This collection consists of one Victorian wooden box, used for collecting and teaching, that belonged to Catherine Mary of Stirling, from Kippenross House, near Dunblane. It is still complete and fitted with 5 removable trays containing specimens of:
- Animal & Vegetable Substances (such as nut galls, Portuguese cork, a piece of tortoise shell, timber specimens, pearls, etc.)
- Minerals & Metals (such as marble, lead shot in glass bottle, pieces of jet, granite, agate, slate, a metal cube of tin ore, etc.)
- Manufactures & Raw Materials (such as specimens of tannin, leather shoe soles, morocco leather, sheepskin, English cotton, hemp in a glass bottle, different strength of rope, various pieces of glass and pottery, etc.)
- Gums & Miscellaneous (such as gum benzoin, gum myrrh, gum fragacanth, glue gelatin, Indian rubber, chalk, pieces of bone and horn, pieces of white and red coral, etc.)
- Bottles of Spices, Grains, etc. (this tray contains 26 large glass bottles and 6 smaller ones, each bottle contains one substance such as Cassia bark, indigo, camphor, jussia, unrefined sugar, manna, arrow root, piemente, saffron, coffee beans, sago, etc.)
These types of box were assembled for the collector's private use and amusement, and also used as a teaching tool for children: teaching and learning with, about and throughmaterials, in the wake of the early educational reformers like Elizabeth Mayo. Each tray or glass bottle in her collector's box has a piece of paper or card on which Catherine M. Stirling makes extensive manuscript notes about the use, use in manufacturing, origin, or any other interesting relevant information of the specimen; many of these notes are quite substantial.