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Journal of Natural Science Collections Volume 6 NatSCA Journal of Natural Science Collections Index ISSN 2053-1133 Volume 6 | 2018 J ournal of Naturalournal of ScienceCollections Editorial 1 Rachel Jennings View from the Chair 2 Paolo Viscardi Nature Read in Black and White: decolonial approaches to interpreting natural history collections 4 Subhadra Das and Miranda Lowe Mollusca Types in Great Britain: founding a union database 15 Jonathan D. Ablett, Jennifer Gallichan, Anna Holmes, Graham Oliver, Ben Rowson, Andreia Salvador, James Turner, and Harriet Wood Cambridge University Herbarium: rediscovering a botanical treasure trove 31 Lauren M. Gardiner The Murphy spider collection at the Manchester Museum: a valuable research resource for arachnologists 48 Diana Arzuza Buelvas Across the Continents: communicating ecology to schools in Cambridge and Southeast Asia 60 Sara Steele Movers, not shakers: challenges and solutions for relocating an entomology collection 58 Ana E. Herrero, Kim Chandler, and Paolo Viscardi Clean and Constrain: a pest management protocol and an overview of some collections management 79 considerations for microscope slide collections Lyndsey Flanagan, Alacoque White, and Paolo Viscardi Driggsby the fin whale’s museum ecosystem: the collection, conservation, and installation of a new museum 87 icon Simon Jackson and Nigel R. Larkin Using theatre skills in a science exhibition: Dinosaurs of China in Nottingham 99 Martin Nunn and Adam S. Smith NatSCA 2018 AGM Minutes 112 Thursday 26 April 2018 Volume 6 6 Volume 2018 NatSCA Journal of Natural Science Collections Index ISSN 2053-1133 Volume 6 | 2018 J ournal of Naturalournal of ScienceCollections Editorial 1 Rachel Jennings View from the Chair 2 Paolo Viscardi Nature Read in Black and White: decolonial approaches to interpreting natural history collections 4 Subhadra Das and Miranda Lowe Mollusca Types in Great Britain: founding a union database 15 Jonathan D. Ablett, Jennifer Gallichan, Anna Holmes, Graham Oliver, Ben Rowson, Andreia Salvador, James Turner, and Harriet Wood Cambridge University Herbarium: rediscovering a botanical treasure trove 31 Lauren M. Gardiner The Murphy spider collection at the Manchester Museum: a valuable research resource for arachnologists 48 Diana Arzuza Buelvas Across the Continents: communicating ecology to schools in Cambridge and Southeast Asia 60 Sara Steele Movers, not shakers: challenges and solutions for relocating an entomology collection 58 Ana E. Herrero, Kim Chandler, and Paolo Viscardi Clean and Constrain: a pest management protocol and an overview of some collections management 79 considerations for microscope slide collections Lyndsey Flanagan, Alacoque White, and Paolo Viscardi Driggsby the fin whale’s museum ecosystem: the collection, conservation, and installation of a new museum 87 icon Simon Jackson and Nigel R. Larkin Using theatre skills in a science exhibition: Dinosaurs of China in Nottingham 99 Martin Nunn and Adam S. Smith NatSCA 2018 AGM Minutes 112 Thursday 26 April 2018 Volume 6 6 Volume 2018 Editorial Rachel Jennings Dear reader, Welcome to Volume 6 of the Journal of Natural Science Collections. I apologise that it reaches you rather later than usual – due to various personal circumstances, I have not had as much time and energy to put into the Journal as I would like. I have now decided to step down as Editor, so this volume will be my last. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on the Journal, and I want to sincerely thank every author, reviewer, and Editorial Board member for making it the success that it is. The articles in this Volume cover a wide range of subjects. First, Das and Lowe discuss scientific racism and decolonial approaches to interpreting natural history collections. This paper is based on their talk, ’Nature Read in Black and White’, presented at the 2017 NatSCA Conference. The next three articles broadly cover the topic of digitisation and making collections accessible: Ablett et al. describe the ‘Mollusca Types in Great Britain’ database, which brings together collections from regional museums across Britain; Gardiner discusses the history – and future – of the Cambridge University Herbarium; Arzuza Buelvas introduces the Murphy spider collection at Manchester Museum and its importance as a research collection. Next, Steele describes a collaborative project between the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge, and four NERC-funded projects in Southeast Asia to communicate conservation biology and ecology to different audiences. The next two papers focus on collections moves and conservation: Flanagan, White and Viscardi describe a pest management protocol for microscope slide collections, with considerations for collections management; Herrero, Chandler and Viscardi discuss a difficult entomology collection move and concerns for pest control involving very low temperatures. Jackson and Larkin segue us from conservation into exhibition planning: they describe the collection, conservation, and mounting of a fin whale skeleton from the Cumbria coast for display at Tullie House. Nunn and Smith then discuss the use of puppetry for marketing and engagement activities relating to the 2017 ‘Dinosaurs of China’ exhibition at Wollaton Hall. I hope that you find this collection of articles interesting, inspiring, and useful - there is a lot of practical advice in these papers that can be applied to other museums and collections. 1 View from the Chair Paolo Viscardi Another year of Brexit discussions with no deal being agreed has meant continued uncertainty for the museums sector in the UK and parts of Europe. NatSCA has been representing our membership in discussions with the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) about CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and the impact of a no-deal Brexit on movement of natural history specimens across the UK borders, and we are sharing updates as they emerge. The long and short of it is that permits will be required to move specimens that fall under Annexes A and B and notifications for some species in Annex C, unless you are a registered Scientific Institution (registration currently costing £221 and taking up to 3 months to process). Of course, this may change in the event of a deal. We are also in ongoing discussion with the Home Office about licensing of collections containing substances controlled by the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001. While on the subject of legislation, we addressed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that came into effect on 25th May 2018 by conducting a review of our data management and publishing a new Privacy Policy that outlines how we use any personal data we collect: www.natsca.org/privacy-policy. In the wider museum sector, we have been involved in steering the emerging Subject Specialist Network Consortium. This forum is shaping up to be the largest network of collections expertise and offers an opportunity for SSNs to share information and coordinate efforts to address issues such as training and collections at risk, which we continue to monitor and respond to. NatSCA has also been representing natural sciences collections at the Museums Association (MA) conference in a session on ‘Collections 2030’, and at the Linnean Society Plenary meeting on the theme ‘How are we communicating the Importance of Taxonomy and Systematics?’. At our own 2018 conference and AGM held at Leeds City Museum, we adopted the theme of ‘The museum ecosystem: exploring how different subject specialisms can work more closely together’. This focus on collaboration has been an important part of NatSCA's strategy over the past few years, as we respond to changes to staffing approaches in the sector and witness ongoing attrition of subject specialist posts in favour of more generalist collections manager roles. Working together helps raise awareness of, and demonstrate engagement with, wider museum practice. We hope that this supports our members' professional development and employability in a changing sector, while also demonstrating that workers in natural sciences are forward-looking and open minded - bearing little resemblance to the caricature of disconnected hobbyists that has damaged our standing in the sector in the past. At the AGM in Leeds we were delighted to welcome two new members to the committee, Jennifer Gallichan and Yvette Harvey. We're happy to have some new blood to keep things fresh and bring new perspectives. Please think about putting yourself forward for election to the committee if you want to get involved - nomination forms are on the website at www.natsca.org/nominations. While we can learn from our colleagues in other disciplines, we also have a lot to share. During the 2018 membership year, Clare Brown and Donna Young organised a ‘Skeleton Preparation Workshop’ in partnership with Historic England and a ‘Finding Funds’ workshop at the World Museum, Liverpool. We also ran a ‘Caring for Natural Science Collections’ one-day conference at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, which was made possible by NatSCA's Conservation Group, steered by our Conservation Representative Lucie Mascord. We had an improved uptake of bursaries on previous years after raising the amount available per person to £250, to help cover increasing costs of accommodation and travel. Our call for projects for the Bill Pettit award was pushed back to 8th March 2019 while we waited for a decision about project funding from Arts Council England. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in that bid despite a huge amount of work by our committee members Isla Gladstone and Holly Morgenroth to get the proposal prepared and submitted. The work Isla put in was particularly notable as she was on maternity leave at the time, and we would like to offer her our 2 congratulations on the birth of her second child alongside our thanks. I would also like to thank Emma-Louise Nicholls who served on the committee as a co-opted member representing GCG while Isla was on maternity leave. Emma has also been doing a fantastic job of running the NatSCA blog for several years and we are sad to be losing her while she focuses on GCG and her role at the Horniman.
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