Gerard Krefft

Johann Ludwig (Louis) Gerard Krefft (17 February 1830 – 18 February 1881), was an Australian artist, draughtsman, scientist, and natural historian who served as the curator of the Australian Museum for 13 years (1861–1874). He was one of Australia's first and most influential zoologists and palaeontologists. "Some of [Krefft's] observations on animals have not been surpassed and can no longer be equalled because of the spread of settlement." "Mr. Krefft was probably the first man who thoroughly studied the reptiles of Australia." He is also noted as an ichthyologist for his scientific description of the Queensland lungfish (now recognized as a classic example of Darwin's "living fossils"); and, in addition to his numerous scientific papers and his extensive series of weekly newspaper articles on natural history, his publications include The Snakes of Australia (1869), Guide to the Australian Fossil Remains in the Australian Museum (1870f), The Mammals of Australia (1871f), On Australian Entozoa (1872a), and Catalogue of the Minerals and Rocks in the Australian Museum (1873a).

Krefft was one of the very few Australian scientists in the 1860s and 1870s to support Darwin's position on the origin of species by means of natural selection. According to Macdonald, et al. (2007), he was one of the first to warn of the devastating effects of the invasive species (sheep, cats, etc.) on native species. Also, along with several significant others such as Charles Darwin, during his 1836 visit to the Blue Mountains, Edward Wilson, the proprietor of the Melbourne Argus, and George Bennett, one of the trustees of the Australian Museum  Krefft expressed considerable concern in relation to the effects of the expanding European settlement upon the indigenous population. "Gerard Krefft is a significant figure in the history of nineteenth century Australian science. He is celebrated not only for his zoological work but as a man who was prepared to challenge individuals on points of scientific fact regardless of their position in Sydney society or metropolitan science. He is also remembered as one who could be abrasive and incautious in delicate political situations and a man whose career and life ultimately ended in tragedy. The dramatic end of Krefft's career in 1874 where he was stripped of his position as Australian Museum curator, physically removed from the Museum and his character assassinated often overshadows his early career and his development as a scientist."

Family
Krefft was born on 17 February 1830 in the Duchy of Brunswick (now part of Germany), the son of William Krefft, a confectioner, and his wife Johanna (née Bischhoff).

Education
He was educated at St Martin's College in Braunschweig (i.e., Martino-Katharineum Braunschweig) from 1834 to 1845. As a youth, he was interested in art, especially painting animals, and wanted to go on to a formal study of painting; however, after his schooling, his family found employment for him at a mercantile firm in Halberstadt.

Marriage
He married Annie McPhail (1847–1926), later (1893) Mrs. Robert Macintosh, on 6 February 1869. According to Nancarrow (2007, p. 5), Annie McPhail was the Australian-born daughter of Scottish bounty immigrants, who had arrived in Australia in 1837 to work for George Bowman, and she was five months pregnant at the time of her marriage to Krefft.

They had four children, only two of whom survived their infancy: Rudolph Gerard Krefft (1869–1951),  and Herman Gerard Krefft (1879–1911). A fifth child, an unnamed stillborn daughter, was delivered on 2 July 1874.

German heritage
As a German-speaker, Krefft belonged to the largest non-English-speaking group in Australia in the 1800s; and, as such, Krefft was one of a number of influential German-speaking scientists who, according to Barrett, et al. (2018, p. 2) brought their "epistemic traditions" to Australia, and not only became "deeply entangled with the Australian colonial project", but also were "intricately involved in imagining, knowing and shaping colonial Australia".

Moreover, and in relation to Krefft (the scientist) and his wider disciplinary allegiances and his limited deference to the supposed authority of the established British scientific elite, unlike the Anglo-Australian trustees of the Australian Museum and "like many [of the German] scientists working in Australia, England was never "home" for Krefft as it was for the majority of colonists" and, typically, England did not "provid[e] the sole intellectual influence for [Krefft's] investigations".

"Natural history"
Given Vallances' tripartite division (1978) of nineteenth century Australian science i.e., the proto-scientific period (1788–1839), the pioneer-scientific period (1840–1874), and the classic science period (1875-)  Krefft's influential Australian career was firmly centred in the pioneer-scientific period. Consequently, and in order to avoid the prochronistic mistake of viewing the past through the eyes of the present, and given, it is important to note that the widely used "umbrella" terms of natural history and natural historian (or naturalist) were generally understood (and variously applied) in the mid-1800s to identify the collective endeavours of an extremely wide range of diverse enterprises that are, now, separately identified as, at least, the disciplines of anthropology, astronomy, biology, botany, ecology, entomology, ethnology, geology, herpetology, ichthyology, mammalogy, mineralogy, mycology, ornithology, palaeontology, and zoology.
 * that the Australian Museum (established in 1827) is the fifth oldest museum of natural history in the world,
 * the need to identify the Australian Museum's orientation during Krefft's tenure,
 * the need to identify Krefft's particular domains of interest (and influence) as a scientist,
 * the on-going significance of Krefft's (more than 180) "Natural History" articles published in the Sydney Mail from March 1871 to June 1875, and
 * that 19th. century natural history was concerned with the study of nature; and, from this, it was directly involved with the evidence obtained from the direct observation of nature (however ambiguously "nature" might be described),
 * that, in 1822 (pp. iii-iv) Friedrich Mohs drew attention to the inappropriateness of the label natural history, on the grounds that it "does not express the essential properties of the science to which it is applied", and
 * that, in 1837, prompted by Mohs' remarks, William Whewell, the mineralogist, scholar and, later, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge (from 1841 to 1866), who, in his time, was "recognized as the leading authority on new [terminological] coinages" as part of his ground-breaking work in relation to the issues of terminology and classification within the sciences, and extending the meaning of the (recently introduced) English term palæontology  suggested the alternative notion of "palætiological sciences" to denote "those researches in which the object is, to ascend from the present state of things to a more ancient condition, from which the present is derived by intelligible causes" (Whewell, 1837, p. 481).

The "Darwinian doctrine" and the consequent "Darwinian controversy"
"In 1859 the English naturalist Charles Darwin … published his controversial views on the origin of species. In a landmark book entitled On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, he argued against the conventional notion that God had supernaturally created the original types of plants and animals [viz., 'the immutability of species'] and in favor of the idea that they had evolved naturally over long periods of time primarily, though not exclusively, by means of random variation and natural selection." Krefft's professional career, his museum curatorship, his interactions with the Anglo-Australian trustees of the Australian Museum, and his professional endeavours to disseminate the latest scientific understandings to the people of New South Wales in the mid-1800s coincided with an entirely new awareness of the world, derived from the abundance of ongoing scientific advances, technological innovations, geological discoveries, and colonial explorations, and the emerging rational skepticism about the objective veracity of specific Christian scriptures along with the concomitant challenges to the heretofore accepted theology, tenets of faith, and established religious practices.

Enlightenment challenges to Biblical Authority
Darwin's challenge to the religious conservatives' view that species were immutable coexisted with an entirely different (and unassociated) set of controversies involving the challenges to Biblical authority that came from many directions; not only in relation to the theological/doctrinal issues of the Bible's inerrancy, infallibility, and literalism (rather than allegorism), and not only in relation to its increasingly-demonstrated scientific, historical, geographical, and chronological inaccuracies, and the consequent controversies about the age of the Earth, but, also, in relation to the precise accuracy of the translations-of-the-original presented in particular versions, as well as the separate question of how the Bible itself had developed and which parts (when written, and by whom) of which particular texts (and in what order) should be included in the Bible itself.

One of the most significant and provocative challenges to the prevailing status quo came with the (October 1862) publication of the first (and most controversial) instalment The Pentateuch Examined as an Historical Narrative  of the mathematician, Biblical scholar, and Bishop of Natal, John Colenso’s seven-part treatise, The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua Critically Examined (1862–1879). Colenso, from his research and his textual studies "had convinced himself that the Old Testament writings contained much in their statements on people, time, and distance that was mythical and legendary" (Mozley, 1967, p. 427); and, drawing attention to the wide range of statistical and practical anomalies in the text (e.g., Noah's Ark, the Deluge, the Crossing of the Red Sea, the Exodus, etc.), Colenso's sales were "enormous" (Vance, 2013, p. 86) and the book itself, "the first edition [of which] was sold off directly it was published … excited a great sensation".

A (late-1862) Editorial in the English Churchman that was widely re-published in Australia compared the impact of Colenso's controversial challenges to the authority of the Bible with those already made by Charles Darwin and John Crawfurd, and an extensive editorial in the Sydney Morning Herald defended the Biblical accounts, and directly attacked both Colenso and his publication, strongly asserting that, "the Mosaic record remains one of the noblest books ever composed by mortal agency. It is a book which contains the only rational account of the origin and present circumstances of humanity ...".

The controversy over Colenso's challenges to Biblical authority, accepted authorship, and historical accuracy continued in Australia. A decade later, on 7 July 1873, the Melbourne-based Jesuit, Joseph O'Malley, author of Noah's Ark Vindicated and Explained: A Reply to Dr. Colenso's Difficulties (1871) (which included O'Malley's "Imaginary Plan of the [1080 stalls in the] Ark"), visited Sydney and lectured on "Noah's Ark", delivering the standard Roman Catholic position on Noah's Ark and the Deluge, and attempting to explain away many of Colenso's challenges. The lecture, chaired by the devout Irish Catholic layman Justice Peter Faucett, Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales who would later (in 1875) express the judicial opinion that Krefft's dismissal from his Museum curatorship was justified  was well attended.

Evolution
Darwin was not the first to speak of "evolution"; and Darwin, himself, did not use the term "evolution" until the sixth (1872) edition of his Origin (in its first five editions he spoke of "descent through modification").

Robert Chambers, in his popular works, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844/1884) and Explanations (1845), had already made the notion of "evolution" a matter of public discussion. Also, there were the two earlier (anonymous) articles recently attributed (see: Tanghe & Kestemont, 2018) to Robert Jameson, the Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh, and the Journal's editor  "Observations on the Nature and Importance of Geology" (Anon, 1826; esp. pp. 297–299) and "Of the Changes which Life has experienced on the Globe" (Anon, 1827), that had been published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal at the time that Darwin was studying medicine at Edinburgh University.

Jameson's articles were even more influential in the case of Darwin, given the fact that during the 1826/1827 academic year, Darwin had, as an extracurricular study, "assiduously" attended Jameson's popular natural history lectures at Edinburgh University, which involved "lectures five days a week for five months" (Secord, 1991, pp. 134–135), at least one of which was entitled "On the Origins of the Animal Species" (Tanghe & Kestemont, 2018, p. 586).

Natural selection
"Fertilized by his [1839] Beagle journal from his four years as a travelling naturalist and his subsequent experiments and research, The Origin was stocked with new biological data drawn from sources across the globe, its wide compass offering a detailed proposal for the progressive development of species and a positivist biological framework for man’s understanding of the natural world." In a paper read to the Linnean Society of London on 1 July 1858 written separately from, but presented jointly with, that of Alfred Russel Wallace (i.e., Darwin & Wallace, 1858)  that was firmly based upon the foundations of the extensive and varied evidence provided by his comprehensive in-the-field observations over two decades, Darwin was the first to propose "natural selection" (as opposed to the "artificial selection" of livestock- or plant-breeders)  thereby "[substituting] a natural for a supernatural explanation of the material organic universe" (Abbott, 1912, p. 18)  as the process responsible for the diversity of life on Earth.

Along with the Sydney botanist, Robert D. FitzGerald, and the Melbourne economist, Professor William Edward Hearn, Krefft was one of the very few Australian scientists in the 1860s and 1870s who supported Darwin's position on the origin of species by means of natural selection. "[The strength of the] pre- and anti-evolutionary tendencies [of] curators and museum directors [and] museum-based scientists in Australia ... [meant that] much of the initial headway made by Darwinism in Australia came from international networks – like those of the mechanics' institutes – linked to the labour movement, lending it strong socialistic and secular associations which found little favour among the colonial administrators and members of the 'squattocracy' who dominated museum boards of trustees."

Ellegård's five "positions" held by scientists in the Darwinian controversy
"What appears so remarkable to [those in] a later age is that in the mid-nineteenth century scientists could look upon a supernatural explanation as a valid alternative to a scientific one." "Darwinism came early to Australia. Charles Darwin's Origin of Species appeared on sale in Sydney only four months after its publication in Britain." Alvar Ellegård's extensive (1958) survey of the coverage of the "Darwinian doctrine" in the U.K. press between 1859 and 1872 distinguished three aspects "first, the Evolution idea in its general application to the whole of the organic world; second, the Natural Selection theory; and third, [the] theory of Man's descent from the lower animals" (Ellegård, 1990, p. 24)  and identified five ideological "positions" taken (or ideological "attitudes" displayed) by individual participants over that decade and a half, which were determined, to a considerable extent, not only by their levels of education, but also by their particular politico-social, philosophical, and/or religious orientation.

These five positions (collectively) reflected a simple series, which "indicate[d] an increasing degree of favourableness towards Darwin's theory, from total rejection to complete acceptance" (p. 30); and, as one moved from lower (A) to higher (E) along Ellegård's series, "less and less of the processes going into the formation of species were recognized [by those holding that position] as supernatural, or outside the range of ordinary scientific explanation ... [and, therefore] anybody accepting a position with a higher [level] accepted ipso facto all the scientific explanation already granted by those holding a lower position" (p. 31):
 * (A): Absolute Creation (p. 30): "the fundamentalist religious position, according to which each species arose as a distinct and instantaneous creation, in the literal and naïve sense of the word";
 * (B): Progressive Creation (p. 30): "where species developed mysteriously from the simplest organic form";
 * (C): Derivation (p. 30): "which recognised the principle of descent in progressive evolution but allowed that this mechanism was only one of the secondary processes which the Creator employed";
 * (D): Directed Selection (p. 31): "which admitted the efficacy of Natural Selection for a considerable number of specific differentiations, but relied on a teleological explanation as an indispensable part of the explanation of the organic world"; and
 * (E): Natural Selection (p. 31): "the scientific, non-teleological, non-supernatural explanation of the evolution of the whole organic world".

According to Ellegård's survey (p. 32), until 1863, the majority of British scientists belonged to either (A) or (B); but, by 1873, the majority had moved to either (C) or (D), with a small number of them going on to position (E).

However, things were considerably different in Australia. Setting aside disciplinary "outliers" such as FitzGerald, Hearn, and Krefft (each of whom held position (E)) and ignoring the (peripheral) fact that Charles Darwin was elected as an honorary member of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1879, and that the pro-Darwinians, natural historian, Thomas Huxley, and botanist, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, were awarded the Society's prestigious Clarke Medal in 1880 and 1885 respectively  it was not really until the late 1890s, due to the influence of the academic appointments of William Aitcheson Haswell to the University of Sydney, Baldwin Spencer to the University of Melbourne, Ralph Tate to the University of Adelaide, and James Thomas Wilson to the University of Sydney, etc., and the administrative/curatorial appointments of Robert Etheridge to the Australian Museum in Sydney, Baldwin Spencer to the National Museum of Victoria in Melbourne, and Herbert Scott to the Queen Victoria Museum in Launceston, etc., that the majority of Australian scientists began to move away from (A) or (B), and that "the contributions of Darwin and his successors [could begin to] seriously affect Australian thinking and bring it into the mainstream of scientific thought" (Mozley, p.  430).

Artist
In order to avoid the military draft, Krefft moved to New York City in 1850, where he was employed as a clerk and a draughtsman, and was mainly concerned with producing depictions of sea views and shipping.

Whilst in New York, he encountered the work of John James Audubon at the New York Mercantile Library. Having been granted permission to do so, Krefft made copies of some of the Audubon plates, which he then sold to raise his fare to Australia. Krefft arrived in Melbourne, from New York, on 15 October 1852, on the Revenue, and worked in the Victorian goldfields "with much success" for some five years. Krefft contributed examples of his drawings to the Victorian Industrial Society's Exhibition, in Melbourne, in February 1858.

Melbourne
Having met William Blandowski when he (Krefft) was making copies of Gould's illustrations of native animals in The Mammals of Australia in the Public Library of Victoria, the talented artist and draughtsman was hired, by Blandowski, "on the basis of Krefft's ability to produce detailed drawings of natural history specimens", to help sketch and collect specimens for the National Museum of Victoria on William Blandowski's explorations of the relatively poorly-known and semi-arid country around the confluence of the Murray River and Darling River in 1856–1857. "During the Expedition, Krefft was responsible for overseeing the preparation of specimens and the registration and record-keeping for all the biological material. Krefft apparently also carried out much of the day-to-day work around the camp, including cooking and caring for the horses and bullocks. He was also required to act as Blandowski's amanuensis, taking dictation from Blandowski by candlelight after dinner. Krefft proved to be a keen and perceptive observer of wildlife and a fine natural history illustrator. Throughout the Expedition he kept numerous mammal species in captivity to learn more about their habits, documenting diet and breeding information, including seasonality and litter size." "During the 1856/1857 expedition [Krefft] was Blandowski's right-hand man, the natural history illustrator and the chronicler of all Blandowski's idiosyncrasies, and especially his failings."

Blandowski, when recalled to Melbourne by the Victorian Government in early August 1857, took all of his collected material back to Melbourne with him. Krefft took command of the expedition until it finally returned at the end of November 1857. In 1858 Krefft was appointed to the National Museum of Victoria, to catalogue the collection of specimens that he (i.e., Krefft) had brought back to Melbourne with him, which he listed under 3389 catalogue numbers.

Blandowski, the Museum of Natural History, and Professor McCoy
Krefft's later accounts of the expedition's discoveries (viz., 1865a and 1865b) are not only significant in themselves, but have additional significance due to the controversies surrounding Blandowski's sudden departure from Australia along with his collection of illustrations, documents, in-the-field notes, and specimens. Apart from Blandowski's (1862) controversial Australien in 142 photographischen Abbildungen nach zehnjährigen Erfahrungen ('Australia in 142 Photographic Illustrations after a Decade of Experiences'), Blandowski never published anything further in relation to that expedition.

Blandowski, one of the inaugural members of the Council of the Philosophical Society of Victoria, had been appointed as the Government Zoologist in 1854 by Andrew Clarke, Surveyor General of Victoria. He also served (ex officio) as the curator of the Museum of Natural History, which had opened on 9 March 1854, was open to the public for six hours daily, and was located in the Assay Office in La Trobe Street, Melbourne.

Blandowski's opposition to the controversial (1856) decision to (permanently, rather than temporarily) move the collection of the Museum of Natural History to the (then remote) campus of the fledgeling University of Melbourne, and deliver it over to the custody of the university's Professor of Natural Science, Frederick McCoy, who argued (1857) that museums should exist to serve the interests of real science, rather than them "being at best a place merely for [the] innocent amusement of schoolboys and idlers" rather than, that is, follow the example of the British Museum and locate the collection within the premises of the (central) Melbourne Public Library, "which was the first free public library in Victoria and the centrepiece of public education and improvement in the colony"  led to many clashes with McCoy ("after his return to Melbourne [Blandowski] never reported back to duty at the museum").

There were also well-founded accusations that, "[having arrived] in Adelaide in August 1857 with twenty-eight boxes containing 17,400 specimens", Blandowski had failed to deliver the material collected during his expedition upon his return to Melbourne, despite being "ordered three times by the Victorian government to return his specimens and manuscripts" a fact that explains, in the absence of any coherent account in English of Blandowski's collected material, the value of Krefft's later accounts (1865a and 1865b) of the expedition's discoveries.

When threatened by legal action, Blandowski hurriedly left Melbourne, on 17 March 1859 (on Captain A.A. Ballaseyers's Prussian barque Mathilde), never to return.

Germany
In 1858, following the death of his father, Krefft was obliged to return to Germany, where he travelled via England where he visited the principal museums, met up with John Gould, John Edward Gray, Albert Günther, and Richard Owen, and presented a paper (Krefft, 1858b) to the Zoological Society of London.

Krefft took many illustrations and specimens with him; however, as Allen (2006, p. 33) notes, "after his return to Germany, Krefft attempted to publish his observations and drawings, but was prevented from doing so by Blandowski ... [with] Blandowski claim[ing to Krefft's publisher] that the artwork from the expedition belonged to him, as expedition leader".

Natural historian, museum curator and administrator
Krefft returned to Australia from his sojourn in Germany, with brief stays en route at the Cape of Good Hope and Adelaide, arriving in Sydney on 6 May 1860.

In June 1860, on the recommendation of Governor Sir William Denison, he was appointed Assistant Curator to Simon Rood Pittard (1821–1861)   at the Australian Museum, "much to the annoyance of the museum trustees, who would have preferred someone with a formal degree". Pittard, driven by his Anglo-Catholic, Puseyite views and following the practice of Charles Willson Peale at the Peale Museum, in Philadelphia  adorned the walls of the Museum with inscriptions of biblical texts. Less than three weeks after Pittard's death (in August 1861) the Trustees decided that these inscriptions were "[to] be removed, and that in future "no words be inscribed on the walls of the Board Room without the consent of the Trustees"."

Having performed all of the duties of the position since Pittard's death in August 1861, Krefft was eventually appointed Curator of the museum in May 1864. During his time at the Australian Museum, Krefft maintained a relationship with the Melbourne Museum, corresponding and exchanged specimens with Frederick McCoy, its Director. He also corresponded with a wide range of eminent overseas naturalists, including Charles Darwin, A.K.L.G. Günther, and Sir Richard Owen in the UK; L.J.R. Agassiz in the USA; "and many learned German scientists". It is significant that Krefft's interactions were "informal communications with individuals rather than official dealings through government agencies, with the ensuing connections giving rise to further interactions with savants and museums in other centres of knowledge and power, including Germany, Austria, Italy, France, Sweden, Argentina, Canada, India and the United States, as well as Britain" (Davidson, 2017, p. 8). "As a scientist Krefft occupied a position far removed from that of the typical collector at the periphery. He was a theoretically sophisticated naturalist whose contribution to the zoological literature of Australia was substantial and of lasting value. His letters to Darwin were those of a colleague and fellow scientist rather than a mere informant, and he took advantage of the existing networks of correspondence in furthering both his own career and the cause of science in the Australian colonies generally. Against the odds he remained vocal in championing new ideas. As a result he won an international reputation outside Australia, but was ultimately brought down by the entrenched interests of those he was committed to opposing."

He was also responsible for arranging and cataloguing the Museum's collection of donated fossils, as well as those he had discovered in his own exploratory efforts in the field, such as the two important excavations of the fossil remains of mammals, birds, and reptiles he conducted in 1866 and 1869 at the Wellington Caves.

Darwinism
"[The] trustees ... [of] the Australian Museum ... most of whom were Anglicans or nonconformists, rejected the theory of the evolutionary origins of species.... As [Krefft] later claimed when writing to Darwin, his evolutionism was the prime cause of his relations with the trustees becoming increasingly marked by irresolvable, personally debilitating disputes that eventually ended with his dismissal in 1874." Krefft's scientific career and, in particular, his entire professional life at the Australian Museum  was concurrent with and greatly influenced by the "Darwinian controversy" and its widespread ramifications; not the least of which was the central question of which individual specimens should be exhibited (or not) in the Museum, and, if so, in what sort of order, and in which sort of way.

"The New Museum Idea"
Krefft, who had returned to Australia in 1860 "with a comprehensive knowledge of the new approaches being adopted in Europe to the role and purpose of museums", was "a dynamic figure who vigorously researched, wrote about and promoted the [Australian] Museum's collections".

He served as curator at a time of significant culture change, both in terms of the place of science and scientific standards within the community, and in terms of the embedded assumptions, foundation principles, and experimental strategies of science itself. With Krefft as its curator, and despite the resistance of its trustees, the museum was slowly shifting "from [being] a colonial offshoot of the British science establishment, managed by a group of gentleman naturalists, towards [becoming] an institution serving the needs of an increasingly independent and professional group of scientists".

Cabinets of curiosities


"Which is the most important object:that of collecting a cabinet of natural curiosities, to become the admiration of children and their nurses, or that of conveying knowledge and truth to the ignorant, to those in whose persons reside that power which will decide the future of this large and important country?"

For at least two centuries British (and colonial) museums, clearly reflecting their Wunderkämmer/Cabinets of Curiosities heritage, had done little more than present "aimless collection[s] of curiosities and bric-à-brac, brought together without method or system of collections"; where, for instance, one of the most famous collections in "bygone days", that of the seventeenth century's Musæum Tradescantianum (the collection which later provided the nucleus for Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum), "was a miscellany without didactic value", "its arrangement was unscientific, and the public gained little or no advantage from its existence" (Lindsay, 1911, p. 60).

In August 1846, within the Act establishing the Smithsonian Institution, was a provision transferring the custody of the United States' official National Cabinet of Curiosities, that had been previously deposited in the US Patent Office Building, to the Smithsonian.

Public museums
Acknowledging the differences between a museum's research and public pedagogy functions, and expressing his hope that his colleagues would "heartily concur in doing all that is in our power to render [the British Museum] and other institutions conducive to the increase of the knowledge, the happiness, and the comforts of the people", John Edward Gray, towards the end of his lengthy career as the Curator of the British Museum, remarked that, in his view, "public museums" were meant to serve the dual purposes of "the diffusion of instruction and rational amusement among the mass of the people, and ... to afford the scientific student every possible means of examining and studying the specimens of which the museum consists".

In the 1860s, a time when "Colonial museums tended to exhibit specimens row upon row, and for the most part neglected to incorporate up-to-date techniques such as explanatory labels and habitat cases" (Sheets-Pyenson, 1988, p. 123), Gray's scientific position, his curatorial rationale, and his administrative approach were strongly supported by Krefft. Krefft, who was "devoted to the museum's interests", rather than to those of the trustees, had already begun separating his own museum's research collections from its exhibition collections, and had already adopted many of Gray's measures by the early 1860s.

Having just received Gray's (1868) pamphlet in the mail, he emphasized in the presentation ("Improvements Effected in Modern Museums in Europe and Australia") he gave to the Royal Society of New South Wales on 5 August 1868  that his (Krefft's) ongoing efforts at the Australian Museum were made in the hope of changing it from being "one of the old curiosity shops of fifty years ago" into a "useful Museum" (Krefft, 1868b, p. 15). These curatorial aspirations were not unique to Krefft; they were entirely consistent with the world's best practice, as described by Gray, in relation to displaying exhibits and mounted specimens at the British Museum "to the best advantage, both for the student and for the general visitor" (Krefft, 1868b, p. 21).

The "new museum"
In 1893, Sir William Henry Flower, labelled Gray's (1864) view "The New Museum Idea", describing it as "the key-note of nearly all the museum reform of recent date", (Flower, 1893, pp. 29–30). Although these views were not unique to Gray, it does seem that Gray's (1864) axiom had the widest dissemination over the ensuing years, was the most widely quoted and, therefore, can be said to have had the greatest influence influencing many world-wide, including Krefft, and in the UK, such as Flower, at the British Museum (see: Flower, 1898), and in the US, such as G. Brown Goode at the Smithsonian Institution (see: Goode, 1895), and Henry Fairfield Osborn, at the American Museum of Natural History (see, Osborn, 1912), etc.

In 1917, American museum director John Cotton Dana lamented the fact that there was still great room for improvement, noting that the best museum displays were to be found in department stores, rather than in museums of the day.

Krefft's curatorial rationale
"In August, 1861, the curator of the Museum, Mr. S.R. Pittard died. The duties, from that date up to 30th June, 1864, were performed by Mr. Gerard Krefft, as sub-curator. He was then appointed curator, to the great advantage of the institution. Under this gentleman's supervision the various specimens have been so arranged as to become far more valuable to the public and to scientific men, than under their old somewhat confused classification." Krefft actively promoted the concept of the museum as a popular institution appealing to a broader audience: that is, an establishment designed to provide experiences that engage, entertain, and educate all ages, economic groups, education levels, and social classes, as well as being a place for the collection, preservation, and display of specimens, and the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge.

Krefft's curatorial advocacy of the complete separation of the Museum's at-the-time confused and disordered collection into:
 * (a) the exhibition spaces and the ordered, comprehensive, displays for the public (known today as synoptical collections), and
 * (b) the (systematically housed elsewhere on the premises) specimens, catalogues, and other research material primarily intended for research, rather than display,

produced the on-going culture-clash with the (predominately expatriate) "gentlemen amateurs" among the Trustees including Dr. James Charles Cox, Edward Smith Hill, Sir William John Macleay, Captain Arthur Onslow, and Alexander Walker Scott, who were collectors themselves, and were "building up [their own] private collections sometimes at the expense of the museum"  that eventually led to Krefft's later (1874) dismissal.

Lack of funding
"We consider that it behoves a Government that declares itself such a strenuous friend of education to look to [the Australian Museum] with a little more consideration than it has hitherto exhibited towards it. For here is a national schoolmaster, teaching in the contemplation of the most wondrous creations how great and how illimitable is that Power from whom these creations spring; nay more, a schoolmaster that prompts thought and reflection, calls into play the faculties of comparison and analysis, and brings into vigorous action those functions of the mind which by exorcise elevate the soul." At the same time that Krefft was experiencing difficulties with his (anti-Darwinian) trustees in relation to matters of specimen display, classification, and presentation, the trustees, themselves, who operated under the provisions of the Australian Museum Act, 1853, continuously complained of the absence of appropriate government funding to allow, regardless of what material they might contain, the construction of the required number of display tables, display cases, and display cabinets.

Many of those annual reports also contain specific, urgent appeals for additional funding to allow the publication of various items, created by Krefft, that were, at the time, complete and printer-ready. An extended, critical press report in The Empire in 1868 noted ("This is surprising, and to be deplored") that, although Krefft had a "voluminous catalogue of the specimens contained in the library arranged for the printer" it appeared that "that there are no funds to enable the trustees to carry out this necessary matter".

Photography
"A photographic establishment is one of the most essential parts of a modern museum." One of Krefft's most important curatorial innovations was his introduction of photography a medium he had first encountered during his time with the Blandowski Expedition in 1856–1857  into the Australian Museum's practice.

Photography not only provided a valuable means through which the Museum's objects and collections could be documented, but also served to substantiate the veracity of Krefft's colonial observations, and enhance his (and the Museum's) international recognition overall, due to the fact that, unlike single physical specimens, the photographs could also be sent simultaneously to experts and centres of European and American scholarship other than just to London alone.

Moreover, over time, photographs significantly reduced the need to send precious specimens and samples overseas to the detriment of the Museum's own collections: see, for instance, the (1870) photograph of Krefft's first-ever Queensland lungfish specimen (at Finney, 2022, p. 6), and the four (1870) photographs of the specimen at various stages of its dissection by Krefft (at Finney, 2022, pp. 6–7). The thousands of meticulously arranged visual images on the glass plates that Krefft and his assistant, Henry Barnes, produced (over 15 years) through the collodion wet plate process, both on-site (at the museum) and in-the-field, recording landscapes and people (on expeditions), demonstrated and validated Krefft's expertise to all and sundry.

According to Davidson (2017, pp. 16, 57, 68), given the London's scientific elite's widespread prevailing mistrust of the observations and material evidence of the colonial explorers and naturalists, Krefft's images not only provided "incontrovertible photographic evidence" of his claims for a specific item of interest, but also given the extremely wide range of disciplinary mindsets prevailing at the time  served as (inclusive) "boundary objects": viz., entities that "facilitate[d] an ecological approach to knowledge making and sharing" by "provid[ing] connections between different individuals and groups who nevertheless might view them, interpret them, and use them in distinct ways, or for different aims" (p. 10).

The Queensland lungfish (Neoceratodus forsteri)
"It is strange that a curious creature like this, which was well known to the early settlers at Wide Bay and other Queensland districts, should so long have escaped the eyes of those interested in natural history."

Louis Agassiz and the Chimaera
In 1835, having examined teeth that had been extracted from the Rhaetian (latest stage of the Triassic) fossil beds of the Aust Cliff region of Gloucestershire in South West England, the Swiss natural historian Louis Agassiz had identified and described ten different species of a holotype (or "type specimen"), which he named ceratodus latissimus ('horned tooth' + 'broadest'), and had supposed based upon the structure of their teeth plates resembling that of a Port Jackson shark   that they were a kind of shark or ray, and from this, he had postulated, belonged to an order of the class of cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichthyes) collectively known as Chimaera.

Gerard Krefft, William Forster, and the cartilaginous Burnett Salmon or barramunda
Over the 1860s, Krefft's regular dinner companion, the pastoralist squatter and former Premier of New South Wales, William Forster, had often spoken of the Queensland fresh-water salmon with a cartilaginous backbone, well known to the Queensland squatters as Burnett Salmon called "salmon" because of its pink, salmon-coloured flesh and its good eating  or "barramunda" (N.B. not barramundi). On each occasion, Krefft expressed his view that Forster's claim of the existence of such a salmon was entirely mistaken.

January 1870
In January 1870, Forster presented Krefft with an approx. 3 ft (92 cm) specimen of the Burnett Salmon that had been sent to him [Forster] by his cousin, William Forster M'Cord.

It was the first complete specimen that Krefft had ever seen. From his detailed (and, perhaps, unique to Australia) familiarity with the relevant scientific literature, and from the specimen's unusual teeth, Krefft immediately "understood its enormous significance", and recognized it as being something that "was halfway between dead (fossilised, like its nearest relatives) and alive (known to science) and, thus, "a living example of [Agassiz's] Ceratodus, a creature, thought to have been like a shark, which had hitherto been known only from fossil teeth": a parallel to the (1994) recognition of the true identity of the Wollemi pine as a "living fossil". "The lungfish is a member of an extraordinary group of fishes, the Dipnoi, which have lungs as well as gills, allowing them to breathe air as well as water. Of the once widespread Dipnoan fish, only three survive today: Neoceratodus in Queensland, Protopterus in Africa, and Lepidosiren in South America. Neoceratodus appears to be more primitive than its overseas cousins. It is the closest surviving relative of the fish from which the first land vertebrates, the Labyrinthodonts, arose about three hundred and twenty-five million years ago."

The lungfish is now widely recognized as a classic example of Darwin's "living fossils" Huxley (1880, p. 660) noted that, "this wonderful creature [sc. Ceratodus] seems contrived for the illustration of the doctrine of Evolution"  and its recognition as such, by the sagacious Krefft, represents a classic example of one of Walpole's serendipitous discoveries: i.e., those made by "accident and sagacity", in that: "(a) they were accidental: in that the discoverer was 'not in quest of' the thing discovered; (b) they were made by one who was sufficiently sagacious to apprehend the connection between items that, to others, were completely random; and (c) they were not hidden: they were clearly visible to the sufficiently sagacious i.e., 'hidden in plain sight' and, once their location was indicated, could be seen by all." Krefft immediately announced his discovery in a letter to the Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, published on 18 January 1870 (1870a); and, in doing so, he also named the specimen: "In honour of the gentleman who presented this valuable specimen to the Museum, and in justice to him (whose observations I questioned when the subject was mentioned years ago, and to whom I now apologise), I have named this strange animal Ceratodus Forsteri."

It is significant that, by announcing his discovery in the pages of a Sydney daily newspaper, rather than in some "learned British journal ... Krefft was not only claiming the lungfish, [but] was also staking a claim for Australian scientific independence". Krefft's discovery was specifically mentioned within the comments of Australian Museum trustee Rev. William Branwhite Clarke on the mineralogical and geological exhibits at the 1870 Intercolonial Exhibition, held in Sydney; and, moreover, it was of such significance that the Exhibition's report also included a poem, highlighting Krefft's discovery, written by Clarke himself.

In November 1889, Norman Lockyer, the founding Editor of Nature, noted that Krefft's discovery of "the Dipnoous [viz., 'having both gills and lungs'] fish-like creature Ceratodus of the Queensland rivers" was "[one] of the more striking zoological discoveries which come within our [first] twenty years [of publication]".

Krefft's "Natural History" articles in The Sydney Mail
In relation to Kreff't considerable contributions to "natural history" whilst serving as the Museum's curator, it is important to recognize that, over that time, rather than being disinterested in (or not entirely convinced by) Darwin's views on the progressive development of species, a wide range of influential individuals in Australia were implacably opposed to Darwin, Darwin's theories, and "Darwinism" in general.

George B. Mason and The Australian Home Companion and Band of Hope Journal
The Australian Home Companion and Band of Hope Journal was a fortnightly temperance-oriented journal with a limited circulation (specifically aimed at young people) that only lasted for three years (1859–1861).

Over the entire three years of the journal's existence, the wood engraver, George Birkbeck Mason, supplied a regular series of 49 wood-engravings (as "G. B. Mason"), along with brief companion articles (as "G.B.M."), under the title "Australian Natural History", which introduced various Australian animals and birds to its young readers. Mason's first article (on 2 July 1859) was on "The Ornithorhynchus; or Water Mole of Australia" (i.e., the Platypus), and his last (on 18 May 1861) was on the recently-introduced-to-Australia animal, the Llama.

Krefft and The Sydney Mail
One of Krefft's main objectives, as its curator, was to re-position the Australian Museum as a "forum of people's science" (Moyal, 1986, p. 99). Krefft recognized the economic, social, and educational value of a wider dissemination of an accurate, up-to-date knowledge and understanding of scientific matters (especially Australian natural history) to the emerging colony and its developing community.

In the absence of funding for potential museum publications, and in pursuit of a wider dissemination of these scientific matters, it is significant that from March 1871 until June 1874 Krefft published more than one hundred and fifty, lengthy, once-a-week "Natural History" articles in The Sydney Mail a widely-read weekly magazine published every Saturday by The Sydney Morning Herald  on an extremely wide range of relevant subjects (see: ), specifically directed at an educated Australian lay audience; rather than, that is, engaging with his well-informed fellow scientists.

Krefft's Enterprise
In his first article (Krefft, 1871a) reflecting a view that had been expressed a decade earlier by the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker   Krefft noted that, although "few countries offer such a wide field to the student of nature as Australia", there were very few "handy books for the beginner" available in Sydney, "which has caused, in some measure, the apathy of the people to study our natural products". Moreover, he wrote, because "the most useful books" were little known, and given that many of those were "so expensive that they cannot be purchased, except by the wealthy", he proposed to present a series of articles on Australian natural history, with the hope that their aggregate would eventually be published as a complete work.

Charles Darwin (naturalist)
As part of Krefft's determination to disseminate up-to-date scientific knowledge, as reflected in the professional literature, a number of his Natural History articles mention Darwin's matter-of-fact observations and opinions as an in-the-field naturalist: including, for instance, comments such as: "Mr. Darwin has been quoted [in this article] at great length, because his experience ... [of] animals under domestication ... will interest all breeders. (1873c) [In relation to the ruminants, and in] speaking about ten different varieties of oxen, I call attention to a curious breed of South America, of which Mr. Darwin, who first noticed it, remarks ... (1873b) According to Mr. Darwin, [earthworms] give a kind of under tillage to the land, performing the same below ground that the spade does above for the garden, and the plough for arable soil.(1871d), etc."

Support of Darwin, Darwinism, and Natural Selection
By July 1873, according to his (c. 12 July 1873) letter to Charles Darwin, Krefft had become exasperated by the widespread resistance to Darwin's theories and observations (and, indirectly, also to those of Bishop Colenso); an unwillingness which, Krefft observed, was not only driven by the persistent outright misrepresentations of Darwin's works by certain prominent critics (such as Professor McCoy and Bishop Perry), but was also explained by the fact that the preponderance of those in Australia who were opposed to Darwin's "theories" had never read any of Darwin's works and (with no other sources of information to go by) were basing their steadfast adversarial positions entirely upon the supposed authority of others: "if ever there was a season when people flock round those who interpret the faith in which they were brought up, it is the present time, in Australia at least" (Krefft, 12 July 1873).

Krefft wrote of the "dreadful [overall] ... ignorance of even well educated people", and the constant criticisms of Darwin's "theories" that were still being voiced in Melbourne, 13 years after the publication of Origins, by the devout Irish Roman Catholic Professor Frederick McCoy, Professor of Natural Science at the University of Melbourne, and the Director of the National Museum of Victoria, and the Evangelical Anglican Bishop of Melbourne Charles Perry, as well as the recent (7 July 1873) well-attended "Noah’s Ark" lectures, that had been delivered in Sydney by the Melbourne-based Irish Jesuit, Joseph O'Malley, and chaired by the devout Irish Roman Catholic layman, Justice Peter Faucett of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

In his letter to Darwin, noting that he "never meddles with religion", Krefft states that he deliberately avoided any reference to questions relating to the existence (or not) of the Abrahamic deity in his articles: "Of course I shall not deny the existence of a supreme superintendent or whatever people choose to call the power of nature as yet unknown to us otherwise rather [to his "astonishment"] religious papers will not like to print my remarks".

July 1873
In his quest to encourage people to read Darwin's works, and to present a summary of the relevant scientific advances in the field (as represented in the professional literature), Krefft published two important "Natural History" articles in July 1873 and, as was his habit, Krefft took the position of presenting the latest views and opinions of others (for the edification of his readers), rather than expressing his own:
 * "Remarks on New Creations" on 5 July 1873.
 * "Remarks on New Hypotheses" on 12 July 1873.

"Remarks on New Creations"
The first article, centred upon an objective discussion of the current developments in the scientific understanding of artificial selection and human evolution (contrasted with the supposed 'immutability of species'), only expressing Krefft's personal views towards the end of the article, when speaking of the "poor, ignorant, and superstitious" people, whose artistic representations of angels were "decidedly against the laws of nature".

"Remarks on New Hypotheses"
According to Krefft's postscript to his letter to Darwin, the second article was only published after significant censorship by the editor of the Sydney Mail, George Eld (1829–1895), at the express (and extraordinary) instruction of John Fairfax, proprietor of the Sydney Mail, to remove Krefft's favourable references to Darwin and his works according to Krefft, despite being "rather a thorough believer in revealed Religion", Fairfax generally "allow[ed] me to give an opinion now and then as long as [I] do not come it too strong": "At the last moment the Editor [viz., Eld] sent word that the owner of the paper [viz., Fairfax] objected to my remarks regarding your works which I advised people to read & test before they judged you ... [the result was that] about a Column [viz., approx 1,200 words] of my own observations were cut out — Still there is hope that people will learn something from what is left." Consequently, rather than expressing his own views, opinions, and explanations of Darwin's work, as he had intended, three-quarters of Krefft's second article directly refers to the opinions expressed in a recent address, "The Progress of Natural Science During the Last Twenty-Five Years", given at Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), by the University of Breslau's Professor Ferdinand Cohn in late 1872. Krefft's direct quotations included: "There are three discoveries which, during the last quarter of a century, have entirely changed the position of natural science the mechanical equivalent of heat, spectrum analysis, and the Darwinian theories." "No book of recent times, Dr. Cohen thinks, has influenced to such an extent the aspects of modern natural science as Charles Darwin's work On the Origin of Species, the first edition of which appeared in 1859 (the last or sixth edition in January, 1872); for even so late a period was the immutability of species believed in; so long was it accepted as indubitable that all characteristics which belong to any species of plants and animals were transmitted unaltered through all generations, and were under no circumstances changeable; so long did the appearance of a new fauna and flora remain one of the impenetrable mysteries of science."

Post-dismissal
Due to the distractions connected with the last stages of his disputes with the trustees of the Australian Museum, the last item he published whilst still Museum curator was on 27 June 1874. Sixteen weeks later, following his separation from the Museum, he resumed his weekly articles, and went on to publish another thirty-three "Natural History" articles over the next nine months.

Although Krefft produced more than 250,000 words in the more than 180 "Natural History" articles published over that four-year period, his hope of eventually producing an aggregated single work was never realized; no doubt mainly due to his dismissal from office having greatly limited his resources and significantly restricted his capacity to continue his dissemination enterprise.

Dismissal from office
"Krefft's self-assured propriety infuriated William Sharp McLeay [sic], chairman of trustees, who assumed that the Museum's resources should be directed towards the enhancement of [Macleay's own] private collection. After living under siege ... for three months, Krefft and his ... wife Annie were evicted from the Museum in 1874 under McLeay's [sic] instructions. Still clinging to his directorial chair, Krefft was thrown down the stars at the entrance to the Museum. Krefft's removal resulted in the impoverishment of the Natural sciences in New South Wales until the rise of inter-colonial science in the 1890s." The Trustees controversially dismissed Krefft from his position of Curator in 1874.

Krefft's assistant curator for the preceding decade, George Masters, had resigned in February 1874 in order "to become curator of the growing collection of Sir William Macleay" (Strahan, 1979, p. 135)   a collection which Masters continued to curate, once it was transferred to the Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney, until his death in 1912.

The Museum trustees, at a special meeting held the day after Krefft's removal from the Museum's premises, appointed the Macleay protégé, Edward Pierson Ramsay, to the position of Curator (Strahan, 1979, p. 38), an office that Ramsay held until 1895, when he was succeeded by Robert Etheridge.

Gold theft and its aftermath
Following his report to the trustees that, upon his return to the Museum on Christmas Eve 1873, Krefft had discovered a robbery (which was never solved) of "specimens of gold to the value of £70",     the trustees (although eager to do so) were unable to find any evidence of Krefft's complicity.

By this stage, with his accusations that the trustees were using the Museum's resources to augment their own private collections, the "cosmopolitan" Krefft had fallen foul of most of the Trustees  especially William John Macleay, whose own extensive private collection, which included the comprehensive collections he had inherited from his uncle, Alexander Macleay (1767–1848), and his cousin, William Sharp Macleay (1792–1865), went on to become the foundation of the collections of the Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney in the 1890s.

Museum closure
In the process of the escalating dispute between the trustees and Krefft, the Museum was closed to the public, by order of the trustees, for eleven weeks (from 4 July to 23 September 1874), At the same time, a police guard was stationed at the Museum, and Krefft was denied access to all parts of the Museum (including the cellar within which the fuel for his much-needed-in-the-winter fires was stored), except his private residence.

Krefft had been suspended following an investigation by a subcommittee of trustees Christopher Rolleston, Auditor-General of New South Wales, was appointed chairman, and Archibald Liversidge, Professor of Geology and Mineralogy at the University of Sydney, Edward Smith Hill, wine and spirit merchant, and Haynes Gibbes Alleyne, of the New South Wales Medical Board  who, having examined a number of witnesses, found some of the charges against Krefft sustained, and also claim to have discovered "a number of [other] grave irregularities". Krefft had been unable to meet the trustees' request to appear before them on the Thursday (2 July 1874) because he was unwell (he had supplied a medical certificate to that effect), and that his wife, whose difficult confinement had been attended by George Bennett, had just delivered a stillborn child (on 2 July 1874), a daughter, after two days of intense labour (with Krefft by her side the whole time) in their residence over the Museum.

Eviction from his residential quarters
On 1 September 1874, three weeks before Krefft's forceful eviction, long-term trustees George Bennett (who, at the time, was attending Mrs Krefft's confinement) and William Branwhite Clarke both resigned "as a consequence of the steps recently taken by the trustees of the Museum with respect to the Curator".

On 21 September 1874, Krefft and his family were physically removed from his Museum apartment within which he had barricaded himself, by the "diminutive bailiff" Charles H. Peart i.e., at least "diminutive" when compared with Krefft, "a man of herculean stature"   in the company of one of the trustees, Edward Smith Hill, and assisted by two known prizefighters (identified as Kelly and Williams) who had been expressly hired (from Kiss's Horse Bazaar) to effect the eviction, because the Police refused to act, on the grounds that Krefft had not been dismissed by the Government, only by the trustees (and, therefore, it was a civil (and not a police) matter).

At the time of his eviction, Krefft was forcibly carried out of his apartment, refusing to move from his chair, and was unceremoniously thrown out into Macquarie street by the prizefighters. The press report of Krefft's subsequent (November 1874) damages action noted that, "throughout the affair [Krefft] had denied the trustees' power to dismiss him; and, on the trustees appealing to the Government, the Colonial Secretary [viz., Henry Parkes] had cautiously told the trustees that, as they thought it expedient to expel [Krefft] without first seeking the advice of the Government, no assistance could be afforded".

At the time of Krefft's forcible eviction, all of his possessions were seized; and, almost two years after the eviction Krefft was still complaining that "my own and my wife's personal property, my books, specimens, scientific instruments, medals and testimonials", all of which had been "illegally taken possession of by the trustees", were still to be returned to him.

Krefft's position
Krefft's position was that the trustees, acting independently of the New South Wales government, had no right to dismiss him.

Trustee's allegations
"The Trustees have to express their deep regret that circumstances have occurred during the past year which disclosed an utter want of care and attention in the discharge of his duties on the part of Mr. Krefft, their curator and secretary, and which resulted, after repeated acts of disobedience to the lawful orders of the trustees, in the removal of that officer from his position, and in the closing of the institution to the public for a short period." The trustees two members of which, William Macleay and Captain Arthur Onslow, "manifested great animus towards Mr. Krefft, and used their utmost exertions to cast obloquy upon that gentleman"   responded by accusing Krefft of drunkenness, falsifying attendance records, and wilfully destroying a fossil sent to the Museum by one of its trustees, George Bennett, for its preparation to be sent on the Richard Owen at the British Museum. This entirely false allegation was completely (and independently) refuted by a letter from Owen, that Bennett had received in late June 1874, in which Owen "acknowledged receiving [the fossil specimen] in good order". Krefft was even accused of condoning the sale of pornographic postcards. The (fifty to sixty) postcards in question, "some of which were of the most indecent character" (which had been "seen" by one of the trustees "in the workshop of the Museum") had been copied, entirely without Krefft's knowledge or consent, by the museum employees (and Krefft's subordinates) taxidermist/photographer Robert Barnes and his brother Henry Barnes.

Legal actions
"Apart from promoting Darwin's controversial ideas, Krefft was also critical of the Australian Museum's trustees he believed they were using the institution's resources for personal gain. Krefft ended up being dismissed from his post based on false allegations. There have been suggestions that Krefft was the first Australian scientist to suffer discrimination after promoting Darwin's work." "[In these matters] I am only one against many and you know that law is expensive and only made for the rich. Had I been an Englishman by birth, had I humbugged people, attended at Church, and spread knowledge on the principle that the God of Moses and of the Prophets made 'little apples', I would have gained the day, but [as] a true believer in [your] theory of developement [sic] I am hounded down in this [Paradise] of Bushrangers' of rogues, Cheats, and Vagabonds'." In November 1874 Krefft brought an action to recover £2,000 damages for trespass and assault against the trustee, Edward Smith Hill, who was physically present at, and had directed his eviction.

The trial lasted four days, and Justice Alfred Cheeke, the presiding judge "ruled that [Hill] and his co-trustees had acted illegally", and that, "as the trustees had no power to appoint a Curator, they clearly had no power to remove him from office, or expel him from the Museum premises", and, finally, that "[because] the Curator was an officer receiving his salary from the Government, ... he could not be removed from the premises without the sanction of the Government". "The jury [of four], after a short deliberation, found a verdict for the plaintiff, with £250 for damages".

In September 1875, Hill applied to the NSW Supreme Court for a retrial, and his motion for a new trial was heard by Justices John Fletcher Hargrave and Peter (Noah's Ark) Faucett over three days (7 to 9 September). Justice Hargrave, noting that the trustees' behaviour was "altogether illegal, harsh, and unjust", and that they had acted "without affording [Krefft] the slightest means of vindicating himself personally, or his scientific or official character as Curator of our Museum" was of the opinion that a new trial should be refused. In contrast, Justice Faucett, noting that Krefft "[had] taken an altogether erroneous view of his position and of the powers of the trustees; and [he, Faucett was] clearly of [the] opinion that his conduct justified his dismissal", was of the opinion that a new trial should be granted. Given these conflicting opinions, the court decided that Hill's action could not be heard. Hill's counsel, Sir William Manning, immediately applied for a rehearing of the action before the full court of three judges. The application was unanimously refused by Justices Martin, Faucett, and Hargrave, on the grounds that, because the Chief Justice, Sir James Martin, was a Museum trustee ex officio and, therefore, could not sit on the Bench, the opinions of the remaining two members, Faucett and Hargrave, had already been clearly expressed.

"When the courts awarded Krefft damages [in 1874], the trustees refused to pay up, though they had plundered the museum's coffers to recoup their own legal costs" (Macinnes, 2012, p. 114). In November 1877 Krefft sued the trustees for damages, and for the value of his medals and property detained by them, and was awarded £925. They offered to return his belongings with only £200.

Legislative proceedings
In 1876, with John Robertson (rather than Henry Parkes) as Premier, the New South Wales parliament passed a vote of £1,000 to be applied in satisfaction of Krefft's claims. The Government refused to pay unless Krefft renounced all other claims, which Krefft refused to do. In December 1876 Krefft failed in his attempt to have the Supreme Court In Banco force the Colonial Treasurer to make the legislated-for payment.

Insolvency
He was declared insolvent in 1880.

Death
"The museum affair demoralized Krefft and destroyed his livelihood. Many of his research papers remained unpublished and his collections were damaged and muddled." Krefft failed to find new employment after his dismissal, and his financial difficulties meant that he could not leave Australia.

He died, at the age of 51, from congestion of the lungs, "after suffering for some months past from dropsy and Bright's disease", in Sydney, on 18 February 1881, and was buried in the churchyard of St Jude's Church of England, Randwick.

Obituaries

 * "The Lounger", The (Melbourne) Herald, 21 February 1881.
 * The Sydney Daily Telegraph, 21 February 1881.
 * The (Sydney) Evening News, 22 February 1881.
 * Sydney Morning Herald, 24 February 1881.
 * Australian Town and Country Journal, Sydney, 26 February 1881.
 * The Sydney Mail, 26 February 1881.
 * Nature, 21 April 1881.

Research
The pamphlet also included a third paper on the Aborigines of the Lower Murray and Darling (i.e., Krefft, 1865b). In the absence of funds for its publication, Krefft eventually financed the publication himself, and it was published by the Government Printer. Krefft and his publication were praised at the Sydney Intercolonial Exhibition of 1870 and the Scott sisters, Helena Scott (a.k.a. Helena Forde) and Harriet Scott (a.k.a. Harriet Morgan), received a Very High Commendation for the striking artwork that accompanied Krefft's text.
 * 1864: Published a Catalogue of Mammalia in the Collection of the Australian Museum.
 * 1865: Published the pamphlet, Two Papers on the Vertebrata of the Lower Murray and Darling and on the Snakes of Sydney (1865a) the two papers had been read before the Philosophical Society of New South Wales.
 * 1869: The Snakes of Australia was published, which was the first definitive work on this group of Australian animals.
 * 1870: Published the first scientific description of the Queensland lungfish (Krefft, 1870a, 1870b, 1870c, 1870d, 1870e).
 * 1871: Published The Mammals of Australia, which also included plates by the Scott sisters.
 * 1872: Krefft was one of the few scientists supporting Darwinism in Australia during 1870s; and, as of May 1872, became a correspondent of Charles Darwin  see, for instance, Darwin's acknowledgement, in The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms (Darwin, 1881, p. 122) of Krefft's contribution to his investigations.
 * 1872: On 30 December 1872, Krefft wrote to Charles Darwin (1872c); and, based upon Krefft's direct, in-the-field experience as an anthropological linguist, informed Darwin that "Australian natives" could, indeed, count far beyond the number four thus correcting Darwin's erroneous assertion that they could not (in Descent (1871a, p. 62), with Darwin apparently following Ludwig Büchner.
 * 1873: Catalogue of the Minerals and Rocks in the Collection of the Australian Museum was published.
 * 1877: Began publishing Krefft's Nature in Australia see: item in the collection of the State Library of New South Wales  a popular journal for the discussion of questions of natural history, but it soon ceased publication.

Affiliations
Krefft was:
 * A Fellow of the Linnean Society in London.
 * A Master and Honorary Member of the Freies Deutsches Hochstift (Free German Foundation) at Frankfurt am Main.
 * A Member of the Société Humanitaire et Scientifique du Sud-Ouest de la France (Humanitarian and Scientific Society of the Southwest of France), the Imperial and Royal Geological Society of Austro-Hungary in Vienna, the Royal Geographical Society of Dresden; Royal Society of New South Wales, and the Royal Society of Tasmania.
 * A Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society of London, the Société Humanitaire et Scientifique de Sud-Ouest de France of Bordeaux, the Senckenberg Nature Research Society of Frankfurt am Main, and the "Society of Scientific Naturalists in Hamburg".

Awards

 * In 1869, the Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy was conferred upon Krefft by Victor Emmanuel II, "in token of his Majesty's appreciation of Mr. Krefft's services in the cause of science".
 * He received a gold medal from the Government of New South Wales "for services rendered".
 * He held "a silver medal for exhibits from the Emperor of the French, and ... various other silver and bronze medals awarded in the colony".
 * He was awarded "the honorary degree of Doctor of Philosophy".

Legacy


Apart from his scientific contributions, Krefft is remembered for the demonstration he provided at the Australian Museum, on 14 February 1868, for Prince Alfred at the time, the Duke of Edinburg and, later, the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha  involving Henry Parkes' pet mongoose killing several snakes. The mongoose was subsequently presented to the Prince who took it with him when he left Australia on the HMS Galatea in May 1868.

He is also renowned for having eaten what may well have been the last extant specimens of the (now extinct) Eastern Chæropus (Chæropus occidentalis) then also known as Chaeropus ecaudatus (Gould)  whilst on the (1856/1857) Blandowski Expedition: "They are very good eating, and I am sorry to confess that my appetite more than once over-ruled my love for science" (Krefft, 1865a, p. 14).
 * "Krefft ... is the only person known to have kept the pig-footed bandicoot Chaeropus ecaudatus in captivity and his observations [viz., at Krefft, 1865a, pp. 12–14] are virtually the only natural history notes on this animal. Krefft's illustration of C. ecaudatus far surpasses the illustration presented in Gould's Mammals of Australia in capturing the essence of the animal, not least because it was drawn from life rather than from a stuffed skin." Menkhorst (2009), p. 65.


 * In 1870 Krefft published the first scientific description of the Queensland lungfish (Krefft, 1870a, 1870b, 1870c, 1870d, 1870e).
 * He is honoured in the scientific names of two reptiles endemic to Australia:
 * Dwarf crowned snake (Cacophis krefftii, (Günther, 1863)), a species of venomous snake.
 * Emydura macquarii krefftii, a subspecies of freshwater turtle.
 * Other fauna also named after him:
 * Freshwater longtom (Strongylura krefftii), is a species of euryhaline needlefish.
 * Krefft's darter (Telicota augias krefftii), a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae, found in the north of Australia.
 * Krefft's glider (Petaurus notatus), whose type specimen Krefft collected, was also named after him.
 * Long-tailed myna (Mino kreffti), a member of the starling family.
 * Northern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii).
 * San Cristobal treefrog (Papurana kreffti).
 * Snub-nosed garfish (Arrhamphus krefftii)
 * The mountain group of Krefftberget in the extreme southwestern part of Barents Island, Svalbard, Norway, was named after him in August 1870, by the Austrian explorer Theodor von Heuglin.
 * Krefft Street, in Florey, Australian Capital Territory is named after him.

Krefft's publications (Books, monographs, pamphlets, in chronological order)

 * Series 02: Gerard Krefft album of watercolour drawings, ca. 1857–1858, 1861, 1866, collection of the State Library of New South Wales.
 * Krefft, G. (1858a), Catalogue of all Specimens of Natural History collected by Mr Blandowski's Party during an Expedition to the Lower Murray in 1857, Melbourne: National Museum of Victoria.
 * Krefft, Gerard (1864), Catalogue of Mammalia in the Collection of the Australian Museum, Sydney: Australian Museum.
 * Krefft, Gerard (1864), "Directions for the Preservation of Specimens", pp. 134–135 in Gerard Krefft, Catalogue of Mammalia in the Collection of the Australian Museum, Sydney: Australian Museum.
 * Krefft, G. (1865a), Two Papers on the Vertebrata of the Lower Murray and Darling; and on the Snakes of Sydney, Read before the Philosophical Society of New South Wales, 10th September, 1862, Sydney: Philosophical Society of New South Wales.
 * Krefft, G (1866), (Mr. Krefft's Report on the Fossil Remains found in the Caves of Wellington Valley, made to the Honorable T. A. Murray, President of the Legislative Council of New South Wales), The Sydney Mail, (22 December 1866), p. 2.
 * Krefft, G. (1868c), Notes on the Fauna of Tasmania, Sydney: F. White. It was also reprinted as an Appendix (at pp. 89–105) to the Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1868.
 * Krefft, G. (1869), The Snakes of Australia: An Illustrated and Descriptive Catalogue of all known Species, Sydney: The Government Printer.
 * Krefft, G. (1870f), Guide to the Australian Fossil Remains, Exhibited by the Trustees of The Australian Museum, and Arranged and Named by Gerard Krefft, F.L.S., Curator and Secretary, Sydney: F. White, Government Printer.
 * Krefft, Gerard, Forde, Helena & Scott, Harriett (1871f), The Mammals of Australia: With a Short Account of all the Species hitherto described, by Gerard Krefft; Illustrated by Harriett Scott and Helena Forde for the Council of Education, T. Richards, Government Printer.
 * Krefft, G. (1872a), On Australian Entozoa, Including a List of the Species Hitherto Recorded, and Descriptions of Sixteen New Tape-worm Colonies: with Figures of Each Drawn from Fresh Specimens, Sydney: J. Reading and Company: reprint of Krefft (1871b).
 * Krefft, G. (1873a), Catalogue of the Minerals and Rocks in the Collection of the Australian Museum, Sydney: Thomas Richards.
 * Krefft, G. (1876), A Few Letters and Testimonials from distinguished Men of Science, addressed to Mr. Gerard Krefft, Curator and Secretary of the Australian Museum, from 1858 to 1874, Sydney: G. Krefft. at SLNSW, pp. 105–108.
 * Krefft (1877), Krefft v. The Australian Museum Corporation: Mr Krefft's last reply to the Crown Solicitor, who defended this case on behalf of the Government], Sydney: J.A. Engel. at SLNSW, pp. 122–124.

Krefft's contributions to academic journals, newspapers, etc.
Krefft was a member of many scientific societies, and contributed papers to the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London and other scientific and popular journals, some of which were also printed separately as pamphlets. For a comprehensive, chronological list (of more than 150 of his contributions), see Whitley (1958, pp. 25–34), with some later additions and modifications to that list at Whitley (1969, pp. 39–42); also, see Mahoney & Ride (1975, pp. 197–215).


 * Krefft, G. (1858b), "A Few Remarks on the Habit and Economy of the Brown-Capped Pomatorhinus (P. ruficeps, Hartlaub)", Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, Vol. 26, (22 June 1858), pp. 352–353.
 * Krefft, G. (10 September 1862), "On the Vertebrated Animals of the Lower Murray and Darling, their Habits, Economy, and Geographical Distribution", Transactions of the Philosophical Society of New South Wales 1862–1865, pp. 1–33.
 * Krefft, Johann Ludwig Gerard (1865b), "On the Manners and Customs of the Aborigines of the lower Murray and Darling", Transactions of the Philosophical Society of New South Wales, 1862–1865, pp. 357–374.
 * Krefft, G. (1868a), "Description of a new species of Thylacine (Thylacinus breviceps), Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Vol.2, No.10, pp. 296–297.
 * Krefft, G. (1868b), "The Improvements Effected in Modern Museums in Europe and Australia", Transactions of the Royal Society of New South Wales for the Year 1868 , (5 August 1868), pp. 15–25.
 * Krefft, G. (1870a), "To the Editor of the Herald", The Sydney Morning Herald, (18 January 1870), p. 5.
 * Krefft, G (1870b), "To the Editor of the Herald", The Sydney Morning Herald, (28 January 1870), p. 3.
 * Krefft, G. (1870c), "Description of a gigantic Amphibian allied to the Genus Lepidosiren, from the Wide-Bay district, Queensland", Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, No.16, (28 April 1870), pp. 221–224.
 * Krefft, G. (1870d), "Ceratodus Forsteri (Letter to the Editor)", The Sydney Morning Herald, (9 June 1870), p. 3.
 * Krefft, G. (1870e), "The Ceratodus Forsteri (Letter to The Editor)", Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, Vol.3, No.58, (8 December 1870), pp. 107–108.
 * Krefft, G. (1871a), "Natural History: The Natural History of New South Wales", The Sydney Mail, (4 March 1871), p. 22.
 * Krefft, G. (1871b), "On Australian Entozoa, with Descriptions of New Species", Transactions of the Entomological Society of New South Wales, Vol.2, (3 July 1871), pp. 206–232.
 * Krefft, G. (1871c), "Natural History: The Natural History of New South Wales", The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, (29 July 1871), p. 697.
 * Krefft, G. (1871d), "Natural History: The Natural History of New South Wales", The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, (9 September 1871), p. 871.
 * Krefft, G. (1871e), "Natural History: The Natural History of New South Wales", The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, (18 November 1871), p. 1211.
 * Krefft, G. (1872b), "To the Editor of the Sydney Mail (on 'Fabulous Australian Animals')", The Sydney Mail, (5 October 1872), p. 422.
 * Krefft, G. (1872c), (Letter to Charles Darwin, dated 30 December 1872), Darwin Correspondence Project.
 * Krefft, G. (1873b), "Natural History", The Sydney Mail, (15 March 1873), p. 343.
 * Krefft, G. (1873c), "Natural History", The Sydney Mail, (17 May 1873), p. 618.
 * Krefft, G. (1873d), "Natural History: Remarks on New Creations", The Sydney Mail, (5 July 1873), p. 20.
 * Krefft, G. (1873e), "Natural History: Remarks on New Hypotheses", The Sydney Mail, (12 July 1873), p. 46.
 * Krefft, G. (1874a), "Natural History", The Sydney Mail, (31 January 1874), p. 146.
 * Krefft, G. (1874b), "The Yellow-Winged Satin Bird (Letter to the Editor)", The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, (28 February 1874), p. 272.
 * Krefft, G. (1874c), "Natural History: Notes on the Yellow-Winged Satin Bird and Professor C. Wyville's Remarks on the Theory of Evolution", The Sydney Mail, (11 April 1874), p. 474.
 * Krefft, G. (1874d), "On the Causes through which Large Groups of Animals become Extinct", The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, (12 December 1874), p. 756.
 * Krefft, G. (1875a), "Natural History: Remarks on the Alteration of Organisms", The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, (3 April 1875), p. 425.
 * Krefft, G. (1875b), "Natural History: Remarks on the Alteration of Organisms", The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, (1 May 1875), p. 558.
 * Krefft, G. (1875c), "Natural History: Remarks on the Alteration of Organisms", The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, (22 May 1875), p. 663.
 * Krefft, G. (1875d), "Natural History: Remarks on the Alteration of Organisms", The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, (29 May 1875), p. 686.

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