Giving credit where credit is due: Or why searching for a needle in a haystack is worth it

Abstract

In early-modern Europe, it was often the case that the more credible the witness of an experiment, an observation or an event, the more credible the evidence reported (Shapin and Schaffer, Hayward). However, enjoying credibility during one’s lifetime did not necessarily translate into a posthumous scientific legacy; if a savant’s collections—which could well constitute the principal source of his/her credibility—were dispersed, his/her legacy might be in peril. A notable case is the Duchess of Portland, whose vast natural history collections were auctioned after her death, thereby obscuring her importance to science (Tobin). The preservation of Linnaeus’s and Sloane’s collections as constituted by their creators are notable exceptions to the usual practices of sale and dispersion. This paper looks at the case of VOC ship’s surgeon Laurent Garcin (1681? – 1751) F.R.S., who attained credibility in his lifetime, only to fade from the record posthumously. I argue that this is largely attributable to a common and scientifically justified practice: the systematic distribution of Garcin’s herbarium specimens in the general collection of the Geneva Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques. In the absence of the standardized labels used today, Garcin’s specimens are rendered recognizable only by the red wax with which he secured them to the paper. Retrieving specimens once dispersed is nothing short of searching for a needle in a haystack; yet the endeavor is an important one for the history of science.