Overcoming Obstacles: The Triple Mobilization of the Comisión Científica del Pacífico

Abstract

This article describes from a constructivist perspective a Natural History expedition put together by the Spanish government and navy to visit territories in the Pacific in the 1860s. Right from the start the expedition ran into problems and barely made it back. However, it managed to compile an admiringly large assortment of specimens: extensive collections of shells, mammals, skulls, and photographs. The expedition was rooted in colonialism. Patrons and organizers of the expedition sought to recreate in Spain discourses and practices then dominant in France, particularly the colonial agenda of the Société Impériale Zoologique d'Acclimatation. The collection assembled by the Comisión Científica del Pacífico had a life of its own. Years after the expedition folded, the collection kept on circulating and inspiring local and foreign scientists to identify new species and draw lessons from anthropology to history. The study of this collection was always discontinuous, a fact that proves the guadianización of science in Spain. The collection has been revived after a number of serendipitous discoveries in various Spanish archives, particularly caches of old photographs. Presently, the website www.pacifico.csic.es is expected to contribute to the circulation of the inscriptions generated by this scientific expedition.

The Neotropical land snails (Mollusca, Gastropoda) collected by the ‘Comisión Científica del Pacífico’

“…He was designated as President of the Commission in 1862, but his continuous confrontations with the commandant of the “ Triunfo ” lead to his resignation to Queen Isabel II in 1863; he left the CCP in Callao. Once the CCP had returned to Spain, he was entrusted along with Francisco de Paula Martínez in the preparation of the zoological material for a public exhibition in the Botanical Garden in Madrid in 1866 ( López-Ocón & Badía, 2003 ). After his death, his mollusc collection comprising 12,000 species and 40,000 specimens was sold to the MNCN ( Barreiro, 1992 : 437).…”

“…He wrote an analysis after the return of the Commission for the exhibition of the material at the Real Jardín Botánico in Madrid in 1866 ( Almagro, 1866 ). This exhibition, an explicit wish of the CCP’s political and scientific sponsors, brought the results of the CCP to the general public and was considered a success ( López-Ocón & Badía, 2003 ).…”

A snail in the long tail: a new Plekocheilus species collected by the ‘Comisión Científica del Pacífico’ (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Amphibulimidae)

“… López-Ocón and Badía (2003) have discussed the political-historical context of this expedition and have described the up’s and down’s in the study of the collected material. Although description of new species that have remained unnoticed for more than a century remains a rare event (but see e.g., Breure 2011 : 44–45), it highlights the need for revisions of museum collections by specialists, and especially the historical parts of these.…”

From Lake Nyassa to Philadelphia: a geography of the Zambesi Expedition, 1858–64

“…This demonstrates that Lea's expertise was widely acknowledged in the early 1860s and he was receiving specimens of this family from government-sponsored expeditions worldwide. 75 Described, named and published in Lea's articles, the mussels were then fully incorporated into Western scientific knowledge. They had been moved from the farthest empirical and geographical peripheries into the metropolitan knowledge system epitomized by London's scientific institutions.…”