Tag Archives for Curation

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.

Outsized Moss Specimens?

You may think of moss as being small but … not according to these specimens!

Some of the larger outsized specimens include Common Haircap Moss, Polytrichum commune, described by the British and Irish Bryological Society as “one of our [Britain and Ireland’s] largest mosses, with individual stems reaching up to 40 cms long”.

Polytrichum commune (Common Haircap Moss) specimens. A standard herbarium sheet is approximately 42cm high © Amgueddfa Cymru

Our outsized bryophytes arrived at the museum at varying times, from different collections and so illustrate a number of methods historically used to mount botanical specimens, including sewing with thread and strapping.

Although these techniques are still practiced as standard today, some of the historical materials used had begun to deteriorate and I was set the task of re-mounting any specimens that had become loose, replacing strapping that had deteriorated and also removing any non-archival materials.

Some Repair Required

Many of the outsized specimens were in good condition and didn’t need repair. For those that needed a bit more work, once original strapping materials had been carefully removed, specimens were laid out on new herbarium sheets and, trying to follow the original placement as much as possible, remounted using adhesive cotton tape strapping. All original collection labels were also transferred to the new sheet.

Re-mounting of a Breutelia arundinifolia moss specimen. The small paper capsule (above specimen label, bottom right) contains loose material found with the specimen on the original sheet © Amgueddfa Cymru

Before and after photos of epiphyllous moss Ephemeropsis tjibodensis, still attached to the leaves on which it was growing. ©Amgueddfa Cymru

A number of the specimens had been wrapped in a cellophane-type material, attached at the back with sticky tape! These wraps had tightly moulded around the sheets and proved quite awkward to remove while keeping the specimen as flat as possible. Removal of this cellophane enables researchers to access the specimen more easily and better images of the specimen to be taken, as illustrated below.

The placement of this moss, Spiridens reinwardtii, was adjusted slightly to avoid the top of the herbarium sheet where it could be more prone to damage © Amgueddfa Cymru

Richards’ Bryophytes

Many of our outsized bryophyte specimens were collected by Professor Paul W Richards (1908-1995), a prominent botanist and ecologist well known for both his work on the ecology of tropical rainforests and the study of bryophytes.

Richards had a long association with the museum, donating his first specimens in 1920 at the age of 12 and he continued to donate around 11,000 specimens throughout his life. Amgueddfa Cymru also holds a large amount of archive material relating to Professor Richards’ work.

An unnamed epiphyllous liverwort in the outsized collection (in good condition and needing no repair), was collected by Professor Richards in Grenada, August 1929, almost certainly during a stop on the voyage to the Oxford Exploration Club’s expedition to Guyana.

An epiphytic leaf (one that grows on the surface of another plant) and an epiphyllous liverwort (one that grows on the surface of a living leaf) collected by P.W. Richards, Grenada, August 1929. © Amgueddfa Cymru

Richards was still an undergraduate at the time of the expedition and at the British Bryological Society’s Paper Reading Meeting of 1990, talked about his “first steps in tropical bryology” being as he “set foot on Barbados, 1 August 1929, on my way to British Guiana (now Guyana) as a member of the Oxford Exploration Club’s expedition”. He described seeing some epiphyllous liverworts but that “it was not as good a place for bryophytes as Grenada where the ship called the next day”.

Camera Ready

Once the conservation work had been carried out, all outsized specimens were digitised using a specialised imaging set up developed for herbarium sheets. During this process a unique barcode is added to each specimen, the sheet is then placed into a lightbox imaging station with a colour chart and scale bar, and a high-resolution image is taken with a digital camera mounted at the top of the lightbox.

An outsized moss being imaged using a specialised set up for herbarium sheets at National Museum Cardiff @ Amgueddfa Cymru

The specimen images and associated collection data will become available to researchers across the world.

Closing Thoughts

Working on this project provided a lovely opportunity to get to know a different part of our collection and some of the collectors represented within it.

References

British Bryological Society Bulletin (1991), The Paper Reading Meeting, 1990, Cambridge, Summary of P.W. Richards autobiographical talk, British Bryological Society Bulletin 57, March 1991 11-12

British and Irish Bryological Society website, Species Finder, Polytrichum commune. Web access 12 October  2026 Polytrichum commune – British and Irish Bryological Society

Davies, N.M.J., Drinkwell, C and Utteridge, T.M.A., (eds) (2023) The Herbarium Handbook, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Harrison, S.G., (1982) The Collections in the Welsh National Herbarium – National Museum of Wales, Nature In Wales Journal NS Vol 1 Part 2.

Richards, P.W., (1991) A bryologist in British Guiana and the West Indies, Journal of Bryology 16(3) 437 – 441.

Slade, K. (in press), The British and Irish Bryological Society Herbarium in 2026. Field Bryology 136.

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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Dropping a Pin on the Salter Collection

Written by George Seddon-Roberts, PhD Student, John Innes Centre, work completed whilst on placement as a Curatorial Intern at Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales.

When accessing an entomology collection, there are a few things that a researcher can expect to find. Each specimen should be pinned with labels describing its species and information about where it was collected – two valuable pieces of information which can help researchers to trace the specimen’s origin geographically and in time. Knowing where and when a specimen was collected can help researchers better understand the historical landscape and ecology and make predictions into the future. However, when collections receive specimens from private collectors, this standard of labelling might not be met. As part of a 3-month internship at Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, I aimed to transform one such collection.

The collection in context 

John Henry Salter (1862-1942) was an academic and naturalist, who spent much of his life as a lecturer at University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, where he would later be appointed as the first Professor of Botany. Outside of academia, Salter was a prolific collector of insects across several groups, most notably including coleoptera (beetles) and lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). Salter’s collection contains specimens from across Wales, as well as England, Tenerife and south-east France; regions where he spent time during his retirement. The specimens, which amount to over 15,000 individuals, were meticulously recorded in field logs by Salter, which were also donated to the museum with the collection.  

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Discovering Treasures in the Depths of the Dagnall.

Written by Ruth Cowlishaw of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

This year marks Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine’s 125th anniversary. The school was the first institute of its kind back in 1898, built to help investigate some of the tropical diseases brought back to the busy port city from shipping expeditions and trade. To celebrate such a major milestone an array of events and activities have been planned by the school, including outreach events and fundraising, whilst also giving us a chance to reflect on our history. One such planned scheme was the distribution of internal funds for exciting projects, proposed by staff members that would make a difference in this very special year.

Mary Kingsley Building, LSTM. ©LSTM

The Dagnall Laboratory situated in the Mary Kingsley Building is the main teaching laboratory for the school. Within its walls it houses many historical pathological and entomological samples, from mosquito wings and blood films to seven-meter-long tapeworms. Throughout the years a selection of these samples has been used to help educate thousands of medical professionals, postgraduate students and armed forces personnel. However, a large part of the collection became forgotten and neglected as specimen preservation skills and staff were lost over time. With news of potential funding myself and the team saw an opportunity to rediscover these “lost” specimens and decided to put together a bid with the aim to reinvigorate our collection. The project not only aligned with the 125 Anniversary theme of Heritage and History but also looked forward to the future.

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Flora Explorer: Opening the Cabinets at Portsmouth Museums.

Written by Violet Nicholls, Assistant Curator (Herbarium), Portsmouth Museums.

Plants, lichens and fungi have captured the interests of collectors, scientists and artists for centuries, and I have discovered something about them for myself. As time passes from them being found in the field, they don’t get any less complicated, any less fascinating or any less beautiful. I am about 6 months into a two-year project working on the Guermonprez Herbarium called “Flora Explorer”, which is funded by the Headley Trust.

Image of lichen specimens in open trays
Fig. 1. Drawer of colourful specimens from the lichen cabinet.

The Herbarium

I have been cataloguing and studying the plant, fungi and lichen collections at Portsmouth Museums, and am learning a huge amount about past collecting practices, as well as taxonomy and the collectors themselves. There were so many! Sixty-two different names have cropped up whilst cataloguing the herbarium, with nearly 1000 plant specimens recorded on the database so far. There are around 10,000 plants in the Guermonprez Herbarium in total. How many more names will appear?

Henry Leopold Foster Guermonprez (1858-1924) was a taxidermist, ornithologist and “a botanist who should have been better known”.1 The herbarium is made up of plants collected by Guermonprez and members of his family, plants that were sent to him, and others that were purchased. The large collection was transferred from Bognor Regis Museum to Portsmouth Museum in the 1970’s. Many specimens were collected from West Sussex, where I have lived for most of my life.

“Flora Explorer” builds on work carried out during the “Wild about Portsmouth” project, funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The herbarium is organised into taxonomic order, stored in sealed herbarium cabinets, and the specimens are being catalogued using the relational database used by over 650 museums in the UK, Modes Complete. Digitising the collection has many benefits as it increases access for researchers, and for people who may need the data but can only obtain it remotely. Through the process I have also been updating the taxonomy where necessary, which adds further value to the collection.

Image of herbarium cabinets at Portsmouth City Museum
Fig. 2. Herbarium cabinets at Portsmouth City Museum, containing plant specimens arranged into taxonomic order.
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