about this person, although he had collected over 60 objects. Further research uncovered a wealth of publications by Lindsay in medical journals and missionary tracts, allowing us to recreate his biography. Using the 1875 inventory, we were also able to identify some specimens that James Trail had left to the museum, which were previously thought to be missing. The finding of the mata mata turtle, collected as a live specimen during Trail’s Amazon voyage, was a highlight. Researching this exhibition gave the opportunity to look deeper into the archives and stores and recover many lost stories.