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This article will focus on the Auguste and Louise Le Rat collection preserved at the musée des Beaux-Arts et de la Dentelle of Alençon. From 1900, Auguste Le Rat was assigned by the Ministry For The Colonies in Noumea to work as a primary school teacher. He moved there with his wife. In New-Caledonia, they collected many botanic samples during their free time and sent them to the Jardin colonial in Nogent-sur-Marne and to the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. This collection has been documented in several specialised publications which shows the interest of scholars for it. However, the lack of data related to the objects donated to the museum in 1937 calls us to question the place of these artefacts in the overall collecting activity.