For 150 years, from the 17th century onward, South African marine invertebrate taxonomy was in the hands of overseas specialists, specimens typically reaching them via “cabinets of curiosities”. A more rigorous approach was adumbrated with the establishment of the South African Museum in 1825, the arrival of professional and semi-professional collectors and, in the second half of the 19th century, the great marine exploratory expeditions. A signal event was the appointment of John D.F. Gilchrist, as South Africa's first resident marine biologist, in 1895, followed by Keppel Barnard's arrival in 1911. Barnard monographed the crustaceans and molluscs, as well as some minor groups, and this was later to be accomplished for the polychaetes by John Day and for the hydroids by Naomi Millard. Few other groups have received such rigorous treatment and some (e.g. bryozoans and subtidal sponges) remain little known. Despite much invertebrate biogeographical work, the key investigator remains Alan Stephenson, in the 1930s; the concepts he developed require only slight modification in the light of subsequent findings. More attention needs to be devoted to marine invertebrate taxonomy and zoogeography if the high standard of marine research achieved in South Africa is to be maintained.