Cuming was born at West Alvington in Devon, and emigrated to Chile at the age of 28. He began collecting shells in the South Pacific region in 1821, returning to England in 1831. Between 1836 and 1839 he visited the Philippines.
Cuming's collection of 82,992 specimens was purchased by the Natural History Museum in 1866 for £6,000. Many important conchological works were based on this collection, including Reeve's Conchologia Iconica (1843-1878, 20 volumes) and the Sowerbys' Thesaurus Conchyliorum (1842-1887, five volumes).
