OXFORD UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Annual Review 2013–2014 Contents The Oxford University Museum of Director’s Introduction 4 Natural History Annual Review 2013–2014 was edited from reports supplied by heads of Highlights 6 Collections, Sections and Research Units. Exhibitions 10 It was designed and produced by Claire Venables at Giraffe Corner Ltd. Education and Public Engagement 11 Photographs are by members of the Research 17 Museum staff unless stated otherwise. Collections 19 © Oxford University Museum of Natural History, 2016 Partnerships 23 Oxford University Museum of Natural History Media 24 Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3PW Running the Museum 25 [email protected] +44 (0)1865 272950 Appendices 27 www.oum.ox.ac.uk OXFORD UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 3 Director’s Introduction In last year’s review I remarked on how our normal activity was Looking beyond the walls of the Museum, a pilot initiative called interrupted by preparations for the closure of the Museum ahead of Count Me In helped to diversify our pool of volunteers by supporting extensive roof repairs. This year sees us emerging from the other side of adults who face barriers to volunteering. The ten-week support that process to reopen to the public after 14 months in what we described programme was developed and run by the Oxford University Museums as our ‘darkened, not dormant’ state. Volunteers Service and it resulted in positive outcomes for both the The £2m roof restoration, carried out by the University Estates Museum and the scheme’s participants. Services, architects Purcell and contractors Beard, involved the removal, Our reach into the wider world was also bolstered online with the cleaning, replacement, and resealing of more than 8,500 large glass tiles. launch of the Museum’s first permanent blog, morethanadodo.com, The last of these were successfully reinstalled just before Christmas when to coincide with the reopening. More than a Dodo offers readers a the final push towards reopening began. window into many areas of activity at the Museum, from work on the Our reopening campaign grew out of the Goes to Town city centre collections, to events, exhibitions, education programmes, and research. displays that helped to maintain the Museum’s presence in Oxford during Complemented by the @morethanadodo Twitter account, the Museum’s the closure. As the reopening day approached, the animals in these online presence continued to grow. displays began to return in preparation for a welcome-back party, as Looking back over the year it is clear that while a prolonged closure promoted in a series of Museum ‘news reports’ that were released online period is difficult for a museum it also presents significant opportunities. in the build-up to reopening day. We were able to begin putting in place aspects of our new strategic Bringing the Museum back to life was a welcome experience. plan but also to experiment with some creative and more unusual ideas. On 15 February we opened dawn-till-dusk, starting with breakfast at Perhaps most importantly, the closure and reopening provided a stimulus 7am to showcase our new café facilities, before launching into a day for staff to pull together and reimagine the Museum, giving us a re- of celebratory activities including live music, talks, roving staff with energised outlook as we plan for the future. specimens, and well over 5,000 visitors. Away from the frenzy of the reopening party a great deal of other important work was taking place. The Lepidoptera Project, funded by The Street Foundation, began a task to arrange, conserve, catalogue, and digitise the Museum’s butterfly and moth collections. Further digitisation work saw two important archive collections becoming available online for the first time: those of pioneering 19th-century geologist William Smith, and the painted butterfly and moth manuscripts of 18th-century amateur Professor Paul Smith lepidopterist William Jones. Director Meanwhile, our Once in a Whale project brought some much-needed conservation treatment to the seven cetacean specimens on display in the main court. Funded by a PRISM grant from the Arts Council, Once in a Whale gained positive media coverage and received a ‘Highly Commended’ accolade in the 2014 Museums + Heritage Awards. Research work stepped up during the year, with additions to our research fellows bringing particular expertise in the areas of the Cambrian Explosion, micropalaeontology, and ocean ecosystems. We also dipped our toes into the water of temporary exhibitions with the Wildlife Photographer of the Year show during the summer. This is something we hope to build on with our own special exhibitions in the future. 4 OXFORD UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY OXFORD UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 5 Highlights Into the Light Lepidoptera Project On Saturday 15 February 2014 of Oxford, while overlooking Visitors of all ages were enthralled The Lepidoptera Project is a Guenée, Strand, Druce, Newman, the Museum reopened its doors the skeletons below. The events by live bugs in the afternoon two-year, large-scale collections and Swinhoe. after 14 months of darkness to continued with live music in the and listened intently to a talk on management and curation project. In addition to repairing and restore the uniquely impressive, court from Alternotive acapella Acland’s Amazing Edifice. The Funded by The Street Foundation, recording the genus and species but very leaky glass roof. This £2m group and Spotlight Specimens; Knights of Mentis rounded off the Molly Carter and Gina Allnatt of each specimen, there has been restoration project involved each featuring museum staff dotted day’s programme with more live have undertaken the task to re- a focus on identifying ‘lost’ type of the 8,500 glass roof tiles being around the building with their music as the light started to fade arrange, catalogue and digitise the specimens. Specimens collected individually removed, cleaned and favourite objects. in the court at 7pm. The public Museum’s Lepidoptera collections. by Charles Darwin, Alfred Russell resealed, and a new lighting system There were talks on the were given the chance to bask Seven months into the project Wallace, and Henry Walter Bates being installed. The reopening was Museum’s whale conservation in the spectacle of the museum Molly and Gina have already have been found in the moth celebrated with a spectacular dawn- project, ‘Once in a Whale’, and illuminated by the new state-of- catalogued 50,000 specimens and collections, as well as drawings of till-dusk programme of events. Director Paul Smith delivered an the-art LED lighting as they completed remedial conservation, caterpillars by Frederic Moore, five Visitors were able to enjoy opening speech and announced filtered through the doors. The such as repairing the wings and species of extinct moth and most breakfast from 7am at the Museum’s the winners of the museum’s Museum welcomed over 5,300 bodies of any damaged specimens recently, a butterfly from Tonga A six-week internship to work on new gallery cafe, run by Mortons ‘Goes to Town’ trail competition. people on its reopening day. as they work through the drawers that was collected on the H.M.S. the Sudanese butterfly material has The frenetic pace continued that make up the collections. Challenger expedition in 1874. been facilitated and the volunteers Right: Crowds enjoying a through the week as half term Over 50 putative type specimens Molly and Gina have been working on the Jones’ Icones project performance by followed. Hundreds of children have been discovered, they include responsible for handling enquiries have received training as part of the Knights of made Dodo masks and T. re x those of Walker, Hampson, about the Lepidoptera collections. the Lepidoptera Project. l Mentis on finger puppets during the Family reopening day Friendly activities, and then later in the week there was a surprise appearance of creatures from Celebrating Wallace the Dinosaur Zoo stage show; one of which was a five-metre In November 2013 the Museum were presented, with attendees found in the Amazon. The Australovenator ‘puppet’ which marked the centenary of the death enjoying the chance to examine specimens subsequently travelled roamed through the court. By the of Alfred Russel Wallace. The genuine Wallace letters from the to appear on the One Show on end of the reopening week more Museum holds a large number archive. BBC 1 for the public to see on than 30,000 people had been of Wallace specimens and over Coinciding with the Wallace live television. Many of Wallace’s through the doors — a new record 300 of his letters in the archives. celebrations, Athena Martin, Amazon specimens were lost on for the Museum. l As part of International Wallace a student from Wood Green his journey home, when his boat week, Darren Mann, Head of school in Witney completed a is thought to have caught fire. Life Collections, spoke at the Nuffield Research placement at However, the Museum is now 2nd International Conference on the Museum in summer 2013. building up a very clear picture Count Me In Wallace in Sarawak, Malaysia. Athena spent time looking through of just how many precious Alfred Darren’s was the final keynote the butterfly collections and Russel Wallace specimens it has In 2013-14 the Oxford University charity, and refugee and probation professional career development speech of the conference on discovered 300 Wallace specimens and, thanks to Athena’s diligent Museums Volunteers Service services. Ten individuals were officers. In their third session ‘Wallace insects in Oxford — within the Museum collections, work, these significant specimens piloted Count Me In, a ten-week recruited, ranging in age from they participated in a volunteer their History and Value’. Darren including the Dismorphia butterfly are easy to locate.