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News and musings from the UCL Culture team
By zcqsrti, on 26 May 2017
The common cockchafer. LDUCZ-L239.
Behold. What divine wings of clumsy bumbletude are brought in on the wind? Mitchamador
Hark. Who buzzes and squeaks betwixt the trees? An Oak-wib
Prod? It is I who takes rest beneath this loamy soil. The Snartlegog
This week’s specimen is…
By Tannis Davidson, on 24 February 2017
Over the past year, UCL Culture’s conservation team has been undertaking work on a project to conserve many of the Grant Museum’s specimens which are preserved in fluid (read more about ‘Project Pickle’ here). During the ongoing work, specimens have been re-hydrated, remounted, rehoused and re-identified.
Along the way there have also been some new discoveries of specimens that we didn’t know were in the collection. Some of the jars were full of fluid so discoloured that it was impossible to see the animal inside and it was only when the specimen was taken out that the identification could be made. One jar had an astounding 11 different animals inside including this week’s Specimen of the Week…
By Will J Richard, on 17 February 2017
Hello! Will Richard here, blogging again for you all. And this time I’ve chosen a specimen that I can’t believe isn’t better known. Everybody loves a jar of moles… so how about a jar of mole crickets?
LDUCZ-L45 European mole cricket
By ucwepwv, on 9 September 2016
Happy Friday everybody! Today I have a slightly gross specimen of the week for you, in the form of this lovely
LDUCZ-Y1713 Columba livia
By Emilia L Kingham, on 1 August 2016
Fluid preserved specimens newly conserved
Over the past year, UCL Museums’ conservation team have been focussing our efforts on the the specimens preserved in fluid at the Grant Museum. We’re calling it Project Pickle*.
Before we could start conserving the objects we had to establish the scale of the task, so we could decide how to plan the work. We went through the entire fluid specimen store, surveying a whopping 3,787 specimens to determine what treatments each of them needed.
This initial phase took many months to complete and involved the help of student volunteers and a student placement. The result of that survey means that we can now quantify how many specimens are in good, fair, poor or unacceptable condition with the aim to prioritize conserving the specimens in the worst condition. So why do fluid preserved specimens need conservation and how do they get to be in an ‘unacceptable condition?’
By Will J Richard, on 27 April 2016
Something which I get asked a lot by the Grant Museum’s visitors is “how did these animals die?” It’s an excellent question and one to which I wish there were a more comfortable answer. Or, at least, a more definite one. The truth is that it isn’t one size fits all. Not all of our specimens ended up here in the same way and for many we can only guess. The Grant Museum holds one of the UK’s oldest zoological collections and attitudes and practices have certainly changed over the last 200 years, though the ethical debates continue.
By ucwepwv, on 15 April 2016
My turn to pick the Specimen of the Week came a bit late for Easter, so instead of an egg I thought I’d go for what comes afterwards…
Chicken chick LDUCZ-NON3148
By Emilia L Kingham, on 17 March 2016
Frostbitten fingers attached to wax hand with peeling paint and yellowed fluid
I was recently contacted by the National Army Museum to consult and treat a fluid preserved specimen that is due to be displayed in their newly renovated museum. The specimen is the frostbitten, severed fingertips from Major Michael Patrick ‘Bronco’ Lane. Bronco Lane summitted Mount Everest in 1976, but during this expedition, ran into bad weather and was forced to remove his glove to attach an oxygen bottle to his face mask. An hour after he removed his glove, he found his hand had frozen. The fingertips were removed on his return to the UK.
By Tannis Davidson, on 8 February 2016
LDUCZ-Z3086 Rattus norvegicus
Last year, the Grant Museum undertook a major conservation project, Bone Idols: Protecting our iconic skeletons, in which 39 of our rarest and most significant skeletons were cleaned, repaired and remounted.
This year the focus will be on our fluid specimens. The Grant Museum has roughly 6000 preserved specimens is varying states of condition. Over the course of the next 12 months, the most ‘in need’ specimens will be rehydrated, remounted, cleaned and put in new jars (if needed). One of the newly-conserved wetties is a much-improved specimen which has generated quite a buzz around the Museum lately…this week’s Specimen of the Week is…
By Emilia L Kingham, on 21 January 2016
Fluid preserved fish after treatment
Part of the work that we do as conservators for UCL’s Museums and Collections is to maintain the condition of the various collections. The Grant Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy has approximately 300 fluid preserved specimens on display in the museum and 3500 fluid specimens in the stores.
