National Museums Liverpool Blog - natural history

It's time to peer back into the mists of time again in our series of blogs celebrating World Museum's 150th anniversary. Today is one of the most significant dates in the museum's history, as we revisit the day the museum first opened. Our archives tell us about the challenges that had to be overcome in order to fit the massive natural history collection into the museum...

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On 8 March 1853, the museum first opened in a building on Slater Street in Liverpool, and it was called the 'Derby Museum of the Borough of Liverpool'.  The Mayor and council marched in a procession from the Town Hall, arriving at the museum just after 2pm.  The Mayor spoke from a temporary dais about the collection of natural history in the museum which had been bequeathed to the town of Liverpool by the Earl of Derby. He said;

"The museum, as is well known, consists of stuffed birds and a large number of birds prepared for stuffing, collected by that eminent patron of natural history, the late Earl of Derby."

"…we may consider this collection the nucleus of one which I fervently hope may exceed in extent, magnificence and in beauty, that of the British Museum itself..."

Then a Mr J.A. Picton came forward to add;

"In regard to the museum, which has just been opened, the problem which was given us to solve was as follows;  [We were] given 18,000 specimens of natural history and to determine how to lace them in a space only calculated to hold 6,000 specimens...I think it would surpass the accomplishment of any conjurer..."

The Bishop of Chester said that he little expected to be called upon to do more than be a spectator.

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I wonder if in 1853 anyone apart from the keepers of the collection were allowed to touch the specimens? I doubt that the general public would have got any closer than looking at them in the display cases.

If you visit the museum today however, you can get up close and handle some of the specimens. Head over to the Clore Natural History Centre and see what you can get your hands on!

I'm not very green fingered (I have accidentally killed a few cacti, it's true) but luckily we have a number of expert botanists here at the World Museum! This week they got together with staff from the horticulture and botanical team of Liverpool City Council Parks and Greenspaces to create a lovely display in the atrium of the museum.

Here is Donna Young, our Botany Collections Manager, to tell us more about the display:

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"Plants inspire and sustain us - we depend on them for our food, clothing, shelter, medicine and even the air that we breathe! Liverpool has always had a special relationship with plants and has some of the finest parks and gardens in the world.

The plants in the display are from all over the world and are from Liverpool’s famous living collection which dates back to the opening of the city’s first botanical garden in 1803. Through the 19th century, the garden’s unrivalled collection grew. Plant collectors, exploring new lands, brought back plants of great economic and scientific value. Plants were also sent around the world, including plants for the imperial gardens in Russia.

Many of the plants were preserved as dried specimens for scientific research and now form part of World Museum’s natural history collection. There have been many ups and downs in the history of the living collection. It closed to the public in the 1980s when greenhouses fell into disrepair – but the plants lived on. You can now see some of these plants in Sefton Park’s Palm House and at Croxteth Park."

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We are also gearing up for the opening of our massive science exhibition, 'Plantastic!', which will come to life on 13 February 2010. The exhibition will have 40 fascinating interactive exhibits and games, which will help to uncover the secrets of the amazing world of plants.

You will be able to enter a magical realm with giant leafy canopies, massive seed pods, huge root systems and strange man-made trees. There will be areas where you can relax and be inspired by nature or find out more about topical issues and their effects on plants such as biodiversity and climate change.

So look out for the exhibition next month and come along to have a Plantastic time!

I’m not a great pigeon fancier but I do have a soft spot for the biggest of this breed – the long-dead Dodo. Depending on what you believe, the flightless bird waddled or strutted into history around 1693 when it was wiped off the face of the earth.

There is a very rare skeleton of a Dodo temporarily on display at World Museum. It is going to be featured on Radio Merseyside at 8.20 am on Monday 25 January 2010 as part of the BBC’s exciting series, A History of the World. Our picture shows curator of vertebrate zoology Dr Clem Fisher, who was recently interviewed for the show, with the incomplete composite skeleton. It has been in our collection since 1866 and has not been on display for at least 40 years.

Clem will tell listeners how specimens continue to reveal secrets: “The skeleton was made up from various Dodo bones found in a bog and is quite complete. However, we recently discovered that the foot bones had been skilfully carved from wood – probably in Victorian times.”

I have discovered that there is quite a controversy over what the Dodo actually looked like when alive. Live ones were brought to Europe from its only home, the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. These captive specimens grew fat and waddled about their cages. One was painted by Jan Savery and his depiction led to the popular perception of the creature as a bird buffoon.

We now know the reality was rather different and that Dodos were more likely lithe birds that strutted around. Being flightless, they must have been pretty agile to find food in competition with other species. This interpretation is backed up by the 1991 rediscovery of long-lost drawings showing a slightly plump but alert bird. 

Then there is the theory about how Dodos became extinct. The popular story is that they were killed by the crews of passing ships. The Dutch, however, thought the Dodo tasted loathsome. I suppose it would depend how hungry you were. Some people said Dodo meat was tough but good to eat. There were other birds and animals on Mauritius to tempt the palate. Looking at the World Museum skeleton, I am reminded of the turkey after Christmas dinner so perhaps seafarers had the same idea. Turkeys were discovered in North America by the Spanish more than 400 years ago during the time Dodos were being hunted.

The name is probably of Dutch origin, shortened from dodaars meaning knot-arse, referring to the knot or tuft of feathers making up its tail. The Dodo had a relation on the neighbouring island of Réunion called the Solitaire. Sometimes known as the White Dodo, it became extinct some time after 1705.

Here is this week's post celebrating the World Museum's 150th anniversary this year! This week we have a story from Ian Wallace, our Curator of Conchology & Aquatic Biology. Read on to find out about the staff who travelled on a luxury steam yacht to collect new specimens for the museum...

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On January 16th 1876 the Museum’s Director, Reverend Henry Hugh Higgins, and museum assistants John Chard and James Wood, left Liverpool on board the brand new luxury steam yacht 'Argo'.  This had been chartered by Mr Holt of Sudley Art Gallery fame (now called Sudley House), for a cruise to the West Indies and museum workers were invited along to collect scientifically important specimens for the Liverpool Museum (now called the World Museum).  The museum authorities allocated Higgins £50 to cover all costs for the three of them and to purchase specimens.  He spent  £43 and 10d (10 pennies) !   

They were especially interested in collecting marine life and they focussed on sponges.  A sponge is one of the least complicated of all animal groups.  There are lots of cells in the sponge body but there is no organising brain or nervous system and no complicated body organs.  The whole body is a mass of small channels lined by cells that have a beating hair.  These beating cells draw in water and other cells grab tiny single-celled plants floating in the water, digest the plant cells and pass some of the digested food to their neighbours.  Other cells secrete a supporting skeleton of horny fibres or glass fibres.

These sponges may look a little strange but are of inestimable value in the scientific study of sponges.  Sponges have strange chemicals in their bodies to stop bacteria and other things killing them and these chemicals are being tested to see if any have properties to attack bacteria or even cancer, that affect humans.

Upon return to Liverpool, on May 27th 1876  the sponges were cleaned, labelled and sent to the national expert Henry Carter, in London.  He realised many had never been scientifically described or named.  The ‘type’ specimens on which these descriptions were made were returned to the museum.  Since then other sponge experts have asked to see them to understand exactly what Carter had in mid when he wrote his description. 

As luck would have it, the collection was away in London being examined by the then national sponge expert, Maurice Burton, at the time museum was fire bombed, in May 1941.  They were thankfully saved by being out of the city at the time and were returned to Liverpool after the war.

We have many of the documents relating to the voyage and Reverend Higgins wrote a book about it called 'A Field Naturalist in the Western Tropics'. It must have been a real adventure!  

I know I'm a day early, but 2010 will mean a pretty important anniversary for us here at National Museums Liverpool. It will be the 150th Anniversary of William Brown handing over the keys for what was then the Liverpool museum, which we now all know and love as the World Museum.

To mark this anniversary we’re going to be featuring a year-long series of World Museum-related stories on this blog. There'll be a story a week, with a mix of historical and contemporary pieces. We want to let you know all about the museum’s history but also give you a few behind the scenes peeks at the people, stories and events that make (and have made) this such a special museum.

To give you a taste of how the museum first came about, I can tell you that on 8 March 1853 the museum opened for the first time on Slater Street in Liverpool. It was then called the 'Derby Museum of the Borough of Liverpool' in honour of the Earl of Derby’s bequest of over 20,000 natural history specimens. We still have amazing specimens at the museum, ranging from an Arctic Fox to many beautiful butterflies.

We'd also like you to get involved by sending us your memories of the World Museum from both past and present. If you have a specific date that sticks in your mind, then all the better. You can submit your memories as a comment at the bottom of this post.

So all that remains is for me to wish you a Happy New Year and to invite you to come along and visit our fab, free museum in 2010!

Here is Phil Lewis our Aquarium & Bughouse Assistant to tell you about the forthcoming Shark Week at the World Museum...

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European Shark Week runs from Saturday 10 to Sunday 18 October when we'll have an array of activities at the World Museum's Clore Natural History Centre. There will be badge making for children and lots of posters and pockets guides to give away, with information about sharks and rays.  All the drawings of the various species that are produced by visitors during the week, will be mounted on the wall to form a huge mural. 

You can also come to several presentations delivered by our very enthusiastic aquarium staff at the Treasure House Theatre. These will focus on the status of sharks in the wild with lots of interesting shark and ray facts and plenty of interaction with the audience!  The dates for these presentations are: Sunday 11, Tuesday 13, Friday 16, Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October.
 
The purpose of Shark Week is to raise awareness about the tens of millions of sharks and rays that are slaughtered each year. This is due to unsustainable fishing practices and a desire for shark fin soup, which is an extremely cruel and wasteful practice. Sharks which have just had there fins cut off are then thrown overboard still alive and left to die slowly. 

In Europe alone, thousands of tonnes of sharks are landed each year accounting for 27 percent of the slaughter world wide.  This is an appalling example set by the EU, which other nations may look to for guidance and influence.  They are also fished commercially for their meat and liver oil used in lamps, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and vitamin supplements.  Harvesting these animals is unsustainable as sharks and rays grow slowly and have few offspring, making it impossible for them to recover from such exploitation.  As sharks in particular usually receive negative media coverage, due to rare attacks on humans, it is very hard to lobby support for this group of animals than it is for other groups of endangered animals. 

This is why Shark Week is so important in raising awareness and bringing these issues to the forefront of public imagination. These animals have been around for 400 million years - that's 200 million years before the dinosaurs - and they deserve better than this.

We hope to see you there so you can find out more about these incredible animals!

A rare skeleton of the Dodo went on display in the Atrium at World Museum Liverpool today. The specimen is made up of bones found on Mauritius and has been in the collection since 1866, however it's not been on display for at least 40 years. The skeleton is on display for about a month as part of the museum’s popular Hidden Treasures series of displays featuring items rarely seen by the public.

Dr Clem Fisher, curator of vertebrate zoology, says: “The skeleton is quite complete although we have recently discovered that the foot bones have been skilfully carved from wood.” The Dodo is also missing the top of its head (cranium).

The Dodo was a member of the pigeon family that lived on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Unfortunately it was also a rather tasty and flightless member so fell foul of the human and animal population. It's been extinct for more than 300 years with the last reliable sighting in about 1693. When alive they were rather large birds standing about three feet (one metre) tall and weighing around 50 pounds (about 23kg). They had grey plumage, a nine-inch beak with a hooked point, tiny wings and a tuft of curly rear feathers.