Edward Booth - Victorian Gentleman Collector
Much of the work of Pratt & Sons of Brighton can be seen in the quirky and unforgettable Victorian Booth Museum Brighton created by Edward Booth that opened in 1874. It was the original setting for the Victorian diorama style which other museums later copied. Download original catalogue directly from this page (copyright free, courtesy of The Internet Archive).
Edward Booth (1840-1890), it’s creator and benefactor, was a high profile Victorian gentlemen collector commissioned the Pratt brothers, amongst others, to create the original displays of cases of birds for the museum. The Booth Museum was built in the grounds of Bleak House, the name of Booth’s house on Dyke Road.
Edward Booth was a Victorian Gentleman Collector who donated his natural history collection to The Booth Museum in Brighton in 1874
Amongst the victorian taxidermists who supplied the museum were T.E. Gunn, George Saville, Pratt & Sons of Brighton, Brazenore of Brighton and Swaysland of Brighton.
Edward Booth was a gentleman of private means, and Cambridge educated, although he was sent down before he could finish his studies. The birds in the Booth Museum were almost all shot by Edward Booth himself before the date of 1876 after which he started collecting exotic species from around the world. His initial goal was to exhibit every species of British Bird, although he did not achieve that, but he collected so much stuff that he was compelled to build the museum to house it all.
There are also now 23,000 species of butterflies and moths and the mind boggles trying to imagine how they were all caught and displayed (reminds me of Rothschild of Tring).
Edward Booth created his own catalogue of the contents of his museum. After his death he fully bequeathed the museum and its contents to the town of Brighton, although the museum wasn’t open to the public before his death; it was just a personal vanity project for Booth.
The birds of the museum included a wide range of specimens that were set up in displayed tableaux as studies of their natural habitats and behaviours, and included Booth’s written observations on the locations of the Golden Eagle, White Tailed Eagle, Swallows and Swifts, Plovers, Peewits, Martins, Warblers, Merlins, Kestrels, Owls and the like.
The Interior of the Victorian Booth Museum in Brighton circa 1876
Edward Booth
Download original catalogue here
The original catalogue of the Booth Museum Brighton which details the Booth collection is copyright free and available to download here at The Velvet Drawing Room site (courtesy of The Internet Archive).
About The Curator
Dorne Lovegrove is a curator, researcher, and digital publisher specialising in the heritage of Victorian taxidermy.
Her work sits at the intersection of natural history, Victorian culture, and the richly textured interiors of the 19th century.
Through narrative scholarship, Dorne brings forgotten and unknown stories to light and invites readers into a world where history, artistry, and quiet drama converge.
