Category Archives for Using Collections

The Life and Work of Botanist Catherine Muriel Rob – New Herbarium Exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum

Written by Anna Robson, Associate Collections Curator – Biology, York Museums Trust

A new foyer case exhibition titled ‘The Life and Work of Botanist Catherine ‘Kit’ Rob: An insider’s look at the Yorkshire Museum’s Herbarium’ is now on display at the Yorkshire Museum. This exhibition displays the herbarium in a new light, being one of the only times the museum has exhibited the dried plant specimens to the public. It is also a special exhibit of material from Kit’s personal paper archive which has been kindly loaned by the University of York’s Borthwick Institute for Archives.

The Yorkshire Museum’s herbaria contain thousands of specimens, with its origins in the Yorkshire Philosophical Society (YPS) which was founded near 200 years ago. The YPS herbaria was first catalogued by Henry J. Wilkinson, Honorary Curator of Botany (1892 – 1933), and is still used as a reference guide by researchers interested in the museum’s herbarium and by curators.

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A New Generation of Bolton Field Naturalists.

Written by Lauren Field, Curator of Natural History, Bolton Museum. 

In 1895 The Borough of Bolton Botanical Society was formed. This group concerned itself, as the name implies, with botany alone but eventually a feeling emerged among naturalists in Bolton that other aspects of natural history should be covered.

On February 7th 1907 a group of keen local naturalists met at the Chadwick Museum (Bolton Museum’s first building). The group included members of the Botanical Society as well as ornithologists, entomologists and others representing natural history from astronomy to geology – from the heights of the sky to the depths of the earth.

They soon settled on the name Bolton Field Naturalists’ Society.

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Top NatSCA Blogs of 2025

Compiled by Jennifer Gallichan, NatSCA Blog Editor.

It has come to the end of another year and we have had some fantastic contributions to the blog. I would like to take this opportunity in the last blog of 2025, to celebrate the ten most read articles of those published this year. As a whole, they represent the huge amount of work that is going on across the sector, from collection decants, to specimen conservation, getting the collections out there, and researching the incredible histories they contain. What a busy bunch of folk we are!

I want to express a huge thankyou to all contributors. The blog truly would not work without you and it is entirely thanks to all your hard work that it is the success it is. With this in mind…the 2026 calendar is now open for submissions, so please do drop me a line if you would like to submit an article. Myself and our thousands of readers would love to hear from you.

The top ten blogs in descending order are:

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The Rediscovery of a Challenger Expedition Specimen in William Herdman’s Zoology Museum Collection at the University of Liverpool (and how digitisation is transformative).

Written by Leonie Sedman, Curator of Heritage & Collections Care, University of Liverpool.

Along with many other NatSCA members, I care for a mixed collection, meaning that one inevitably becomes something of a ‘Jack of all trades’ missing out on the academic satisfaction created by specialisation. As a curator who finds collections research to be the most satisfying part of my job, it can be frustrating when that research is often only possible on a ‘need-to-know’ basis – usually when a new display or exhibition is being planned, or when the specimens are to be used in teaching. Looking on the bright side though – this does provide glimmers of joy when the research produces something exciting!

In 2004 when I was first employed to manage the University of Liverpool’s Heritage Collections (medical & scientific museum collections built up through research or teaching), I retrieved a large proportion of the collections from attics and cellars where they languished because the objects and specimens were no longer actively used in teaching (this is now changing – but that would be a different blog). The Zoology Museum collection was one of these.

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“Our Irish Natural History”: Increasing the Accessibility of Natural History Collections through Community-Driven Interpretation

Written by Adriana Ballinger, Yale University Charles P. Howland Postgraduate Research Fellow at the National Museum of Ireland, Natural History.

Natural history specimens are often inaccessible to the communities from which they were collected. As a result, source communities lack opportunities to connect with elements of their local heritage, and museums and their publics overlook the place-based expertise that many of these communities hold about the specimens we research and see on display. Scientists lead the knowledge creation process surrounding natural history specimens, but source communities can also contribute valuable information, especially regarding the meanings that flora, fauna, and geological features embody in their environments of origin. Although these cultural contexts are often intangible and unquantifiable, they are nevertheless important facets of specimens’ natural histories. For the past year, I have led “Our Irish Natural History,” a community-driven research and exhibition project at the National Museum of Ireland (NMI). I set out to increase the accessibility of the NMI’s natural history collections, explore innovative avenues for community-led interpretation, and create new opportunities for public engagement.

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