Dr. Stephen Sleightholme, Project Director of the International Thylacine Specimen Database (ITSD) states:

    "Of the 756 known thylacine specimens listed within the 5th revision of the International Thylacine Specimen Database, only a small number were acquired by dedicated zoologists and naturalists, the majority of specimens entering collections from other sources".  Among the scientific collectors, several names are worthy of special mention. 

Alexander Morton (1854-1907):

    The American born zoologist Alexander Morton was appointed the Curator of the Royal Society of Tasmania's Museum in Hobart in 1884.  His previous appointment was as assistant curator at the Australian Museum in Sydney.  He was made director of the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery in 1903, and remained in this post until 1907.  Morton's contribution to the collection of thylacine specimens was significant, in that he actively encouraged the donation of thylacines killed for the government bounty to the museum for the purpose of exchange with collections interstate and overseas. 
 

The Council of the Royal Society of Tasmania appreciated that the rarity of the colony's native animals could be put to great advantage in building their fledgling collections through exchanges with other museums around the world.  The Mercury of the 31st March 1884 (p. 3) notes:     "The Council of the Royal Society are desirous of doing all in their power to make the Tasmanian collection as complete and comprehensive as possible.  Residents in the country districts might render the Council material assistance in this respect, by forwarding skeletons of native animals of any description, geological specimens, etc.  Numbers of Tasmanian tigers, for instance are destroyed every year in different parts of the colony, which if skinned and roughly fleshed would be very acceptable at the museum, for even if of no use here they can be exchanged with advantage with kindred institutions in other parts of the world".

. Alexander Morton.  Courtesy: Archives Office of Tasmania (Ref: NS738-1-1623).

    The Launceston Examiner of the 5th September 1888 (p. 4) published a request from Morton to the Deloraine Municipal Council for the bodies of native Tigers:

    "A circular from Mr. A. Morton, Curator of the Tasmanian Museum, was read, asking to be supplied with the bodies of native tigers and devils".

    In 1897, Morton donated several thylacine specimens to the Western Australian Museum in Perth (M3318, M17189).  He also donated a specimen of the female reproductive tract to the British embryologist James Peter Hill in 1902.  This specimen, like many of Morton's other specimens, still exists and is now preserved in the collection of the Museum für Naturkunde (Humboldt University) in Berlin [ZMHU MA840].  In 1905/6, Morton donated specimens to the Natural History Museum in Vienna [NHMW 3089, NHMW ST132], and during his tenure as both curator and director of the Tasmanian Museum, he exchanged and donated skins, skulls and skeletons to the Australian Museum in Sydney (Source: ITSD, 5th revision, 2013).

    All of the thylacine specimens in the Museo di Storia Naturale "La Specola" in Florence were collected by the Italian zoologist Professor Enrico Giglioli.  No other collection data is noted (Source: ITSD, 5th revision, 2013).  Giglioli developed a good working relationship with Alexander Morton, sending the museum consignments of specimens.  Under the heading "Additions to the Museum", the Mercury newspaper of the 31st May 1893 (p. 2) notes:

    "Professor Giglioli, the director of the Royal Museum, Florence, Italy, has communicated with Mr. A. Morton, the Curator of the Tasmanian Museum, informing him that he has dispatched to that institution a large collection of specimens of zoology, ethnology, and archaeology".

    It is highly probable that Giglioli's generosity was reciprocated, and that most, if not all, of the museum's thylacine specimens were obtained via exchanges with the Tasmanian Museum.

Ronald Campbell Gunn (1808 - 1881):

    Ronald Campbell Gunn of Launceston (Tasmania) was both a politician and botanist.  He, together with his good friend Dr. James Grant, procured London Zoo's first thylacines, which went on display at the Regent's Park Zoo on the 16th May 1850.  In addition to live thylacines, Gunn sent several consignments of thylacine specimens to the Natural History Museum in London [BMNH: 1839.6.11.3, 1852.1.16.7, 1852.1.16.8, 1972.178], and to the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons [RCSE Catalogue (Osteology), Vol. I., Specimens: 1903, 1904, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, & 1913] (Source: ITSD, 5th revision, 2013).
 

In a footnote to a paper published by Professor Owen in the Journal of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1845) it notes:     "Entire and well preserved bodies of the thylacine have since been transmitted by Ronald Gunn Esq., to the Royal College of Surgeons".     In the minutes of the Tasmanian Society dated 2nd September 1847, it states:     "Read extracts from a letter from Professor Owen to Mr Ronald C. Gunn, wherein he expresses an anxious desire to obtain an impregnated Platypus or Echidna preserved in spirits.  Also the brains of the Thylacinus and Dasyurus (Devil of the colonists) with a view to making out the internal structure.  A skull broken open and immersed in strong spirits would give the required opportunity.  Mr Gunn expressed his hope that some of the members would aid him in procuring these desiderata for that eminent comparative anatomist Professor Owen".

. Ronald Campbell Gunn. Source:  Maiden, J. H., 1912. Records of Australian Botanists (first Supplement), Report of the Thirteenth Meeting of the Aust. Assoc. Adv. Sci., Plate 20.