McGill Libraries
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Adam, Robert MacNeilledge
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1836–1913
History
Robert MacNielledge Adam was a nineteenth-century British official in India's Inland Customs and Salt Department who became a distinguished collector of natural history specimens. He supplied bird skins and detailed field observations from areas such as Sambhar Lake to the prominent ornithologist Allan Octavian Hume, contributing significantly to the study of Indian birdlife. Through his work, he amassed extensive avian collections and ecological data, and his observations on Indian birds were published in leading natural history journals of the 1870s, including The Ibis and Stray Feathers.
At the same time, museum records from Cheshire document natural history objects, such as a wren's nest from New Ferry, being donated to public collections by individuals named Adam or by people associated with local administration in the Rock Ferry and New Ferry areas. These records highlight a parallel tradition of engagement with natural history among contributors connected with the Adam surname.