The rare books held in the Australian Museum Research Library are often valued for their intrinsic qualities such as historical significance, aesthetic appeal, evidence of prior ownership and sheer rarity. But they also have a practical value as a resource for contemporary scientists.


How do modern scientists use our rare books?

Dane Trembath, Herpetology Collection Manager from the Australian Museum Research Institute (AMRI), is a frequent user of the Research Library. He notes that the growth in knowledge about reptiles since the 1980s has led to a proliferation of books on them and would like to see the Library holding a copy of every book published about Australian reptiles.

The rare books are especially important for identification and taxonomic purposes. All species require a type specimen, which is the foundation for naming and further study. But for some species, especially those first identified prior to the 1860s, there is sometimes no physical type specimen (holotype) in existence. The first illustration and description in a book may thus function as the iconotype for the species. The term iconotype is unofficial and not recognised in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, and yet there are many instances of the physical type specimen being lost and scientists relying on iconotypes.

An example of this is the Red-bellied Black Snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus). It was first described by George Shaw and drawn by James Sowerby in the Zoology of New Holland published in 1794. This very rare full-colour plate book was the first to be published on exclusively Australian fauna. George Shaw at the time was the Assistant Keeper of Natural History at the British Museum. He would have described the species from specimens brought from Australia to England, but the actual specimens he looked at are now presumed lost. Therefore, the illustration is considered the iconotype for the species. The detail in this original illustration is superb and shows distinct features of the Red-bellied Black Snake. The illustration conveys crucial information about the morphology of the species and all subsequent taxonomic study must refer to this original publication.


Illustration of the Red-bellied Black Snake
Illustration of the Red-bellied Black Snake, Coluber porphyriacus (now Pseudechis porphyriacus) in Zoology of New Holland Vol. 1 by George Shaw, figures by James Sowerby, 1794. This image is the iconotype for the species. Image: Australian Museum Research Library
© Australian Museum

Insights into species distribution

Some rare books also contain valuable information about species distribution. Gerard Krefft’s book The Snakes of Australia, 1869, documents the decline in numbers of the Broad-Headed Snake (Hoplocephalus bungaroides) which inhabited the rocky bushland around Sydney, noting that “they are, however, not so numerous as they were six or eight years ago, their haunts having been invaded by the builder and the gardener.” Sadly, their decline in numbers continued, driven by expanding settlement and a later appetite of Sydneysiders for bush rock, and today the Broad-Headed Snake is listed as endangered.


Illustration of heads of Australian snakes
Illustration of heads of Australian snakes, including the Broad-headed Snake at Figure 6, 6a and 6b of Plate 6 in The Snakes of Australia by Gerard Krefft, 1869. Krefft’s description of its habitat at the time is historically significant. Image: Australian Museum Research Library
© Australian Museum

… our chief business is with nomenclature and these old works contain the original descriptions of species to which the original names must always be attached. W. S. Macleay 1857

Accuracy and history of scientific names

Rare books can also provide valuable information on the accuracy and history of scientific name changes for species. Descriptions by natural scientists would often include all previous names and their authors. By consulting the original sources, correct spellings of original names can be identified, resolving errors or ambiguities that may have crept in over time. Questions around the date when a species was first officially named by Europeans may also be resolved. For instance, the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby (Petrogale pencillata) was first described by John Gray in a book published in 1827, but the species was first named in a drawing by John Lewin with a publication date of 1825. As a result, the date for the official species name is recorded as 1825.


Illustration of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby
Illustration of the Brush-tailed Rock-wallaby as drawn and published by John Lewin in 1825, included in The animal kingdom arranged in conformity with its organization by the Baron Cuvier with supplementary additions to each order by Edward Griffith and others, Vol. 3, 1827. The published date of the drawing sets the date for the naming of the species. Image: Australian Museum Research Library
© Australian Museum

Rare book use

When consulting rare books, users need to be aware of their fragility. Increasingly, digitisation is making rare books accessible while protecting them from the harm that physical handling may cause. The Biodiversity Heritage Library holds a treasure trove of natural history books from around the world which have been digitised by their holding institutions. It is an open access resource which is freely available to anyone with access to the internet. However, depending on the scanning process, the scan may be missing some information or not be as high quality as the original.

Before books were mass-produced, there were often different versions available; some might have been in black and white only, while others were coloured by hand. Authors or owners would sometimes make notes on the text in the margins. Modern researchers with access to a physical version of a rare book can compare it with the online version to find any significant differences.

All this means that there are times when access to the original copy of a rare book is essential. This was the case for Dr Mark Eldridge, AMRI Senior Principal Research Scientist, when considering the species status of the Wondiwoi tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus mayri).

Until recently, the animal was known only from a single specimen collected by Ernst Mayr in 1928 in a remote mountainous area of what is now West Papua. Having examined that specimen at the Tring Museum, Lord Rothschild and Guy Dollman described and named the species in 1933, providing a more detailed description and an illustration which was published in the Transactions of the Zoological Society of London in 1936. The species was not recorded again and considered to be possibly extinct until an individual was sighted and photographed by amateur botanist Michael Smith in 2018. The distinctive colouring of the animal, so carefully described in words, and beautifully portrayed by Frederick Frohawk in the 1936 monograph, was a definitive factor in its identification.

The species status of Dendrolagus mayri has been the subject of some debate. In 1933 Rothschild and Dollman considered it to be a distinct species based on its colouring but in 1936 revised the classification to include it under the races of Doria’s tree-kangaroo (Dendrolagus dorianus), where it has remained. However, the colouration which can be observed in the monograph illustration provided Dr Eldridge with information that is not readily available from photographs of the British-held specimen. This enabled him to compare its colouration to other similar species as a complement to DNA studies which suggest it is likely a separate species.


Illustration of Dendrolagus dorianus mayri
Illustration of Dendrolagus dorianus mayri, Plate 42 in Transactions of the Zoological Society of London Vol. 21 Part 6, 1936. Monograph by Lord Rothschild and Guy Dollman, illustrations by F.W.Frohawk. Image: Australian Museum Research Library
© Australian Museum

The Research Library continues to be an essential resource for present-day scientists. The Australian Museum is committed to the management and care of the rare books in the Library so that future researchers can also benefit from them.