Compiled by Olivia Beavers, Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at World Museum, National Museums Liverpool.

Welcome to the June edition of NatSCA Digital Digest.

A monthly blog series featuring the latest on where to go, what to see and do in the natural history sector including jobs, exhibitions, conferences and training opportunities. If you have any top tips and recommendations for our next Digest please drop an email to blog@natsca.org.

Sector News

HOGG Conference & Field Meeting

The History of Geology Group (HOGG) conference & Field Meeting in Ireland will take place between Tuesday 15th and Friday 18th August 2023 on ‘Aspects of the history and progress of geology in Ireland’.

The programme includes the one-day conference and three days of field and archive visits, including a visit to the birthplace of modern seismology, and opportunity to look at material not often open to view. There is flexibility – so you do not have to attend all four days of the programme. 

The conference day (15th) is at Trinity College Dublin – and includes aspects of geology that spread from Ireland as well as geology on the island itself.  Very low conference fee of €17 ((£15) cash payable at the conference to include refreshments and lunch. Registration is via Eventbrite by clicking here . More details are provided on the Eventbrite page or email duncan.hawley.hogg@gmail.com

Come to Dublin this August and help make this first post-pandemic HOGG conference a success! We look forward to seeing you.

Best practices for Vertebrate Specimen Preparation Course

This course will teach the basics of how to start a network for passive collections (acquisition through roadkills, window kills, and working with wildlife shelters) and how to preserve vertebrate specimens for the long term as high-quality scientific museum specimens. The course is intended for individuals without any experience in preparing specimens for natural history collections, as well as those who intend to work with natural history collections and need to improve their skills.

The preparation methods will include study skins, fluid preserved specimens, skeletal specimens and spread wings.  This means that we will take dead animals: birds, mammals, fish, and reptiles (as available) and make them into useful specimens. We will also share the best practices for collecting specimen data. Please note: we will not be teaching how to mount animals in a life like pose for exhibits, only as study skins.

Spaces are limited to a maximum of 8 trainees so if you’re interested click here to find out more and register for free. Only the trainees who are selected to participate on the course will be requested to pay the fees (400€ – Includes coffee and lunches). This will happen after the registration deadline, 20 June 2023.

Care and Management of Natural History Collections
Registration is open for the online edition of the course Care and Management of Natural History Collections.

Dates and Times: Online live sessions on the 28th and 30th of August, and 1st, 4th, 6th and 8th of September, from 16:00 to 18.00 and from 18:30 to 20:30 (Madrid time zone). The rest of the time will be taught with pre-recorded lectures to watch asynchronously.

Course Overview: Using a combination of lectures, discussions, demonstrations, and readings, this course will teach participants how to better care for and manage all natural history collections (including botany, geosciences, and zoology). The importance of the collections storage environment is emphasized, as well as the identification and selection of inert materials, testing locally available materials, adapting collections care standards to particular environmental conditions, and good management through sound policies and collection planning.

Rather than the traditional discipline-based approach, the course teaches collections care based on collection material and preparation type―dry preparations, wet preparations, and documentation (including paper-based and electronic media). The course will benefit individuals who already have experience in caring for natural history collections, as well as those who intend to work with natural history collections.

More information and registrations: https://www.transmittingscience.com/courses/museums-and-collections/care-management-natural-history-collections/

NatSCA Lunchtime Chats

The new lunchtime chats are for members only and run on the last Thursday of every month.

This series is supposed to be informal; no fancy equipment is needed; it will be put out over the NatSCA Zoom platform and there is no fixed format. For those who want to take part please email training@natsca.org to put forward your idea. Bring your sandwiches and a cuppa and we hope to see you on the day! All members will have received a link to join via Zoom (the same link works for all sessions) – if you haven’t, get in touch with membership@natsca.org

Where to Visit

Ruth Moilliet – Devotions to the Goddess Flora 

Saturday 24 June marks the opening of a new flower-filled temporary exhibition at Gallery Oldham, running until 7 October.

The exhibition title comes from a paper written by the nineteenth century botanist Thomas Rogers. He travelled from Oldham to Scotland to study and collect mountain plant species now preserved at Gallery Oldham. A further expedition included the botanist James Nield who wrote a second paper. These papers were preserved in a unique and beautifully bound book, Botanical Excursions, Breadalbane and Grampians 1874 –1876, made by the Rogers family. Most of the species collected are now endangered.

Twenty-three watercolour illustrations were added to the pages by two unknown illustrators. All the floral plates have been photographed and framed and will appear alongside the book, as will herbarium specimens collected on these two expeditions which are now in the care of Gallery Oldham. 

Plants and nature have always been an inspiration for Ruth Moilliet’s work. Ruth has created a response to these written accounts and the plight of these plant species by creating larger-than-life sculptures, made from discarded single use plastics. Together these flowers will form a huge hanging installation. Climate change results from human excess, demonstrating disregard for the delicate balance of our planet. Ruth’s work is created from recycled materials, in particular discarded plastic. The work is bright, beautiful and to be enjoyed, but there is a dark message behind this…

Tanyptera Trust events

There are several upcoming Tanyptera Trust events including invertebrate recording days at Childwall Woods (25 June 2023), Ribble Estuary (28 June 2023), Hilbre Island (5 July 2023), Smithills (7 July 2023) and a Dragonflies and Damselflies Weekend Workshop (15 – 16 July 2023). Click here for more information.

What to Read

New Blogs

There are two new NatSCA blogs to read this month. Verity Burke, John Pollard Newman Fellow of Climate Change and the Arts, University College Dublin, recaps on the topics that came out of the first season of  Unpacking the Unnatural History Museum (Season 1). 

Clare Brown, NatSCA Membership Secretary & Curator of Natural Science, Leeds Museums and Galleries, Leeds Discovery Centre,  tells us the intriguing account of How a Giant Panda – possibly named Grandma – ended up at Leeds City Museum.

Sampling the roof of the world: what’s in a label? – a blog by Dr Douglas Palmer, Museum Information Developer, Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, celebrates the 70^th Anniversary of the first successful ascent of Mt. Everest.

Plants as potential sources of antimalarials

Kew and partners reviewed 21,000 plant species and believe more than a third may have antimalarial properties.  You can read the open access paper on Machine learning enhances predictions of plants as potential sources of antimalarials.

New Book

If you’re looking for a new book, you might want to try ‘In the Herbarium: The Hidden World of Collecting and Preserving Plants’  from Yale University Press by Maura C. Flannery.

Where to Work

Manchester Museum are looking for a new Curator of Entomology (Full time, Permanent, £35, 308 – £43, 155). You can find out more about the position here. 

The Natural History Museum are looking for a short-term Conservation Assistant to help with a temporary exhibition. The closing date is 9am (BST), 22nd June 2023. Click here for more information.

Before You Go…

If you have any top tips and recommendations for our next Digest please drop an email to blog@natsca.org. Similarly, if you have something to say about a current topic, or perhaps you want to tell us what you’ve been working on, we welcome new blog articles so please drop Jen an email if you have anything you would like to submit.