William Bullock (collector)

William Bullock
Bullock by Jean-Henri Marlet
Bornc. 1773
England, Great Britain
Died7 March 1849 (aged c. 76)
London, England, British Empire
Scientific career
FieldsNaturalist, antiquarian

William Bullock (c. 1773 – 7 March 1849) was an English traveller, natural history specimen collector, showman, and antiquarian. He established what was called Bullock's Museum, first in Liverpool which he then moved to London. He established Egyptian Hall where he held popular exhibitions. His collections were publicly auctioned in 1819. A few animal species were described on the basis of specimens from his collection. These include the birds Merops bulocki and Bullock's oriole Icterus bullockii (named after him and his namesake son).[1]

Life

Little is known of Bullock's early life. He came from a family that held travelling shows of waxworks.[2] He had at least three brothers of whom George was particularly close. George was a sculptor, cabinetmaker and mason who died in 1818 while working on furnishing the home of Sir Water Scott. William began as a goldsmith and jeweller in Birmingham. From 1790s to 1891 he ran a home museum in Sheffield. By 1795, Bullock was in Liverpool, where he founded a Museum of Natural Curiosities at 24 Lord Street. While still trading as a jeweller and goldsmith, in 1801, he published a descriptive catalogue (Companion to Bullock's Museum) of the works of art, armoury, objects of natural history, and other curiosities in the collection, some of which had been brought back by members of James Cook's expeditions.[3] He was supplying animals both live and preserved to Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby. In 1809, Bullock moved to London and the collection, housed first at 22 Piccadilly and in 1812 in the newly built Piccadilly Egyptian Hall, proved extremely popular. In 1816 his financial situation improved when he purchased Napoleon's carriage which was captured in Waterloo. He exhibited it in the hall along with paintings and materials which became a major attraction earning him £35000. With this he was able to create a new Roman Gallery.[2][4] His collections, which included over 32,000 items, were disposed of by auction in 1819.[5] Some of these specimens were acquired and are held at the Royal Scottish Museum.[6]

In 1810, Bullock figured briefly in a law case concerning Sarah Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman brought to England for purposes of exhibition as the "Hottentot Venus". Bullock had been approached by Alexander Dunlop, the army surgeon responsible for Baartman's arrival in England, but had declined to be involved in the proposed show.[7]

In 1821 Bullock and his namesake son collected specimens from northern Scandinavia, hiring also a Saami family and their reindeer which they exhibited in 1822 at the Egyptian hall. It had a panoramic backdrop painted and a with two huts made of reindeer skins. The reindeer were held in a pen and the public could touch them.[8]

In 1822, Bullock went to Mexico where he became involved in silver mine speculation. He brought back many artefacts and specimens which formed a new exhibition in the Egyptian Hall. On his return from Mexico he wrote Six months in Mexico (1824). He made a second visit to Mexico along with his son William,[9] and to the United States in 1827.[6][10] Bullock bought land on the bank of the Ohio River from Thomas D. Carneal where he proposed to build a utopian community named Hygeia (a Greek word meaning health) laid out by John Buonarotti Papworth. The speculation was not a success, although some people, including Frances Trollope, took part; Bullock sold the land to Israel Ludlow, Jr. in 1846.[11]

Bullock was back in London by 1843 and died there at 14 Halsey Terrace, Chelsea. He was buried in a now lost vault at St Mary's Church, Chelsea, on 16 March 1849.[12] Bullock's first wife died in 1801 and they had a son William and daughter Anne Elizabeth (born 1800).[13]

Bullock was elected a fellow of the Linnean in 1810 despite opposition from William E. Leach who considered him more of a showman than a naturalist.[14] He also became a fellow of the Horticultural, Geological, Wernerian, and other learned societies, and published several pamphlets on natural history.[12]

Works

References

  1. ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 80.
  2. ^ a b Pearce, Susan (2008). "William Bullock. Collections and exhibitions at the Egyptian Hall, London, 1816-25". Journal of the History of Collections. 20 (1): 17–35. doi:10.1093/jhc/fhm031.
  3. ^ Kaeppler, Adrienne L. (1974). "Cook Voyage Provenance of the 'Artificial Curiosities' of Bullock's Museum". Man. 9 (1): 68–92. doi:10.2307/2800037. ISSN 0025-1496.
  4. ^ Levy, Martin (1997). "The Roman Gallery at the Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, and Some Tripods by William Bullock and George Bullock". Furniture History. 33: 229–239. ISSN 0016-3058.
  5. ^ Sweet, Jessie M. (1970). "William Bullock's collection and the university of Edinburgh, 1819". Annals of Science. 26 (1): 23–32. doi:10.1080/00033797000203387. ISSN 0003-3790.
  6. ^ a b Macdonell 1886.
  7. ^ The Times, 26 November 1810, p. 3
  8. ^ Pearce, Susan (2020). "From Classification to Recreated 'Reality': William Bullock's Exhibitions of Human and Natural History". Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies. 43 (4): 507–524. doi:10.1111/1754-0208.12730. ISSN 1754-0194.
  9. ^ Swainson, William (1827). "LXXII. A synopsis of the birds discovered in Mexico by W. Bullock, F.L.S. and H.S., and Mr. William Bullock, jun". The Philosophical Magazine. 1 (5): 364–369. doi:10.1080/14786442708674330. ISSN 1941-5850.
  10. ^ Costeloe, Michael P. (2006). "William Bullock and the Mexican Connection". Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos. 22 (2): 275–309. doi:10.1525/msem.2006.22.2.275. ISSN 0742-9797.
  11. ^ Tate, Robert S. (1955). "The Grass Roots of Kenton County". The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 53 (183): 138–149. ISSN 0023-0243. JSTOR 23374185.
  12. ^ a b Baigent 2004.
  13. ^ "[Obituary]". Billinge's Liverpool Advertiser. 7 December 1801. p. 3.
  14. ^ Alexander, Edward P. (1985). "William Bullock: Little-Remembered Museologist and Showman". Curator: The Museum Journal. 28 (2): 117–147. doi:10.1111/j.2151-6952.1985.tb01633.x.

Further reading

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