Exhibition "In the Forests of Borneo"
Fieldwork
The forest, photograph from Margaret Brooke’s album (unpublished) 1897, Natural History Museum of Florence. Botanical Collections.
Beyond its adventurous or romantic elements, the journey of Beccari and Doria was driven by scientific objectives. Every aspect of life in the forest was organized pragmatically, and theirwork was meticulously planned to achieve the best possible results despite rather challenging environmental conditions.
The two researchers, and later Odoardo alone for an extended period, though very young, operated with full awareness of what was required to ensure that their surveys, measurements, and samples would meaningfully advance the knowledge of Borneo’s natural environment. They relied on a significant group of largely anonymous assistants—porters, hunters, and locals “recruited” among indigenous communities—but they primarily committed themselves to the practical activities of daily life.
Every day we went into the forest just a few steps behind the house, collecting everything we found interesting. We kept several hunters permanently on our behalf, and the natives brought to us every animal that was caught in the surrounding area. We took various trips to nearby places or a few days’ journey from Sarawak; we began to learn Malay, the predominant language, and made the acquaintance of the Dayaks, considered the true aborigines. (...) There I spent several months, the most beautiful of my life, in the greatest solitude in the midst of a primeval forest, alternating between collecting and describing, and drawing the bizarre forms of that magnificent vegetation.
Odoardo Beccari, 1868
The main challenges for the naturalist-collector are logistics—deciding how and when to collect, transport, preserve and eventually send to Italy the enormous quantity of specimens of all kinds gathered in such a vast land, almost devoid of roads—and the urgency of stabilizing the samples so that mold, insects, and climatic factors do not destroy them within a few hours. Whatever strategies they employed to overcome these problems, and despite occasional setbacks, the two almost always managed to overcome these difficulties with remarkable skill, taking justifiable pride in their accomplishments.
Today, this strict yet detached account of the “collection” and appropriation of natural objects may seem anachronistic;- Indeed, research now tends to adopt more sustainable practices that respect both the resources and the environment. Nevertheless, scientific knowledge—even when aimed at conservation—then as now depends on direct observation and on the careful, prolonged study of “natural objects”. Not always, and not for all of the objectives, there is enough time or the proper tools to ,exhaustively examine them in the field…
In the evening, I found Doria not in the best of health, but nonetheless satisfied with the way he had spent his time. A fine series of animal skins, and several jars filled with reptiles, insects, etc., preserved in alcohol, bore witness to his activity.
Odoardo Beccari, 1902