Funding Unsuccessful. This project reached the deadline without achieving its funding goal on 10/07/2015.

The project

The specimen of Asian elephant, dating back to the eighteenth century, is a two years old female, that departed from bengala on February 12th , 1772, aboard of the ship “Gange” of the East India Company. A few months later landed in Brittany and made a long journey by foot, under the curious eyes of the French people, arriving few months later at the palace of Versailles where remained at the court of the king as an attraction for noble guests of the villa. The elephant died in 1782, drowning in a channel that flowed through the sumptuous park. In 1812 the specimen arrived in Pavia, donated to the Natural History Museum of the University which was founded thirty years earlier, by the will of Maria Theresa of Austria and which was, in the early nineteenth century, strongly supported by Napoleon Bonaparte.

The elephant will be displayed to the public for the first time, back from a long period of abandonment that has seen it stored for 60 years in the attic of the Visconti Castle of Pavia. The specimen was transferred to Palazzo Botta in December 2014, and it will initially undergo a thorough cleaning job and then fully restored to stem the damage from his skin over the centuries.


LINK

http://www.scienzaingiro.it
http://www.Platypus.it
http://www.regione.lombardia.it/

Goals

The purpose of the project is:

- Clean-up on the skin of the mounted specimen
- Proceed with restoration work to heal skin damages and fill up missing pieces
- Promote the historical and scientific value of the elephant of the Natural History Museum of Pavia that is the oldest mounted specimen of an Indian elephant in the world.

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Rewards

All donations will be recognized on the website.

The most generous donor will have the opportunity to choose a name for the elephant that, according to bibliographic research, never seems to have had a nickname. The proposed name will be examined by the project team.

Donors who provide at least 30,00 euro will get guided tours of the Natural History Museum , of the University of Pavia, guided tours of the historic halls of the University of Pavia.

Team

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Giorgio Mellerio

Prof. | Founder

Giorgio Mellerio

Prof. | Founder
Giorgio G. Mellerio was born in 1950. He studied chemistry at the University of Pavia. Since 1973 he worked on mass spectrometry being founder and then director of mass spectrometry laboratory of the same University. From 1990 to 2007 he was responsible of Centro Grandi Strumenti, a multi-purpose structure that collects instruments such as hyphenated mass spectrometers (GC/MS, LC/MS). He spent a short period at Karolinska Institutet, Department of Clinical Chemistry, Sweden, studying steroid metabolism by selected ion detection in gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. His research interests include interpretation of mass spectra with computer methods, computational chemistry, mass spectra data bases and chromatographic separation of organic compounds in complex mixtures from natural origin. From 1998 Giorgio Mellerio is professor of Physical Methods in Organic Chemistry at University of Pavia. He is author of 70 papers and communications. He is fellow of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry and Italian Mass Spectrometry Group (DSM-SCI) and also member of national Board of Directors (2014 - 2016). He also had a long-standing interest in the history of chemistry and in the last ten years he became deeply involved in historical studies of his University. From 1999 member of the Museum of Chemistry, from 2010 director of the Natural History Museum, now he also serves as Vice-president of Sistema Museale d’Ateneo.
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Stefano Maretti

Dott.

Stefano Maretti

Dott.
Graduated in Biological Sciences at the University of Milan. Since 1999 works at the Natural History Museum of the University of Pavia as curator of zoological collections, he organizes both teaching projects and exhibitions. He is expert in the restoration of historical specimens and in the preparation of modern material. Published several publications related to museology and the collections of the museum.
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Paolo Guaschi

Dott.

Paolo Guaschi

Dott.
Has a degree in Natural Sciences. His work focuses on the restoration of specimens and Museum’s research. He also cooperates to the creation of exhibits for science education and to several University projects for the dissemination of science and cultural heritage.
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Edoardo Razzetti

Dott.

Edoardo Razzetti

Dott.
Degree in Biological Sciences. Since 2002 he is one of the Curators of the of the Natural History Museum. Works on the inventory, care and conservation of the zoological collections, identifies, studies the specimens. He cooperates to the organization of conferences and teaching projects, holds scientific seminars and conducts guided tours. His research focuses on taxonomy distribution and biology of vertebrate fauna, he has authored over 60 scientific publications and few monographs.
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Jessica Maffei

Dott.

Jessica Maffei

Dott.
Degree in Modern Literature and Archival Science, Documentary and librarianship. She is author of several publications on the historical and artistic heritage of Pavia. She conducted teaching projects, lectures, conferences, guided tours and is member of the journalist association. Since 2010 works at the Natural History Museum of the University of Pavia, managing the organization of events, teaching projects and promotion.

Backers

  1. Amici dell'elefantessa dell'elefantessa
  2. Amici dell'elefantessa
  3. Amici dell'Elefantessa
  4. Pamela Morellini
  5. Amici dell'Elefantessa
  6. Amici dell'Elefantessa
  7. Amici dell'Elefantessa
  8. Amici dell'Elefantessa
  9. Amici dell'elefantessa dell'elefantessa
  10. Carlo Violani
  11. Paolo Guaschi
  12. Visitatori via Guffanti CR7
  13. Gloria Rezzani
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  • Minimum Donation

  • Donors who provide at least 30,00 euro will get guided tours of the Natural History Museum