The Imperial and Scientific Networks of William C. McIntosh (1838-1931), by Conall Treen
William Carmichael McIntosh, or M’Intosh, (1838-1931) is remembered both as a pioneer in marine zoology and for his contributions to fisheries science. [1] At St Andrews, McIntosh’s legacy stems from his time as Professor of Natural History between 1882 and 1917, during which he transformed the teaching of zoology at the University and developed its renown specialism in marine biology, as carried on by the Scottish Oceans Institute housed in the Gatty Marine Laboratory.
The Gatty, funded by Charles Henry Gatty for £3,000, was built by the University in 1896 as a successor to one of Britain’s first marine laboratories, located in St Andrews (est. 1884), McIntosh was brought in as the Gatty’s first Director, making St Andrews a leading institution in the research and education of marine biology and the fisheries sciences. Alongside these achievements, McIntosh also enhanced the teaching resources of the University by contributing a collection of microscope slides; lecture drawings many of which drawn by his sister Roberta McIntosh (1838-1869); and over 3,000 specimens from his personal collection.[2] These were donated to the University in 1917, along with McIntosh Hall for student accommodation.[3] As a member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of St Andrews and the first director of the Bell Pettigrew Musuem, founded in 1912, McIntosh’s name is frequently cited in the accession’s records for donations and exchanges that expanded the University’s collections.
Through his research, academic or personal connections, and his position as a lecturer and Director of the Bell Pettigrew Museum, William McIntosh developed his own global network that was entangled in Britain’s empire. Though McIntosh’s connection to British imperialism was not based in an active participation in colonialism nor as a financial beneficiary through familial connection, his affiliation with empire served to benefit the circulation of his scientific ideas, the acquisition of specimens for the museum, and in securing posts for his students in the colonial fisheries industry. Today, many of these imperial legacies are embedded within the University’s natural science collection.
William McIntosh was an avid collector of marine invertebrates, which constituted his own private collection as well as those he donated to develop the University of St Andrews’ natural history collection. McIntosh led his own collecting trips at the Outer Hebrides (1865 and 1872), Channel Islands (1868); and the Isle of Man (1879); but for exotic specimens he used familial, personal and professional connections. For example, this included his sister Agnes McIntosh (1858-1923) who donated several collections of birds from Australia and the Americas to the University.[4] Indian specimens were donated to his private collection by Dr Fraser Thompson (1806-1871), a friend of McIntosh’s during his time at the Murray Royal Hospital in Perthshire 1862-1882.[5] And Dr John Anderson, whom McIntosh met as a student at the University of Edinburgh and would later become curator of the Imperial Museum in Kolkata, who sent a Cassowary from the Zoological Garden of Alipore in exchange for marine invertebrates.[6]
Imperial surveys, however, were a major source of scientific specimens that aided the production of knowledge about the natural world. Although McIntosh did not participate on any significant imperial oceanographic surveys during the nineteenth or twentieth centuries, his expertise in marine annelids was used to identify and classify species across Britain’s Empire. Most notably, McIntosh’s involvement in the HMS Challenger expedition in 1872-1876, led by Sir Charles Wyville Thomson (1830-1882), included instructions on how scientific staff were to preserve specimens, and later, he inspected and published reports on the annelids collected from the expedition in 1885.[7] McIntosh also published research on other surveys and expeditions including the Hydrographic survey conducted by HMS Porcupine (1869); the Transit of Venus expedition (1874), and the British North Polar expedition (1875-76). Access to these specimens enabled McIntosh to become a leading expert in annelids and many of these valuable specimens were latergiven to the University of St Andrews.
Imperial and international exhibitions provided another network that McIntosh tapped into for building the St Andrews collection. McIntosh’s attendance at the International Fisheries Exhibition in 1883, brought him into contact with other experts in the fisheries industries and museum curators. Making close acquaintances with figures such as Dr Francis Talbot Day (1829-1889), the Inspector-General of Fisheries in India and Burma, and Dr Edward Pierson Ramsay (1842-1916), curator of the Australian Museum [see Figure 2], McIntosh was able to acquire exotic specimens through exchange or donation. These specimens not only represented Britain’s imperial power and resources but were also the products of colonial conquest and un-equal relationships with non-European and Indigenous peoples. Day and Ramsay had their own vast networks of hired collectors and donors. For example, several Australian fish from the Australian Museum were obtained by one of the museum’s salaried collectors, Alexander Morton (1854-1907), from the Burdekin and Mary Rivers in Queensland in 1882.[8] Tasked with collecting as many species from the district as possible for the 1883 exhibition, Morton exploited the cheap labour of Chinese fisherman. To acquire a rare specimen of Australian lungfish, Morton also relied on the expertise of Aboriginal peoples (presumably the Gubbi Gubbi peoples whose ancestral lands include the Mary River Basin).[9] The use of colonial collectors and colonised peoples were integral to the steady flow of specimens through scientific networks formed during the period. However, these histories are typically obscured within the University Museum, as both historic and current museum labels prioritise information about ‘gentlemen of science’ and donors who were closely connected to McIntosh.
McIntosh’s scientific and imperial connections furthered not only his own career but facilitated the advancement of his students and colleagues within the fisheries industries across the British empire. Noteworthy students or assistants to McIntosh include Cyril Crossland (1878-1943),[10] Edward Ernest Prince (1858-1936),[11] Ernest Williams Lyon Holt (1864-1922), [12] John Dow Fisher Gilchrist (1886-1926),[13] and Henry Charles Williamson (1871-1949).[14] McIntosh was able to either provide the credentials, experiences, or contacts necessary to obtain scientific positions in the emerging colonial fisheries industries. For example, James Ramsay Tosh (1872-1917), from Dundee, studied under McIntosh between 1889 and 1894, and later worked as an assistant professor in Zoology from 1905.[15] To assist James Ramsay Tosh’s advancement, McIntosh met in person with Sir Horace Tozer (1844-1916), the Queensland’s Agent-General in London to ensure that Tosh would secure a posting with the commission into Pearl-shell industry.[16] Through Tosh’s own experiences and contacts in Queensland and the Torres Straits, and likely aided by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders who were used as colonial labour within the industry, he sent back specimens of the Australian Lungfish and molluscs from Thursday Island in 1902.[17] All the other students or colleagues previously mentioned also donated specimens, illustrating the frequent transfer of knowledge and materials across Britain’s colonies.[18]
The connections explored in this piece only cover a fraction of William McIntosh extensive network of family, friends, colleagues, and students who were scattered within and outside of Britain’s empire. His collecting practices and efforts to develop his private collection and the University’s collection underscores how integral empire was in structuring scientific inquiry during the nineteenth century. Even though McIntosh did not financially benefit from empire, his imperial connections and network did benefit him personally either through his research, access to new specimens, or his reputation as a collector and marine biologist. Moreover, McIntosh’s connections contributed to the cyclical movement of ideas, specimens, and people between St Andrews and Britain’s colonies.
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Conall Treen completed his PhD in the School of History at St Andrews in 2024. His thesis is entitled ‘Specimens of Settler Colonialism: Natural History, Scottish University Collections and Colonial Legacies, 1838-1912’.
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References
[1] His most notable scientific works include William McIntosh, A Monograph of the British Marine Annelids, vol. 1. pt .1., (London, 1873), and William McIntosh, The Resources of the Sea: As Shown in the Scientific Experiments to test the effects of trawling and of the closure of certain areas off the Scottish shores, (London, 1899).
[2] For examples of these objects in the University’s collections see the following: Roberta’s illustrations and lecture drawings, ms36347/2/3-14; for McIntosh’s microscope slides see BPM/1/WCM; and for examples of McIntosh’s specimen collection see https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/collections/.
[3] William C. McIntosh, ‘A Brief History of the Chair of Natural History at St Andrews’, in University of St Andrews, University of St Andrews Five Hundredth Anniversary: Memorial volume of Scientific Papers contributed by members of the University, (Edinburgh, 1911), pp. 273-304. On McIntosh’s will to the University, see A. E. Gunther, The Life of William Carmichael M’Intosh, M.D., F.R.S., of St Andrews, 1838-1931, (Edinburgh, 1977), p. 172.
[4] These were acquired through family and friends such as Mary MacDougall of Tobago presumably daughter of Hon. Hugh MacDougall (1817-1866) of Scarborough, Tobago; Miss Beatrice Broughton (d. 1903) daughter of Captain Bryan Broughton (d. 1860) of the East India Company; and likely Margaret Mitchell Lorimer (nee McIntosh) (1831-1920) who emigrated to Australia in 1885. See St Andrews, University of St Andrews Library and Special Collections (USALSC) UY8529/1, Accessions Catalogue of the Literary and Philosophical Society of St Andrews, (1838-1917), pp. 100, 277, 287. For examples of extant specimens see ‘An Arrangement of five North American Bird specimens with glass dome and Plaque’ (BPM11185) from May MacDougall and a Rhea Egg (BPM1657) from Agnes McIntosh.
[5] See St Andrews, USALSC, UY8529/1, Accessions Catalogue, pp. 245-247. No extant specimens have yet been identified.
[6] Ibid, p. 173. See also, St Andrews, USALSC, Ms37113/3/6, A. E. Gunther, ‘Typescript of W. C. McIntosh’s autobiography’, p. 365. This is presumed to be BPM1745, but the specimen has no original label.
[7] William C. McIntosh, ‘Report on the Annelida Polychaeta collected by H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-1876’ in Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873–76. Zoology, vol. 12, pt. 24, (1885): i-xxxvi, 1-554, pl. 1-55, 1A-39A, & Annelida stations map. Many extant specimens can be found through the Museum’s website: https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/collections/.
[8] These specimens included a freshwater eel, Anguilla, (A.13639) and a species of Tarpon (A.13646), from Lilliesmere lagoon, Burdekin district; and a Greenback Mullet (A.13624) and Sicklefish (A.13610) from the Burdekin River. The Tarpon is the extant specimen of the Indo-Pacific Tarpon (BPM1517) still in the University’s collections. Specimen data courtesy of the Australian Museum, Sydney.
[9] A. Morton, ‘Report of the Committee on the Exploration of Caves and Rivers’, in Australian Museum, Report of the Trustees for 1882, (Sydney, 1883), pp. 15-16; W. Macleay, ‘Notes on a collection of fishes from the Burdekin and Mary rivers, Queensland’, in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, vol. 8, (1883), p. 211.
[10] Cyril Crossland was an English Zoologist who studied at the University of London and Cambridge, and later worked as an assistant to Professor McIntosh at St Andrews University between 1902 and 1904. Funded by the Carnegie Insitution he collected specimens in the Cape Verde Islands in 1904 and went on to investigate fauna and flora of the Sudan Coast and Red Sea. He then gained the post of Director of the Sudan Pearl Fishery between 1905 and 1922 and established a marine biological station at Ghardaqa on the Red Sea Coast in 1930. J. S. Gardiner, ‘Dr Cyril Crossland’, Nature, 151, (1943), pp. 162-163.
[11] Edward Ernest Prince (1858-1936), for example, studied at St Andrews (1881-1883, 1886-1887) and worked as a naturalist with McIntosh at the Marine Laboraotry in 1885, later on he secured a post as the Dominion Commissioner of Fisheries and Professor of Natural History at the University of Toronto. A. W. H. Needler, ‘Edward Ernest Prince’, The Canadian Encyclopaedia, <https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/edward-ernest-prince>
[12] Ernest William Lyon Holt had served was an officer and English marine biologist who had served in the Nile Campaign (1884-85) and in the Third Anglo-Burmese War (1886-1887) before working as an assistant to McIntosh from 1890 to 1891. He later secured a position as a Scientific officer in the Irish Fishery Department in 1900 and later became Chief Inspector of the Irish Fisheries from 1914 to 1922. Patricia M. Bryne, ‘Holt, Ernest Williams Lyon’, Dictionary of Irish Biography, <https://www.dib.ie/biography/holt-ernest-william-lyons-a4075>.
[13] Gilchrist was a Scottish marine biologist born in Fife, he was a student at the University between 1883 and 1885, later becoming a marine biologist in South Africa in 1895. Securing the position of Professor of Zoology at the University of Cape Town 1905-1926, and Director of Fisheries, he led a marine biological survey in 1897 and 1901. ‘Gilchrist, John Dow Fisher’, Biographical Register 1747-1897, <https://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/biographical-register/data/documents/1381807244>
[14] Henry Charles Williamson was a Scottish zoologist from Dundee who studied under McIntosh graduating with a BSc in 1895, before beginning working for the Fishery Board for Scotland. He later worked on the acclimatisation of herring to Australia and New Zealand and in 1925 worked for the Pacific Biological Station at Nanaimo in British Columbia. P. G. Moore, ‘The Contribution of Henry Chalres Williamson (1871-1949) to Scottish and Canadian Fisheries Research’, Archives of Natural History, vol. 44, no. 2., (2017), pp. 215-228.
[15] Professor McIntosh, ‘Obituary: James Ramsay Tosh’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. 39, (1918-1919), pp. 15-16.
[16] McIntosh Autobiography, p.314. ‘Arrival of Mr J. R. Tosh’, The Telegraph (Brisbane), 17 July 1900, p. 2.
[17] See St Andrews, USALSC, UY8525/2, Minutes of the Literary and Philosophical Society of St Andrews (1861-1917), pp. 309-130. For other specimens from Tosh see: UY8529/1, Accessions Catalogue, pp. 32, 274.
[18] UY8529/1, Accessions Catalogue, pp. 77, 86-87, 143, 262, 284. These include extant objects from an extinct Cape Verde giant skink from Crossland (BPM15121); a natterjack toad from Ireland given by Prince (BPM9093); a river lamprey from Holt (BPM9069); Cephalodiscus gilchristi from Gilchrist (BPM8509); and moa bones from Williamson (BPM50213).