‘Manchester Museum holds this unique collection item from Charles Plowright, representing historical methods obtaining colourful fabrics using plant-based dyes.’ - museumcollections.manchester.ac.uk/collections/...
There were 3 rolls of the skeins of wool 🌸🌺
@natsca.bsky.social #NatSCA2025
A physical representation of my mind after the fab 2day @natsca.bsky.social conference at @uniofmanchester.bsky.social
From decolonising the collections, to the value of community engagement, from skinning a tiger to poems about connectivity - it was a thoroughly engaging & informative #NatSCa2025
A fabulous #natsca2025 conference this year with outstanding talks highlighting the impact of natural history collections and the people who care for them! @zoologicallady.bsky.social on the process of obtaining a (deceased) tiger from a zoo for future display - and how she skinned it! What a boss!
One of my highlights from #NatSCA2025 was @pleenr.bsky.social emotive spoken word presentation on her work connecting communities with nature through art and museum collections stories
If you aren’t lucky enough to have a behind-the-scenes tour of @uniofmanchester.bsky.social Manchester Museum herbarium tour (thanks to @natsca.bsky.social & the amazing Lindsey Loughtman) - you can see #Brendal Models on display in the galleries
#NatSCA2025
My fav Brendal model is the Double Arum maculatum - the ‘inflorescence without Spatha, vadivelu 7 fold & inflorescence, surrounded by the spathe, past 4 x’
This sneaky, fly-kidnapping plant is flowering in my garden at the moment
@natsca.bsky.social #NatSCA2025 @uniofmanchester.bsky.social
Opened in 1866, the factory produced mainly botanical models designed for teaching, as these at @uniofmanchester.bsky.social were/are (plus the are gorgeous)
Papier-mâché based but they included other materials such as glass and feathers!
@natsca.bsky.social #NatSCA2025
“there are models and there are models…..the carefully prepared models, as supplied by Brendel, are a lesson in themselves.” - Prof Frederick Wiess, 1892 @uniofmanchester.bsky.social
Robert Brendel founded the R. Brendel company in Breslau (- Wroclaw in Poland)
@natsca.bsky.social #NatSCA2025
Models of three red capped funuibin different stages of development
A nice Fly Agaric model in the Museum of Manchester herbarium #natsca2025 #FungiFriends
How to say your a British aristocrat without saying anything but your name..
Introducing Rudolph Robert Basil Aloysius Augustine Feilding….
@stephholtnh.bsky.social talking about the Pennant collection at the @nhm.org
#NatSCA2025
The lovely @jackdashby.bsky.social talking about the value of collections for research. E.g. After the horrendous fires in Australia, collection specimens were used to aid restoration
Nb love the use of QR codes for all to source the references
@natsca.bsky.social #NatSCA2025
Really enjoying day 2 of #NatSCA2025, especially @zoologicallady.bsky.social’s talk. Definitely inspired some thoughts for me on our partnership with a local farm. (They don’t keep tigers though!) 🐯🐮
Pauline Rutter, an independent academic & archival artist - talks with impactful words about the collections of the Booth Museum
‘The bee Orchid pines for habitats lost’ - it’s beautiful listening to Pauline discussing the specimens
@natsca.bsky.social #NatSCA2025
Absolutely love this research. @colmuseums.bsky.social repatriated NZ birds to Auckland War Memorial Museum who are undertaking genetic research to determine where these specimens came from (there was no data with specimens)- historic data mining through genomics
@natsca.bsky.social #NatSCA2025
There may be a biodiversity crisis but not in the old @dublindeadzoo.bsky.social
The pest problem was one of the many reasons for the renovation of the museum
@paoloviscardi.bsky.social @natsca.bsky.social #NatSCA2025
Aoife Hurley from @dublindeadzoo.bsky.social talking about how the Dead Zoo is addressing climate change issues - both in reducing their own impact as well as using the collections to help research and communicate issues
@natsca.bsky.social #NatSCA2025
It’s the @nhm-london.bsky.social own Helen Hardy talking about the impact of our digitised collections. Our data that is already online is being used across all these research areas
#NatSCA2025
Hannah Cornish stood at a lectern with her title slide behind her. It reads: "Making an exhibition of ourselves: displaying and not displaying human remains in the Grant Museum" and shows images of two museum displays
A PowerPoint slide reading "But then..." showing a comemrcially available plastic cast skull being unpacked from a cardboard box.
A lot of #museums are removing human remains from display if they don't have explicit consent from the person. They're often replaced with casts sourced commercially, but @hannahcornish.bsky.social at #NatSCA2025 pointed out that often these casts are made from remains that also don't have consent.
The room gasped…
First talk of the @natsca.bsky.social #NatSCA2025 conference about where (some) zoo vertebrate specimens go…
So advice given is build relationships first, prepare properly & be ready
Day 2 of #NatSCA2025 @natsca.bsky.social is up and running! I’m speaking later on behalf of @curioustravellers.bsky.social and the @nhm-london.bsky.social Thomas Pennant Collections #HistoryOfNaturalHistory #NaturalHistoryMuseums
The Dixon Glass stand at #natsca2025 a nice range of glassware for your fluid preserved collection www.dixonscience.com
Great talk by Patricia Torres-Pineda on the legacy of vertebrate collections from the Caribbean, held in the global north
So many specimens not available for Caribbean researchers working on the local flora & flora
@natsca.bsky.social #NatSCA2025 #colonisation #legacies
Nice to see a mention of the repatriation of the Giant Galliwasp specimen to Jamaica from the Hunterian Museum of Zoology - a great project #natsca2025
#Natsca2025
Excellent talk by @hannahcornish.bsky.social about ethical considerations of the display of human remains in natural history museums. @uclgrantmuseum.bsky.social
The Bat Symbol shining in the sky, with the bat's skeleton inlayed over the graphic
The Dead Bat Symbol is shining over Manchester Museum: natural history museum folk muster for our BIG CONFERENCE.
Our theme is Making a Difference - a perfect topic to show the world-changing work being done in #museums as it comes to environmental breakdown and social justice. #NatSCA2025
Glory Turnbull @nhm-london.bsky.social is talking about how the digitisation team reached out via a summer school - why collections are important, careers, & much more beside
Apparently a whole bunch of students now want to be digitisers 🤓😉
@natsca.bsky.social #NatSCA2025
A colourful poster titled "Anything but boring. A case study in the use of drill core at the British Geological Survey (Keyworth, Nottingham) for palaeontological research" There is a map of the UK showing the extent of Lower Jurassic outcrop and 5 pins on the map outlining the location of boreholes I've used in my PhD.
I'm back at my old stomping ground the Manchester Museum today for the #NatSCA2025 Making A Difference conference, presenting the more practical side of my PhD and advocating for the use core material at the @britgeosurvey.bsky.social, without which none of my research magic would be able to happen!
A white cat with very pink ears sat in front of a windows between a laptop and a computer screen.
Very excited to be at #NatSCA2025 today (digitally) - Danny is here too! 😸 @natsca.bsky.social
