Compiled by Ellie Clark, Collections Moves Team Leader at the Natural History Museum.

Welcome to the May edition of NatSCA Digital Digest.

A monthly blog series featuring the latest on where to go, what to see and do in the natural history sector including jobs, exhibitions, conferences, and training opportunities. We are keen to hear from you if you have any top tips and recommendations for our next Digest, please drop an email to blog@natsca.org.

Sector News

Registration is now open for the 13th European Bird Curators Meeting, October 2024, in Liverpool.

The European Bird Curators Meetings aim to promote cooperation, dissemination of best practices and new techniques in the curation, management, and use of bird collections. Presenters in the scientific programme often include curators, collection managers, museum historians and ornithological researchers. These are friendly meetings and anyone with an interest is welcome to join us.

The meeting will include plenary and submitted presentations, discussion sessions, collections tour, conference dinner (optional – Tuesday 29th October) and field excursion (optional – Thursday 31st October). 

Please follow the ‘Tickets available here’ link from the event webpage to register. They have single day registration options and have kept costs as low as possible to encourage attendance by local natural history curators. 

If you have any questions, please email vertebratezoology@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk.

SPPC 2024 – Call for Abstracts

The Symposium on Palaeontological Preparation and Conservation is accepting submissions regarding work on all types of geological collections (not just palaeontology), for their upcoming conference.

Contact Lu Allington-Jones, Principal Conservator at the Conservation Centre, Natural History Museum London, for more information.

Registration is open for SHNH International Summer Meeting.

‘The Palette of Nature’: SHNH International Summer Meeting will be held at National Museum Cardiff, Thursday 13 – Friday 14 June 2024, with visits on Friday afternoon 14 June.

This two-day international meeting will explore the use and importance of colour within the history of natural history. For centuries, the colours of the natural world have enticed and enthralled observers and led them to develop various means by which to convey this aspect of nature. The aesthetic appeal of certain colours of gemstones or of particular dyes and pigments derived from plants and minerals is apparent in many cultures.

More information can be found here.

Megalosaurus Appeal: Is our Dinosaur Hiding in your Family Album?

2024 is the 200th anniversary of the naming of the first dinosaur – Megalosaurus! The type specimens are held in the collections at Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH), where they have been part of Oxford University collections since Buckland first described them in his 1824 paper “Notice on the Megalosaurus or great Fossil Lizard of Stonesfield”. These type specimens include the iconic jawbone, recognised around the world by dinosaur researchers and enthusiasts alike.

OUMNH are working on a project to fill in some archival gaps in the timeline of Megalosaurus fossils on display. They are therefore appealing to the public for any photographs taken of these fossils at the Museum, any time before 1990.

If you (or you know of anyone who may have) visited OUMNH during the 1900s (or even 1800s!), they would be grateful if you could seek out and dust off the old photo albums and look for images of the Museum’s fossil dinosaur displays.

They would be grateful if photos could be digitised and sent to library@oum.ox.ac.uk, however, the quality is not important (a quick and easy digital photo taken of your physical photo is fine, for example), so long as the image is clear. If digitisation is not possible, please do get in touch with them so they can try and facilitate another way.

They won’t ask you to donate your images but may request permission to use and/or store a digital copy, if appropriate. Closing date for submissions is 14th June 2024.

Fine print: OUMNH does not assume copyright or permission for use of any images sent to us. If a photograph is of particular interest, OUMNH will contact you to request permission to use and/or store the image/s, but you are not under obligation to do so. No financial reward is offered.

NatSCA Lunchtime Chats

The new lunchtime chats are for members only and run on the last Thursday of every month.

This series is supposed to be informal, no fancy equipment is needed, it will be put out over the NatSCA Zoom platform and there is no fixed format. For those who want to take part please email training@natsca.org to put forward your idea. All members will have received a link to join via Zoom (the same link works for all sessions) – if you haven’t, get in touch with membership@natsca.org

Where to Visit

Mansfield Museum has opened a new permanent gallery: A World of Birds

The new gallery includes over 600 birds of nearly 500 species, including spectacular 19th/early 20th century display cases of birds from various parts of the world; historically important specimens including several ‘firsts’ for Britain (Harlequin Duck and Egyptian Nightjar); and a number of ‘albinos’ from a collection of abnormally coloured birds. The gallery aims to connect the Museum’s historic collections with contemporary environmental challenges and public interest in the environment. The gallery was made possible with funding from ACE Unlocking Collections fund, and the Museum’s NPO funding.

Planet Ocean exhibition at The Box, Plymouth

Plymouth is ‘Britain’s Ocean City’ and we are all part of one connected ocean. Come and immerse yourselves in an exhibition that explores pivotal moments in our past and present relationship with the sea. The exhibition uses the overarching themes of plankton, pollution, people and planet to share facts, key findings, objects and stories; inspiring hope in the face of the climate crisis and empowering everyone who visits to become ocean advocates.

Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am-5pm and bank holidays. Admission is free. No need to book. For more information check out the web page.

What to Read

We have a number of fabulous articles on the Blog, including:

Feeling Older than Your Age? The Importance of Museum Collections for Radiocarbon Dating, and a Request for Collections containing Bivalves Collected Before 1950 from the UK written by Rachel Wood, explores the importance of radiocarbon dating in museums and makes a call out for bivalve specimens.

Thinking of ways to explore the historical stories locked in your collections? Check out Trip to Another World – Digitalising and Decolonising Thomas Drummond’s ‘Musci Americani’ by Su Liu.

Where to Work

Kew is advertising for a Microscope Slide Digitisation Officer, closing date May 19^th.

The University of the West Indies Zoology Museum is looking for a Curator, closing date May 26^th. Find more details here.

Before You Go…

If you have any top tips and recommendations for our next Digest please drop an email to blog@natsca.org. Similarly, if you have something to say about a current topic, or perhaps you want to tell us what you’ve been working on, we welcome new blog articles so please drop Jen an email if you have anything you would like to submit.