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Sir Ashton Lever was born into landed gentry in 1729. At the family home of Alkrington Hall near Manchester, Lever developed a keen interest in ornithology at a young age, and quickly formed an aviary of nearly four thousand birds, gaining a reputation as one of the finest in Britain. His Natural History collection, originally housed at Alkrington Hall, is said to have started in 1760, when he bought a large number of foreign shells from Dunkirk. By 1773, an article in The Gentleman's Magazine referenced Lever's collection, noting that it consisted of thirteen hundred glass cases "placed in three rooms besides four sides of rooms shelved from top to bottom with glass doors before them". Lever regarded his collection as one of Natural History, an area dominated by "gentlemen amateurs" who observed, collected and recorded their artefacts as a hobby. Very few of these private collectors published their findings, however Lever was later to write frequently with regards to his collection, wishing to encourage "the pursuit of natural knowledge", regarded as useful and appropriate to a gentleman's standing. Despite this sentiment, some felt that his obsession for collecting "was, in any case, collecting on a scale and of such energy likely to breach the standards of gentlemanly decorum." Not only was Natural History collecting a hobby, but it was regarded as a popular topic of conversation among the gentry, "not just in the field or in cabinets, but at fairs, markets, in taverns or in the streets". It was in this spirit that Lever held a public display of his stuffed specimens at the King's Arms in Manchester in 1766.

Lever's museum at Alkrington proved to be very popular, attracting visitors of all classes, however, he had to sell some of his land in Lancashire to fund his insatiable desire to own every curious' object he could lay his hands on. In 1774, anticipating an increasing interest of his ever-growing collection, Lever leased Leicester House in London's Leicester Fields (now Square) for the sum of 600 per annum. The Holophusikon, as he named it, opened in February 1775, with an entry fee of half a guinea. Charging an entrance fee was necessary in order to pay the lease and to fund additions to the collection, however was frowned upon, given Lever's social standing.

In 1775 Captain James Cook returned from his second voyage to the South Seas, providing some of the first items for European collections of Pacific ethnography. Private

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