In this blog, student Arianna Morlupi shares her experience auditing some of the Natural History collections held at the Bell Pettigrew Museum of Natural History in St Andrews.
When I boarded the plane taking me from Rome to Edinburgh for the first time, I could have never imagined that I would one day find myself searching through boxes of specimens from the Challenger expedition or holding elephant teeth in my hands. Talk about a truly unique experience!
Growing up as a nature-loving little girl, I was always fascinated by science museums. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of days spent at the Zoology Museum of Rome, where I would lose myself for hours among the exhibits, imagining the day when I might see those animals in the wild. Now, as an aspiring naturalist, I understand the importance of these collections in raising the next generation of “nature enthusiasts” more than ever.
That is why I was so excited when I heard that the Bell Pettigrew Museum was looking for a volunteer to help audit its collections.
And so, my time at the museum began. My job was to work through the Natural History collection and make sure that everything was where it should be, which is easier said than done!
Alongside Emily Hales, who was working as a Museum Collections Trainee, I went through countless boxes which, much like Russian dolls, seemed to contain an endless succession of smaller boxes. However, these things always have a knack for winding up somewhere they are not supposed to be, and since they were often missing their ID code, we had to do quite a lot of detective work!
Even so, I certainly enjoyed feeling like an investigator alongside Emily, going through the Museum’s archives to find a missing platypus taxidermy, or trying to match the correct code to a collection of fossilised ferns.
Unfortunately, some of the historical specimens, especially those preserved in liquid, were not in the best condition. But that is exactly where I came in! Part of the auditing process consisted of recording which objects required a little pick-me-up, so that they could receive the attention of staff trained to care for these delicate scientific samples.
During every audit session, I found it impossible not to smile at the thought of the strange and wonderful things I might encounter that day. Some of the specimens dated all the way back to the nineteenth century and had travelled to St Andrews from all over the world. Examining them allowed me to take a journey across continents and through centuries without ever leaving the room.
I appreciated the opportunity to see a side of science that I had never had the chance to explore before. Natural history is an extraordinarily interesting field and one that I believe is essential to keep alive and continue teaching to future generations. Natural history collections tell a story of the relationship between people and nature. They reveal how our understanding of the world has changed over time and document our enduring attempts to identify, classify, and find patterns within the natural world.
Seeing specimens collected in the 1800s made me think about all the scientists and naturalists that came before me. I wondered what questions they had hoped to answer and how surprised they would be by everything we have discovered since their time.
I believe that museums are bridges connecting scientific research and the public, bringing people closer to the beauty and complexity of the natural world. They can make science more accessible and encourage visitors to think about how we understand and care for the planet. In the future, I hope to work with a natural history collection again, perhaps with a greater focus on education and public engagement. We sometimes underestimate how much curiosity nature can inspire. I have seen it many times while teaching children: when viewed through a microscope, even something as small as a grain of sand can create a sense of wonder as vast as the world itself.
If this experience has taught me anything, it is that beauty and discovery are all around us. Sometimes, they can even be found in a box of seashells, carefully collected and preserved by someone generations ago in the hope that they might continue to educate and inspire people long into the future.
Arianna Morlupi
Student, University of St Andrews
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Really enjoyed the post, Arianna. Thanks. It resonates with my experiences with the collection kept here at the university of Nottingham. One of the many issues we have is mis-labelling and the beautiful specimen labelled Alligator is definitely a crocodile of some kind. I don’t know whether the extra hole in front of the left eye socket is from a bullet..
Dear Tom, thank you for your comment and for bringing this to our attention! I would have never caught this mistake otherwise. That is definitely an issue that we encountered especially with marine specimens, since most of them were collected in the 1800s and their label had never been updated.
Thanks Arianna, I think that there is a whole book to be written on misidentification. Our stuffed sturgeon had the label ‘porpoise’ and for years I was hunting around for a heron skull to fix to our ‘heron’ skeleton. It was a stork and I had the right skull for years! It took that long for the penny to drop. AT our local natural history museum the priceless duck billed platypus skeleton was labelled ‘baby crocodile’. if you are ever this far south then do pop in! A load of our specimens are out for art classes at the moment.
I guess that is all part of the museum’s charm! I’ll definitely come by if I ever find myself in Nottingham. Cheers