Photo credit: Rudolph Ackermann / British Museum
William Bullock, who initially trained as a jeweler, first opened a museum in Liverpool in 1795, moving it to London fourteen years later. It was lauded for its “rare and valuable specimens,” including “upwards of 12,000 quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fish, insects, shells and fossils, collected from every part of the known world.” This hand-colored engraving depicts the interior of Bullock’s Museum, London, 1814.
