Old Natural History Cabinet
Original title: Gabinete de Historia Natural Antigo
A natural history cabinet founded in 1850 in the Palácio de São Lourenço, Funchal, on the initiative of civil governor José Silvestre Ribeiro, to collect the natural products and curiosities of Madeira and Porto Santo. It was always poorly equipped, and its collections were lost or stolen after he left the island in 1852.
This establishment, intended to collect the most notable natural products and curiosities of the islands of Madeira and Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’), began to be organised on 4 April 1850. Several rooms of the São Lourenço Palace (‘St Lawrence’) were set aside to house it.
The natural history cabinet was one of the many improvements owed to the initiative and energetic will of Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) José Silvestre Ribeiro when he was civil governor of the District. It was always very poorly equipped, and the collections it came to hold were all lost or stolen after that governor left the island in 1852.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 02Place
Places mentioned · 03
- Porto Santo
One of the islands whose natural products the cabinet was meant to collect.
An island of the archipelago, settled alongside Madeira and forming one of the three captaincies. It has always constituted a single parish, dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Piedade, whose church was repeatedly sacked. The Elucidário records the Moorish pirate raid of 1617, its own Misericórdia and a rainwater channel built on this drought-prone island.
- São Lourenço Palace
Funchal. Some of its rooms were set aside to house the natural history cabinet.
The Palácio de São Lourenço, the governors' palace-fortress in Funchal, was the scene of beija-mão ceremonies, receptions, balls and dinners, and of the 1861 exhibition. The Elucidário records a great fire there in 1699, a natural history museum in 1850, and an attempt by soldiers to enter it in 1829. The Teatro Grande stood opposite it.
People
People mentioned · 01- José Silvestre Ribeiro1807–1891
Civil governor of the Funchal district who founded the natural history cabinet in 1850 among many other improvements, and left Madeira in 1852.