In the summer of 1869, the German-Austrian geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter went on a trip from Istanbul to Belgrad to conduct geological exploration and prepare a map that would facilitate the expansion of the Ottoman railway network in the Balkans. Given his need to obtain more information about the mining conditions in this underresearched region, he attended one of the meetings of a council formed by the Mining and Metallurgy Section of the Ottoman Ministry of Public Works in Istanbul. 1 His expectations were however dashed since he could find neither mine maps nor collections of any kind despite attending the meeting. The only two collections of mineralogical or geological content that he was able to find in Istanbul were "the collection of Devonian fossils and igneous rocks of the Bosporus," which was supervised by Dr. Carl Eduard Hammerschmidt (1800-1874), known also as Abdullah Bey, who was an Austrian mineralogist, entomologist, and physician in the Imperial School of Medicine, and "an excellently equipped mineralogical and geological school collection" housed in Robert College at Bebek and undertaken by John Alsop Paine , a Presbyterian minister and professor of natural sciences (Hochstetter 1870: 367). 2 This article focuses on the latter, Robert College's scientific collections composed of geological, zoological, and botanical specimens, which later became a professional museum as the collections grew through the exchange, donation, and purchase of materials and specimens with contributions from both scientific and non-scientific actors. 3 While the first part in the article presents a brief history of the rise of the Objects of Nature and Scientific Knowledge on the Move: The Robert College Na...