Aliases - Prince of M&M

[oldnick]

Do I detect some wish to get all this guy's aliases tidied into one name (COG) at some stage? Would this not be creating new confusion for the future (comparable to those numerous sheets one sees where a curator or typist has transcribed info onto a modern label, and thereby deprived us of vital clues to the site, date or collector etc). If there are ideas of cutting Prince of M&M down to size, then however infuriating his system sometimes is, I do not think this is the issue. Not only do we not yet know the reasons which motivated this colonial arrival in early Victorian society, we must also respect his major collecting effort, of difficult groups of species (plus in other branches of natural science). We do not even know yet which additional collectors are alter egos of him. I would support all steps to signpost between his different names; but would say that anyone in a future time coming across an entry for a specimen, or searching a menu, should always see first of all the name written on the original label, whether that is with or without Napier, Prince, Brocas etc. Perhaps one day he will feature in a major costume drama - he would certainly fit well into a Dickens novel, and may be a classic product of his age. H@H is billed as a heritage project!

[mossysal]

I think this is a timely comment, and hope I have not been guilty of leaps of faith in combining labels! I suspect that some people are for instance putting Otley Groom where there is a Prince of M & M stamp, but I hope I am wrong - or perhaps that is not as bad as doing it to the collector?