The Natuurkundige Commissie in the Netherlands Indies was one ofthe largest state-sponsored colonial collecting endeavours of theearly nineteenth-century world. As a result, the newly founded ’s RijksMuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (present-day Naturalis BiodiversityCenter in Leiden) was filled with countless specimens. The Commissieconsisted of thirty naturalists and was active for thirty years(1820–1850). This book shows how its stakeholders had differentobjectives that evolved over time: what started as a collection vehicleto showcase the ‘glory’ of the Dutch colonial empire became a usefulsurveying tool for the Indies government.

This volume is the first detailed study of the Commissie inEnglish. It tells the story of naturalists from the Netherlands, France,and German-speaking lands and of countless indigenous people workingalongside the Commissie as knowledge brokers, hunters, preparators, andporters. This long overlooked indigenous contribution to Europeanknowledge was both substantial and fundamental.