Allan Octavian Hume
Robert Prys Jones explores the life of pioneering ornithologist and botanist, Allan Octavian Hume. From 2015.
Allan Octavian Hume donated the largest single collection of birds to the Natural History museum – around 80,000 items all collected during his time working for the East Indian Company and the British Raj in India.
He spent 20 years recording and documenting all the birds of India only for the manuscript to be destroyed just before his return to England. So profound was his frustration that Hume gave up ornithology altogether and turned his attention to botany, founding the South London Botanical Institute which encouraged the ordinary working person to make a contribution to science.
Curator of birds at the Natural History Museum Robert Prys Jones takes us into the Natural history Museum bird collection to explain why ornithologist and botanist Allan Octavian Hume is his Natural History Hero.
First heard on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 in October 2015.
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Robert Prys Jones
He also undertakes and supervises collections-based research aimed at developing techniques to improve the quality of data associated with museum specimens and, where necessary, to establish the reliability of existing specimen data.
Allan Octavian Hume
Broadcasts
Thu 1 Oct 2015 13:45Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4- Fri 2 Sep 2016 09:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
- Thu 7 Nov 2019 14:15Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra
- Fri 8 Nov 2019 02:15Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 Extra
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