Author Archives for emmalouisenicholls

Is it ever acceptable for museums to lie?

Reblogged from the UCL Museums and Collections Blog

Is it ever acceptable for museums to lie?

By Jack Ashby, Grant Museum of Zoology

I ask this question to our Museum Studies Masters students every year, and last month put it to our new Bachelor of Arts and Sciences students. Despite the difference in the age, background and interests of these two groups, the reaction is the same – anger and horror. I am playing devil’s advocate in these debates, but my own opinion is yes, there are circumstances when everyone benefits from museums lying.

The lectures I discuss this in focus on object interpretation, and I use a tiger skull as a prop for discussing how to decide what information to include in labels. The choice of a tiger isn’t important – I just need something to use as an example I can attached real facts about natural history and conservation to, but I spend the two hours talking about tigers.

Lion (left) and tiger (right) skulls. Or is it the other way round? LDUCZ-Z1644 and LDUCZ-Z396

Lion (left) and tiger (right) skulls. Or is it the other way round? LDUCZ-Z1644 and LDUCZ-Z396

At the end of the lecture I reveal that the skull is in fact from a lion. Everything else I told them about tigers is true. Did it matter that I lied?

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NatSCA Digital Digest

Welcome to the weekly digest of posts from around the web with relevance to natural science collections. We hope you find this useful and if you have any articles that you feel would be of interest, please contact us at blog@natsca.org

1. Blog: ARKive’s Top Ten Eggs

Kathryn Pintus, ARKive

Kathryn Pintus
Kathryn Pintus

Synopsis

For those of us with a public programme to fill each holiday season, ideas and inspiration from other sources can never be too much or too numerous. I for one know first hand what it is like to keep trying to deliver a programme that is constantly fresh and original. As we egg-sit (sorry) another Easter of promoting eggs, egg-laying, anything eggy or egg-like that we have in our collections, I thought you may appreciate a pick me up. Here is a refreshing and quirky blog from ARKive that should do the trick.

ARKive’s Top Ten Eggs

Peacock butterfly eggs. © John Bebbington FRPS

Peacock butterfly eggs. © John Bebbington FRPS

Continue reading →

NatSCA Digital Digest

Welcome to the weekly digest of posts from around the web with relevance to natural science collections. We hope you find this useful and if you have any articles that you feel would be of interest, please contact us at blog@natsca.org

1. Blog: NatureBase: Observe, Conserve, Protect

Sam Misan

Synopsis

One of the wonderful things about working in museums is the opportunity to inspire young minds. Cliche? Yes, maybe. But that doesn’t make it not true! The Grant Museum recently had a young visitor who told them about his like for blogging about museums that he visits, as well as his own collection of natural history objects. It is great to see how we are viewed by the upcoming generations of natural sciencers, and thought you’d enjoy a perusal of his blog.

NatureBase

2. References: Subject Specialist Networks

Various

Synopsis

Subject specialist networks are an integral tool for sharing information between museum professionals (and others) and tapping into the wealth of knowledge that may otherwise not be written down. The following website gives a list of SSNs, including many that are relevant to natural sciences.

Subject Specialist Networks

Compiled by Emma-Louise Nicholls, NatSCA Blog Editor

NatSCA Digital Digest

Welcome to the weekly digest of posts from around the web with relevance to natural science collections. We hope you find this useful and if you have any articles that you feel would be of interest, please contact us at blog@natsca.org

1. Blog: Eton College, Natural History Museum

George Fussey, Curator, and colleagues

Synopsis

Rather than drawing your attention to a specific article on this blog, I am rather pointing out that this blog exists in case you hadn’t yet come across it. Having been to the Natural History Museum at Eton College myself, I can tell you that it is well worth the visit. I had the great pleasure of being shown around the Museum by Curator George Fussey, and there are certainly treasures to be seen there. I encourage you to have a look at this blog, it may be one of great interest to many people in our sector.

Eton College, Natural History Museum Blog

If you think our platy is a fatty, you should see the one at Eton! Specimen LDUCZ-Z20 (C) UCL / Grant Museum

If you think the Grant Museum’s platy is a fatty (above), you should see the one at Eton! Specimen LDUCZ-Z20 (C) UCL / Grant Museum

2. Conference: Radiation and Extinction: Investigating Clade Dynamics in Deep Time

The Linnean Society of London, 10-11th November 2014

Synopsis

To address the issues in the modern day caused by global warming, this conference aims to look at the past. It will focus on:

“Determining the causes and drivers of evolutionary dynamics is central to our understanding of life on Earth. What factors shaped the modern biota? Why did some groups go extinct, whilst others survived and radiated? Why are some groups so much more diverse than others? What will happen to organisms as the Earth continues to warm up?”

Radiation and Extinction: Investigating Clade Dynamics in Deep Time

A representative of extinction- the dodo head cast. Specimen LDUCZ-Y86 (C) UCL / Grant Museum

A representative of extinction- the dodo head cast at the Grant Museum of Zoology. Specimen LDUCZ-Y86 (C) UCL / Grant Museum

3. Training: Documentation Training Course

Museum of London, Docklands, 25th April 2014

Synopsis

Museum volunteers are invited to attend this course run as part of the Regional Museums Development programme. The course is designed to look at how to deal with issues of documentation, as well as the theory behind collections management.

Contact kwebbgreen@museumoflondon.org.uk to book.

Compiled by Emma-Louise Nicholls, NatSCA Blog Editor

NatSCA Digital Digest

Welcome to the weekly digest of posts from around the web with relevance to natural science collections. We hope you find this useful and if you have any articles that you feel would be of interest, please contact us at blog@natsca.org

1. Blog: Natural Support from Colleagues

Jan Freedman, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery

Synopsis

The way to best manage and safeguard our natural history collections is to ask for help and guidance from each other, says Freedman. He talks about the different types of natural sciences collections and hazards that we should look out for.

http://www.museumsandheritage.com/advisor/news/item/3242

To care for and manage our collections, Freedman explains why it's best to ask each other for help. The smilodon cast LDUCZ-Z2724 at the Grant Museum of Zoology. (C) UCL / Grant Museum of Zoology

To care for and manage our collections, Freedman explains why it’s best to ask each other for help. The Smilodon cast LDUCZ-Z2724 at the Grant Museum of Zoology. (C) UCL / Grant Museum of Zoology

2. Blog: On the Origin of Our Specimens

Emma-Louise Nicholls, Grant Museum of Zoology

Synopsis

In a 12 part series, Nicholls looks at each of the curators that have cared for the collections at the Grant Museum over the last 186 years. Illustrating the series with specimens that can be directly attributed to specific curators, she tells the story of the Museum by demonstrating how each curator added to and steered the development of the collections.

http://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/museums/tag/on-the-origin-of-our-specimens/

The Grant Museum as it was in the 1880s. (C) UCL / Grant Museum of Zoology

The Grant Museum as it was in the 1880s. (C) UCL / Grant Museum of Zoology

3. Paper: Natural History’s Place in Science and Society

Joshua j. Tewksbury, John G. T. Anderson, Jonathan D. Bakker, Timothy J. Billo, Peter W. Dunwiddie, Martha J. Groom, Stephanie E. Hampton, Steven G. Herman, Douglas J. Levey, Noelle J. Machnicki, Carlos Martínez del Rio, Mary E. Power, Kirsten Rowell, Anne K. Salomon, Liam Stacey, Stephen C. Trombulak and Terry A. Wheeler.

Synopsis

An interesting look at how natural history is of vital importance to a wide range of disciplines. Despite this, it seems that there has been a decline in support for natural history in developed economies. The paper argues that the support should be reinforced as natural history provides a significant benefit to society.

http://bioscience.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/03/23/biosci.biu032.full

Compiled by Emma-Louise Nicholls, NatSCA Blog Editor