Tag Archives for Hunterian Museum

Hunterian Heads: Cleaning Large Skeletal Specimens

Written by Caitlin Jenkins, Project Conservator at Parliamentary Archives (previously Assistant Conservator at Royal College of Surgeons of England).

The Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) in London closed in 2017 for redevelopment. This necessitated the temporary removal, storage, and condition assessment of its contents. One particularly challenging project was the conservation of 19 large animal skulls. These specimens are part of the museum founder John Hunter’s original collection, dating from the 18th century.

Although the skulls had been sealed in secure crates since the museum’s closure, most had some noticeable dust and dirt accretions and needed attention before they could be redisplayed. Due to their size and number, a team of conservators from Virtu Conservation Housekeeping was brought in to assist with this task. There was a lack of suitable bench space to accommodate so many large specimens at once, so temporary cleaning stations were set up.

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Hands-On Time with the Bird Collections at Glasgow

Written by Maggie Reilly, Curator of Zoology at The Hunterian Museum (Zoology), University of Glasgow.

“Huzzah!” (or something similar) my colleague Adam and I cried as we put the last of our bird skin collection in its new home – the rather swanky Bruynzeel (other brands are available) drawers that are part of the new storage arrangements for the Hunterian at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. We don’t have a huge bird collection here at the Hunterian – well, not by some people’s standards, but we do have some pretty special stuff. Cataloguing is not complete (is it ever?), but to date here are the stats: Bird skins 3,587; Bird mounts ca. 450; National Nest Reference Collection ca. 2000; Eggs ca. 1000; Bones ca. 100?; Wet-preserved>30. I am going to focus on the skin collection here.

New storage at the Kelvin Hall for mammal, bird skin and mount collections. © The Hunterian, University of Glasgow.

Most of the skins were moved along with the rest of the Hunterian’s study collections, over the last two years to our new home the Hunterian Collections Study and Access Centre at the Kelvin Hall. The latter, adjacent to University, is an iconic building in Glasgow which has served many purposes in its 100 year history. It is now a partnership between the University of Glasgow, Glasgow Life and National Libraries of Scotland, to provide access to museum and library collections, and sports facilities.

Organising and moving the collections has been a monumental task and is still underway for other parts of the collection.  Thankfully it has mandated much hands-on time with the collections, previously a rare treat.

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