The John Bargrave Collection

was familiar to 'shipmasters, merchants, planters, physicians, surgeons, ministers of the gospel,' or anyone going abroad, whom the apothecary pressed into sending back 'hundreds of consignments of seeds, dried plants, insects, serpents, birds, fishes, and small animals' ... . All 'Curious Persons and Lovers of Natural History,' not only overseas but also at home, were asked to add to his collections (Riley, 92 quoting Stearns, 243 and 260).