Tag Archives for Natural History Museum London

A Mammoth Task: Stabilising and Protecting Fossil Mammal Specimens in a Sustainable and Access-friendly Way for a Large-scale Collections Move.

Written by Lydia Amies, Caitlin Jenkins, Emanuele Casafredda, Lucia Petrera, Tanya Nakamoto and Fabiana Portoni, Natural History Museum, London.

The Natural History Museum, London (NHM) is moving a third of its collection (28 million) specimens to a to a new, purpose-built centre at Thames Valley Science Park near Reading. Under the umbrella of the Unlocked Programme a new facility is being designed and built to house natural history specimens, research laboratories, working space, and digitisation facilities. The project started in 2020 and the moves stage will commence in 2028.

The Unlocked Conservation Team is working to assess, treat and stabilise at-risk specimens that are due to move. Our focus is to futureproof collection storage while using materials in a sustainable and cost-effective way. Our work will improve access to the collections and enable safe handling of specimens. One of the largest and most complex collections we are working on is the Fossil Mammal Collection which is made up of a wide variety of species, from tiny extinct rodents to woolly mammoths.

Continue reading →

The Curious Case of a Historical Seed Collection

Written by Hideko Yamamoto (former Volunteer, Natural History Museum, London) with input from Jovita C. Yesilyurt (Senior Curator, General Herbarium, Natural History Museum, London).

For centuries, a quiet corner of the Natural History Museum has concealed a secret: a previously undocumented historical seed collection. Hidden in locked cabinets, hundreds of small paper packets hold botanical specimens—and unanswered questions. This article offers a glimpse into this overlooked collection, the detective work behind its investigation, and the exciting possibilities that still lie ahead. The mystery remains unsolved—for now.

A Vast Botanical Treasure

The Natural History Museum’s botany collection contains more than five million specimens gathered worldwide over 300 years. These range from herbarium sheets and carpological (fruit) collections to microscopic slides, wet specimens, and seeds (Fig. 1). Ideally, each specimen carries detailed scientific and historical information, allowing researchers to reconstruct past ecosystems, track species distributions, and study evolutionary and climate-related change over time.

Figure 1: Tray with one of the sets of the seed collections

Equally important is the historical context: who collected the specimen, under what circumstances, and how it entered the Museum. Such information brings collections to life, revealing the people, motivations, and networks behind scientific discovery. Yet many specimens lack this documentation. Among them are seed packets stored quietly in locked cabinets of the herbarium.

Continue reading →

Splits and Distortion of a “Hisstoric” Snakeskin: Humidification as Part of Remedial Conservation Treatment of a Boa constrictor Skin”

Written by Claire Kelly, Conservator at Natural History Museum, London.

Boa Constrictor in Fishes, Amphibians and Reptiles Gallery at NHM ©The Trustees of the Natural History Museum

A Boa Constrictor on display in the Fishes, Amphibians and Reptiles Gallery at the Natural History Museum in London, UK was removed to undergo a considerable amount of remedial conservation treatment.

The taxidermy skin, dating from around the late 19th century, is mounted over a plaster form that was placed onto a wooden trunk. The skin exhibited severe deterioration with multiple splits in various areas located throughout the length of the specimen. The entire ventral seam had opened along with skin distortion and lifting around the splits without any stitched seam to hold it in situ. Most of the damage was at the ventral area of the specimen but some splits and distortion were visible whilst on display, along with material shed on to the case base.

Continue reading →

Bryozoans on the Move: Trials and Challenges of Packing Collections.

Written by Abbie Herdman, Curator of Invertebrates (Non-Insects), Natural History Museum, London.

The Natural History Museum, London (NHM) is currently undertaking one of the biggest collections moves in history, around 38 million specimens total (with 28 million moving off site). A diverse range of collections are expected to move to the new site in Reading including fossils, wet, dry, taxidermy and osteological specimens. This blog will focus on some examples and challenges faced when preparing the bryozoan collections to move.

Bryozoans are an astounding yet little known phylum of predominantly colonial aquatic invertebrate animals, found in both freshwater and marine ecosystems. Known as the ‘moss animals’, for a long time, they were thought to be plants which still confounds the record of this group in aquatic collections due to their growth patterns encrusting on rocks, as seaweed-like and sometimes as gelatinous blobs. There are bryozoan reefs which support diverse marine species, they are recognised bioindicators in aquatic habitats and are ‘blue carbon’ stores (Porter, J, S. et al., 2020).

Continue reading →

Chill Out: A Cautionary Note On The Use Of Aqueous Treatments On Taxidermy

Written by Lu Allington-Jones, Senior Conservator at the Natural History Museum, London.

Whilst trying (not very successfully) to find a “cure” for fat burn (Figure 1), I made an unwelcome discovery: sometimes the shrinkage temperature of deteriorated skin is actually lower than room temperature. This means that the skin will irreversibly shrink as soon as any water-based treatments are applied.

Figure 1. Fat burn can cause skin to rip and specimens fall apart

Shrinkage temperature (Ts) is commonly used in leather conservation to determine the level of deterioration, and the effectiveness of treatments. Ts is the temperature at which 2 corian fibres immersed in water show simultaneous and continuous shrinkage activity. It shows the level of deterioration because it indicates destabilisation of collagen fibres. Ts of fresh skin is 65oC and in deteriorated leather this can be reduced to 30oC (Florian, 2006). Ts is measured by immersing samples of leather (or skin) in water and gradually increasing temperature until shrinkage activity is observed under a microscope (Larsen et al. 1996; Vest & Larsen, 1999). Continue reading →