Axel W. Erikssons African Bird Collection at Vänersborg Museum
Citation
Öberg A (2023). Axel W. Erikssons African Bird Collection at Vänersborg Museum. Version 1.7. Vänersborgs Museum. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/z5l3wx accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-12-13.Description
Birds in Axel W. Eriksson collection was collected in South-Western Africa during 1867-1887. The birds are mainly collected by Axel W. Eriksson himself, with the exception of a few specimens collected by Charles John Andersson. The geographical range of the collection includes present-day Namibia, Angola, South Africa and Botswana. Eriksson's operations took place at the Omaruru trading station in central Namibia, which he established in 1869. From Omaruru, a large number of trade expeditions took place in the 1870s and 80s, a trade that mainly comprised of weapons, ivory, ostrich feathers and cattle. Most of the zoological collections were carried out during these trade expeditions. The collected material was stored in Omaruru in special magazines designed to withstand damage from e.g. insects before being transferred to Vänersborg's museum. Although birds dominate Eriksson's zoological collections, they also include bird eggs, mammals and insects. The collection presented in this dataset contains around 1000 birds. During the time of collection, Axel W Eriksson labeled each bird with its Latin name, the color of the bird's eyes, sex, location and date of collection. The extensive bird collection, of great importance for the founding and establishment of Vänersborg museum, was donated to the city of Vänersborg in 1883 by Axel Eriksson. It was mounted by the renowned taxidermist Gustav Kolthoff (1845-1913). Zoological collections from Eriksson have also been donated to the South African Museum in Cape Town, the British Museum of Natural History in London, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Gothenburg Museum of Natural History and the Universities of Lund and Uppsala.Additional info
The collection was inventoried by ethnologist Joris Komen from Namibia in 1991.Taxonomic Coverages
Aves.
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Avescommon name: Birds rank: class
Geographic Coverages
Specimens from South-Western Africa. The area include todays Namibia, Angola, South Africa and Botswana.
Bibliographic Citations
Contacts
Ann-Charlott Öbergoriginator
position: Curator
Kulturlagret - Vänersborgs museum
Vänersborg
SE
email: ann-charlott.oberg@vgregion.se
Ann-Charlott Öberg
metadata author
position: Curator
Kulturlagret - Vänersborgs museum
Vänersborg
SE
email: ann-charlott.oberg@vgregion.se
Ann-Charlott Öberg
administrative point of contact
position: Curator
Kulturlagret - Vänersborgs museum
Vänersborg
SE
email: ann-charlott.oberg@vgregion.se
Ann-Charlott Öberg
administrative point of contact
position: Curator
Kulturlagret - Vänersborgs museum
Vänersborg
SE
email: ann-charlott.oberg@vgregion.se
Veronika Johansson
administrative point of contact
position: Node Manager
Swedish Museum of Natural History
Stockholm
SE
email: veronika.johansson@nrm.se