NatSCA Digital Digest – November 2026

Compiled by Ellie Clark, Curator of Fossil Cnidaria at the Natural History Museum.

Welcome to the November edition of NatSCA Digital Digest.

Digital Digest is 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. We are keen to hear from you if you have any top tips and recommendations for our next Digest, please drop an email to blog@natsca.org.

Sector News

Call for article proposals: Art and Museum Collections—Connections across disciplines

This special issue of Collections (SAGE) explores the relationships between art and museum and related collections across disciplines. They are inviting contributions examining how art interacts with, interprets, and transforms collections, encompassing not only fine art but also natural history specimens, scientific instruments, archaeological objects, books, archives, and other forms of material and visual culture. The issue also asks how disciplinary classifications have shaped the interpretation of collections, and how artistic and curatorial practices can reconsider these categories and the authority to interpret objects.

Continue reading →

Partnering with Communities to Expand Knowledge and Understanding of Entomology Collections at Manchester Museum

Written by Diana Arzuza Buelvas, Curator of Entomology & Lucy Edematie, Curator of African Collections from Colonial Contexts, Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester.

Manchester Museum cares for more than 4.5 million items across humanities and natural sciences. Approximately 40,000 came from the continent of Africa. Gaps and silences in the museum records mean that collections are often under-provenanced. When places and communities of origin are listed, they are not always accurate. And while we learn the names and opinions of donors and collectors, the records do not reflect the voices and perspectives of communities from which items were taken. 

Inspired by ‘Ubuntu’ an African philosophy centred on connectedness, justice and reconciliation, Manchester Museum and African community partners are collaborating on a project funded by The John Ellerman Foundation. Titled Ubuntu: A Connected Approach to African Collections from Colonial Contexts, the project seeks to:

  • Reconnect African collections with communities for whom they are important.  
  • Provide a framework to facilitate collaborative research between the Museum and African partners based locally and further afield. 
  • Develop long-term relationships with African community partners. These communities are important not only as co-researchers, but also as voices shaping the future of African collections and their interpretation in museums.

Continue reading →

Living in Spirits: The Molecular Revival of Fluid Collections

Written by Dr Shea (Tiffany) Slater, Taphonomist, Experimental Officer, University College Cork.

Valuable Biodiversity Archives

Fluid-preserved collections are increasingly valued as long-term biodiversity archives that can help us understand environmental change and biodiversity loss. Spirit collections contain specimens from taxonomic groups that are now of considerable conservation interest, including lampreys, seahorses, sharks and other ecologically important or understudied species. These specimens have traditionally been used for taxonomic and morphological study but are increasingly recognised as valuable molecular resources.

While recently collected specimens stored in ethanol are widely known to preserve DNA, formalin-preserved specimens have long been considered unsuitable for genomic research. In recent years, however, researchers have shown that genomic data can be recovered from many of these specimens using bespoke extraction protocols for highly altered DNA. These advances have helped unlock millions of museum specimens for molecular research, with recent studies exploring historical microbiomes and genome expression through time.

Historic sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) preserved in fluid held in the University College Cork Natural Collections.

Continue reading →

The Big Moss Makeover

Written by Hannah Jenkins, Assistant Curator, Natural Sciences, Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.

The botany collection at National Museum Cardiff, Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, contains approximately 726,000 botanical specimens from across the world, including around 310,000 bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts).

Most of our moss specimens (approximately 225,000) are stored in conservation grade packets, however unlike some herbaria, these packets are not mounted on to herbarium sheets but instead are filed directly into drawers within our herbarium.

Large divided wooden drawers housing individual specimen packets © Amgueddfa Cymru

However, tucked away, we also have a small number of outsized bryophyte specimens, the majority of which are mosses, mounted directly on herbarium sheets. This is in a similar vein to some of the historical exsiccatae they are stored with but is a technique more commonly associated with vascular plant herbaria.

Continue reading →

Where are the Women? Uncovering Hidden Connections to Calke Abbey’s Natural History Collection

Written by Julie Griffith, Property Experience Curator, Calke Abbey, National Trust.

Exploring the stories of Selina (1822-1905), Georgiana (1824-1910) and Matilda (1831-1899) Lovell, uncovers three curious and accomplished women. With interests in botany and conchology and stretching from Derbyshire to Australia, their story is of both individual achievement and natural history connecting sisters across the globe.

With existing narratives around Calke Abbey’s natural history collection overwhelmingly male focussed, recent research into the three Lovell sisters aims to bring women’s stories and connections to natural history into the spotlight at this country house property.

Selina Lovell (1822-1905). Credit: National Trust/David Midgelow
Georgiana Lovell (1824-1910). Credit: National Trust/Ian Buxton, David Midgelow and Brian Birch
Matilda Lovell (1831-1899). AI created image

Who were the Lovell sisters?

The Lovell sisters were closely related to the Harpur Crewe family of Calke Abbey through their mother, Selina Crewe (d.1838), a daughter of Sir Henry, Calke’s 7th Baronet and Nanny, Lady Crewe. Their father, Vice-Admiral William Stanhope Lovell (c.1788-1859) was a distinguished naval officer and veteran of the Battle of Trafalgar.

Continue reading →