Compiled by Ellie Clark, Collections Moves Team Leader at the Natural History Museum.
Welcome to the February 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. 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
The Society for the History of Natural History (SHNH) Early Career Researcher Symposium – Registration open
The Early Career Researcher Symposium is an event dedicated expressly to showcase research into the history of natural history being done by doctoral and early career researchers across the globe.
This online event will be on Thursday 22 February 2024. Registration is free but required. You can find the programme along with more information here.
The SHNH have a range of other events happening throughout the year including a joint seminar with the Animal History Group, a visit to the University Herbarium at Winterbourne House and Gardens, as well as their Annual Conference. Note that their AGM will be held online and separate from the conference to ensure as many members as possible can attend.
Geological Curators Group 50 Year Anniversary – Call for Abstracts
The Geological Curators Group 50 Year Anniversary will be held from the 17th – 18th of May 2024 at the University of Leicester.
Day 1: Presentations on the theme of past, present and future of geological collections at the University of Leicester. Reception at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery, followed by an evening meal.
Day 2: Presentations and tours at British Geological Survey Nottingham and Charnwood Forest Geopark
Please send abstracts of up to 250 words to events@geocurator.org and state whether it is for a poster or platform presentation. Abstract deadline is 1st March 2024. Presenters will be invited to submit papers for a special golden anniversary issue of Geological Curator.
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. 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.
Bicentenary Symposium: ‘Enormous Fossil Animal and Almost Perfect Skeleton’.
Last chance to register for this event organised by the History of Geology Group and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. It will be held on Wednesday 21st February 2024 to mark the first detailed accounts of the Megalosaurus (Buckland) and Plesiosaurus (Conybeare), read at the Geological Society meeting of February 20th 1824. The OUMNH is the home of the Megalosaurus type material, the first dinosaur ever scientifically described. These iconic specimens will be on display for a private view for delegates, during the symposium. Registration closes this Friday, 9th February.
For registration and further details, please visit: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/historyofgeologygroup/1071297.
Where to Visit
Growing a backbone: Rise of the vertebrates
The University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge have a new exhibition running from the 1st of February to the 15th of September 2024.
Heads, jaws, teeth, backbones, limbs. The evolution of these key features has allowed the vertebrates – animals with backbones – to diversify to include species as different as sharks, frogs, turtles, eagles, elephants, and humans. But how and why do these features evolve?
Modern and fossil specimens from the museum collections join with scientific discoveries – including new research at the University of Cambridge – to reveal how adaptations for feeding, swimming, flying, running, and crawling have evolved. Stretching across the museum galleries, this exhibition will reveal the evidence for major turning points in evolution, such as the origins of jaws and teeth, how turtles got their shell, the deep history of the human spine and how snakes have lost, and may have regained, their legs.
Exhibition and Museum entry are free. More information can be found here.
New Diorama at the Booth Museum of Natural History
Exciting news from Booth Museum of Natural History – a unique urban garden diorama by talented, ethical taxidermist Jazmine Miles-Long is the latest addition. Designed with insights from young visitors, the display will be a permanent feature in the museum, marking the first new diorama in a century, generously funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.
More information can be found here.
What to Read
New paper from the Colligo Journal, outlining the creation of a catalogue of the dispersed collection of land snails of the Macaronesian Islands described and attributed to R. T. Lowe. A great example, of the co-operation of collection managers and the problems of dispersed collections.
‘Taxidermy and the Country House: Where Natural History meets Social History‘, the latest book from Pat Morris, is now available to purchase.
Check out a series of guides from Curating Tomorrow, on taking action for sustainable development, localising SDGs through museums and libraries and mainstreaming biodiversity in museums.
And the latest blog: Snagged Setae 2, The Sequel: Packing Materials After 14 Years in Fluid Storage written by Lu Allington-Jones, Wren Montgomery and Emma Sherlock, discusses research into a suitable replacement for cotton wool as bungs for vials holding small fluid-stored specimens.
Where to Work
Kew are recruiting for a number of roles including a Collections Manager – Economic Botany Collection (deadline 18/02/2024) and an Acquisitions Assistant (Books/Serials) (deadline 25/02/2024).
The American Museum of Natural History is looking for a Collections manager, Earth & Planetary Sciences (deadline 09/02/2024).
The Natural History Museum of Denmark are now advertising for a new Deputy Director of Collections. Click on the link for more information and how to apply: Deputy Museum Director of Collections at the Natural History Museum of Denmark Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen (hr-manager.net)
They are also advertising for a new Vertebrates Collections Manager, but be quick, the deadline is 11th February! Samlingsmedarbejder i vertebrat zoologi til Statens Naturhistoriske Museum/Collections Manager in vertebrate zoology at the Natural History Museum of Denmark (ku.dk)
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.
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