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3 unusual facts about Indian Museum


Indian Museum

Out of one hundred seventy four items donated to the Museum till 1816, Nathaniel Wallich donated forty-two botanical specimens.

In February 2, 1814, Dr Nathaniel Wallich, a Dutch botanist, who had been captured in the siege of Serampore but later released, wrote a letter supporting the formation of a museum in Calcutta which he said should have two sections - an archaeological, ethnological and technical section and a geological and zoological one.

The Cock, the Dog and the Fox

There is a carving of "The Cock and the Cat" from the Bharhut stupa, dating from 150 BCE, which is now displayed in the Indian Museum in Calcutta.


Trimeresurus purpureomaculatus andersoni

The specific name, andersonii, is in honor of Scottish zoologist John Anderson, who worked in India 1864-1886 and was the first curator of the Indian Museum in Calcutta (now called Kolkata).


see also

F. H. Gravely

When working as Assistant Superintendent at the Indian Museum, Calcutta, Dr. Gravely conducted pioneering classification work on the family Passalidae.

Harry Lawton

He helped found the California Museum of Photography; the Malki Museum, which was the first American Indian Museum established at a California reservation; and the Malki Press, a non-profit organization responsible for publishing books about the Native Americans in California.