This special issue of Centaurus brings together historians from Latin America and Europe to trace the history of some scientific collections and museums, in order to reassess their significance and to draw a more nuanced international geography of the sciences. Our dossier focuses on “provincial” natural history and archaeology museums and collections. For the sake of simplicity, we use the term “provincial” to qualify these “peripheral” spaces that encompassed colonial and post-colonial territories as well as the European provincial regions, but (...) the label is only a convention as some of these collections were sometimes displayed in national capitals. Focusing on objects, people, or institutions, with case studies from Mexico, Uruguay, Peru, Brazil, Northern Italy, Catalonia, and Switzerland, the articles gathered here reveal the scholarly practices and sociability of the many collectors, brokers, and go-betweens acting in the “provinces,” especially those of the amateurs. These essays show the relevance of the history of provincial collections to the wider history of scientific museums. Indeed, the shift of focus from the major institutions of the metropolitan capitals to the many collections and museums created in less central cities and regions sheds light on many issues that have remained in the background within the more centrally focused historiography. (shrink)