John Frederick Calvert (1825-1897) was a notorious rogue of Victorian
England, particularly well known as a gold miner and collector. He had
strong associations with Australia where he lived for several years. He
amassed huge collections of minerals, shells, fossils, books,
antiquities and ethnographia (etc.) I am researching Calvert's life for
a proposed biography and am searching for anyone with a knowledge of the
present whereabouts of any of his collection material. His minerals and
shells were bought by an American dealer, Martin Ehrmann, in 1938 and
sold from his premises in New York. Calvert's ethnographia and library
were sold at auction in London in 1897. In 1858 he bought the business
of George Brettingham Sowerby 1st and continued it for some years as a
dealer in minerals, shells, and natural history collectables. So far I
have found minerals and shells in several US museums and some of his
ethnographical material survives in the Australian Museum. I would be
VERY interested to hear from anyone with knowledge of Calvert specimens
or archive material of any type.

Many thanks

Mick Cooper
Registrar, Nottingham Museums, UK
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Michael Cooper, Mineralist                 [log in to unmask]
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