Inventories of the Rudolf Pöch Collection at the Vienna Natural History Museum

Following the physical relocation of ethnographical inventories in 1927, many anthropological specimens that date back to Rudolf Pöch have remained at the Natural History Museum’s Anthropological Department. These include approx. 400 photographic negatives of “living pictures of human beings” on glass plates, approx. 100 stereo photographs and approx. 200 original copies from his exploratory journeys as well as several handwritten scripts in the form of diaries, notebooks, travel books and index books, manuscripts and correspondence. All these records concern research activities, travel arrangements, expedition notes as well as numerous sketches. In addition, both his film camera and the still camera which he took along to these trips, together with its accessories, have been preserved.

Some inventories at other departments of the Natural History Museum bear evidence of Rudolf Pöch’s minerological and zoological collections: These include a number of rock samples, bird skins and reptile preparations from Papua New-Guinea and South Africa, a collection consisting of approx. 140 African scorpions, approx. 90 mammal preparations and fur hides from different species, some of which endemic, as well as additional correspondence in the form letters and postcards.