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2014
Journal article
Whose Amber? Changing notions of Amber’s geographical origin
This essay explores the issue of cultural identity and cultural identification with respect to one material: amber. Prior to the discovery of the new world and for quite some time afterwards, the primary source of amber in fifteenth-, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Europe was Prussia. Few Europeans, however, really understood much...King, Rachel
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2016
Journal article
‘Where is the damned collection?’ Charles Davies Sherborn’s listing of named natural science collections and its successors. In: Michel E. (Ed) Anchoring Biodiversity Information: from Sherborn to the 21st century and beyond
C. D. Sherborn published in 1940, under the imprint of Cambridge University Press but at his own expense, Where is the – Collection? This idiosyncratic listing of named natural science collections, and their fates, was useful, but incomplete, and uneven in its accuracy. It is argued that those defects were...Taylor, Michael A
museum, biology, Charles Davies Sherborn, taxonomy, collections, and geology
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2017
Book chapter
Revealing the archetype: the journey of a trecento Madonna and Child at the National Museum of Scotland
The National Museums Scotland Madonna and Child project sought to uncover and document the history of a fine polychrome wood carving attributed to The Master of the Gualino St Catherine and to prepare it for display. A new body of knowledge has been assembled by the interdisciplinary team. The conservation...de Bellaigue, Diana ; Troalen, Lore ; Richter, M ; Wong Rueda, M ; Palozzi, L …
polychromy, wood, Italy, Umbria, sculpture, Madonna, and 14th century
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2017
Journal article
Why collect Science?
In this critical assessment of the ‘museology of science’ I cherry-pick recent scholarship and practice to unpack the functions of science collections. Some practices (exhibition, engagement, study) have already attracted considerable attention, others not yet (storage); but all tend to be considered separately as case studies from particular institutions and...Alberti, S J M M
research, science engagement, exhibitions, science and technology museums, storage, and materiality
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2017
Journal article
Reflecting the Now: project management and contemporary collecting in a multi-disciplinary Museum
Nearly two million visitors a year will pass through the new permanent galleries of the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. This article reflects on the planning and collecting that presaged their redevelopment in the context of twenty-first century museum practice in the UK. We focus in particular on two...Alberti, S J M M ; Allen, Stephen ; Dectot, Xavier ; Gill, Ruth
reflective practice, contemporary collecting, project management, and National Museum of Scotland
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2018
Journal article
Geomagnetic instruments at National Museums Scotland
In 1981, the sole book about historic geomagnetic instruments was by Anita McConnell. Using it as a timeline, the Royal Scottish Museum’s temporary exhibition ‘The Earth is a Magnet’, was put on to co-incide with an international congress held in Edinburgh that year. The experience emphasised curatorial awareness that this...Morrison-Low, A D
Scottish geomagnetic history, curatorial practice, Temporary exhibitions, and Dr Anita McConnell.
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2018
Journal article
People and planes: technical versus social narratives in aviation museums
Redevelopment of two Second World War hangars at the National Museum of Flight in East Lothian provided an opportunity to re-interpret the museum collections. This short account of the project looks at the integrated incorporation of oral history recordings. In particular, it looks at the new approach taken to the...Brown, Ian
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2018
Journal article
When ivory came from the seas. On some traits of the trade of raw and carved sea-mammal ivories in the Middle Ages
Even if it played a part, it is not so much the lesser availability of elephant ivory as the Norse expansion in the Northern Atlantic that brought the success of walrus ivory throughout Western Europe and far beyond. The strength of demand did not only bring the extinction of the...Dectot, Xavier
trade, walrus, Middle Ages, Iceland, narwhal, Ivory, Greenland, unicorn, and khutū
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2010
Poster (unpublished)
The conservation of two chinese kingfisher feather cloisonne artefacts.
A poster presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Association for Cultural Property.Plitnikas, Jill
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Journal article
Synoptic revision of the Silurian fauna from the Pentland Hills, Scotland described by Lamont (1978)
Archibald Lamont (1907-1985) sampled the North Esk Inlier Silurian fauna for almost 30 years. He had amassed a substantial fauna that has been, in part, bequeathed to the National Museums Scotland after his death. Unfortunately, the descriptions of the faunas in his last opus were careless and the illustrations were...Candela, Yves ; Crighton, William R B
systematics, Scotland, museum collections, North Esk Inlier, and palaeontology
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Conference paper (published)
TIM, PAT and ISAAC: synthetic speech on display at the National Museum of Scotland
In its communications gallery, staff at National Museums Scotland were keen to include a fundamental of human communication – speech. This paper will outline a display of speech mediated by machines, from the experiments first speaking clock to the now omnipresent synthetic voices of devices of satnavs and smoke alarms....Taubman, Alison
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2020
Book
Dividing the spoils: Perspectives on military collections and the British empire
At a time of heightened international interest in the colonial dimensions of museum collections, Dividing the Spoils provides new perspectives on the motivations and circumstances whereby collections were appropriated and acquired during colonial military service. Combining approaches from the fields of material anthropology, imperial and military history, this book argues...Lidchi , Henrietta ; Allan, Stuart
Post-Colonial Studies , War Studies, Museum & Gallery Studies , Cultural History, and Imperial/Colonial History
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2020
Book chapter
Introduction
At a time of heightened international interest in the colonial dimensions of museum collections, Dividing the Spoils provides new perspectives on the motivations and circumstances whereby collections were appropriated and acquired during colonial military service. Combining approaches from the fields of material anthropology, imperial and military history, this book argues...Lidchi, Henrietta ; Allan, Stuart
Post-Colonial Studies , War Studies, Imperial/Colonial History , Cultural History, and Museum & Gallery Studies
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2020
Book chapter
The officers' mess: an anthropology and history of the military interior
This chapter uses a model of British Army organisational culture and historical analysis to examine the nature of the ‘military interior’ – specifically the public rooms in the officers’ mess and the artefacts found within. The authors seek to combine their expertise to create a broader understanding of how military...Kirke, Charles ; Hartwell, Nicole M
Post-Colonial Studies , War Studies, Museum & Gallery Studies , Cultural History, and Imperial/Colonial History
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2020
Book chapter
Seeing Tibet through soldiers' eyes: photograph albums in regimental museums
In his ‘Notes on Photography’ dated 1860 Captain Henry Shaw of the Royal Engineers itemised the uses to which photography could be applied for military and scientific purposes. He notes that over time, capturing scenes, places and persons would prove of personal interest to the photographer and more generally, justifying...Henrietta , Lidchi ; Rosanna, Nicolson
Post-Colonial Studies , War Studies, Imperial/Colonial History , Cultural History, and Museum & Gallery Studies
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2020
Book chapter
Indigenising folk art: eighteenth-century powder horns in British military collections
Engraved power horns are a well-known aspect of the material culture of the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763), also known in North America as the French and Indian War. In looking at collections in military museums across the UK it emerged that powder horns were a distinctive form of material culture...Lidchi, Henrietta ; Allan, Stuart
Post-Colonial Studies , War Studies, Museum & Gallery Studies , Cultural History, and Imperial/Colonial History
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2020
Book chapter
Mementoes of power and conquest: Sikh jewellery in the collection of National Museums Scotland
This chapter traces the historical trajectory of pieces of jewellery and personal effects in the collection of National Museums Scotland which once belonged to the last Sikh ruler of Panjab, Maharaja Duleep Singh (1838–93). Deposed from the throne after the Second Anglo–Sikh War, exiled and deprived of his possessions, religion...Voigt, Friederike
Post-Colonial Studies , War Studies, Imperial/Colonial History , Cultural History, and Museum & Gallery Studies
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2020
Book chapter
Afterword: material reckonings with military histories
Looking at European developments from 2017 to 2019, the Afterword situates the volume among the resurgent interest in questions of contested histories, calls for restitution, and the resurgence of provenance research. It argues that given the varied ways European nations are addressing questions of colonial collections, it seems contradictory that...Lidchi, Henrietta
Post-Colonial Studies , Cultural History, Imperial/Colonial History , War Studies, and Museum & Gallery Studies
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2020
Journal article
Collecting and displaying the decommissioning of North Sea Oil and Gas at the National Museums Scotland
National Museums Scotland (NMS) has a long history of collecting industrial objects. Our predecessor museum, the Industrial Museum of Scotland, was founded with the intention of collecting the materials and processes of manufacture; that is, contemporary technologies and the tacit skills that went with them [1]. For a lot of...Swinbank, Ellie
museum, Scotland, decommissioning, industry, collection, and oil
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2020
Journal article
The Tod Head lighthouse lantern. The conservation-restoration of a technical object that has been continuously modified over the years
This paper presents the conservation and reassembly of the Tod Head lighthouse lantern in the storage area of the National Museums Scotland. The Tod Head lighthouse was located on the Scottish east coast, north of Edinburgh. The lantern was dismantled in 2011 and sent to the National Museums Collection Centre....Grima, Marie
lighthouse, Fresnel, lantern, and Stevenson
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2020
Journal article
Collecting COVID-19 at National Museums Scotland
This opinion piece discusses National Museums Scotland’s first responses to collecting COVID-19. Drawing on perspectives from social history, biomedical science and military history, this short paper contextualizes COVID-related collecting within the contexts of the organization’s programme of contemporary collecting and the nation’s ongoing socio-political journey.Laurenson, Sarah ; Robertson, Calum ; Goggins, Sophie
Scotland, Contemporary collecting, social history, military history, and medical history
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2020
Research report
Ancient Egyptian Collections in Scottish Museums
Several reviews of collections have been conducted historically, though they have not been focused in the same manner as that under discussion presently. For example, in 1887 the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland conducted a report on local museums in Scotland, funded by a financial gift. The report, published in...Potter, Daniel M
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2020
Research report
East Asia Collections in Scottish Museums
The opportunity to conduct a review of the East Asian collections in Scotland arose alongside the development and opening of a new gallery, Exploring East Asia, at National Museums Scotland. Initial research revealed that, although there were East Asian collections of fine and decorative arts, archaeology and dress across Scotland,...Tothill, Vanessa
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2021
Journal article
Peelhill Farm: a possible Late Bronze Age weapon sacrifice in Lanarkshire
The hoard of bronze weapons found in 1961 at Peelhill Farm in South Lanarkshire remains one of the most remarkable discoveries of Late Bronze Age metalwork from Scotland, its importance reflected in the detailed account of the find published by John Coles and Jack Scott in 1963. In the present...Mörtz, Tobias ; Knight, Matthew G ; Cowie, Trevor ; Flint, Jane
Late Bronze Age, Hoard, Conflict, Ritual, and Weapons
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2022
Journal article
Abnormal (Hydroxy)proline Deuterium Content Redefines Hydrogen Chemical Mass
Analyzing the δ2H values in individual amino acids of proteins extracted from vertebrates, we unexpectedly found in some samples, notably bone collagen from seals, more than twice as much deuterium in proline and hydroxyproline residues than in seawater. This corresponds to at least 4 times higher δ2H than in any...Gharibi, Hassan ; Chernobrovkin, Alexey L ; Eriksson, Gunilla ; Saei, Amir Ata ; Timmons, Zena …
Biopolymers, Ions, Hydrogen , Peptides , Anatomy, proteins, and isotopes
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2021
Journal article
An optimised small-scale sample preparation workflow for historical dye analysis using UHPLC-PDA applied to Scottish and English Renaissance embroidery
A sample preparation workflow for historical dye analysis based on 96 well plates and filtration by centrifugation was developed. It requires less sample and the introduced error is decreased, making it useful for culturally important objects. A sample preparation workflow for historical dye analysis requiring less sample has been developed....Sandström, Edith ; Wyld, Helen ; Mackay, C Logan ; Troalen, Lore G ; Hulme, Alison N
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2021
Journal article
Fit for a Queen: The Material and Visual Culture of Maria Clementina Sobieska, Jacobite Queen in Exile
Tracing its manifestation across three phases in her biography — marriage, separation and funeral — this article considers the image of Maria Clementina Sobieska (1702–35). Examining the objects and portraits which surrounded Clementina’s life and death offers a new historiography for the Jacobite queen in exile. It reinstates her place...Vullinghs, Georgia
queenship, Jacobites, Stuarts, royal image, and material culture
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2021
Journal article
Enigmatic vertebrate trackway from the Scalby Formation (Middle Jurassic) Yorkshire, United Kingdom, with discussion of archosaur and ‘mammal’ trace fossils
We describe a new and unusual vertebrate trackway from the Middle Jurassic Scalby Formation of the Cleveland Basin, Yorkshire, United Kingdom. The Enigmatic Burniston Trackway (EBT) is the first and only example of such a trackway known from this region. The best preserved EBT print, belonging to a pentadactyl tetrapod,...synapsid, Sederipes, Synaptichnium, Ravenscar Group, and Footprint
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2021
Journal article
New records of Diptera from the Republic of Mordovia, Russia
A list of 55 species of Diptera from families Tanypezidae (1 species), Megamerinidae (1), Acroceridae (1), Psilidae (5), Lonchaeidae (8), Strongylophthalmyiidae (1), Ephydridae (21) Scathophagidae (17 species) collected in the Republic of Mordovia is given. Of them Protearomyia withersi MacGowan, 2014 and Lonchaea baechlii MacGowan, 2016 are recorded from Russia... -
2022
Blog post
Collecting contemporary Scottish whisky / A’ cruinneachadh uisge-bheatha Albannach an latha an-diugh
Plenty of people collect whisky, but how many can say that they collect whisky for a museum? PhD student Laura Scobie has the enviable job of expanding our whisky collections. In this blog post, Laura explores the ways that whisky brands adopt a sense of place and explains how collecting...Scobie, Laura
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2022
Journal article
Novel mtDNA haplotypes represented in the European captive population of the Endangered François’ langur (Trachypithecus francoisi)
Assessing the genetic diversity of captive populations of endangered species is key to the successful management of conservation-breeding programs. In this study, we sequenced a 393-bp fragment of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region of 23 captive individuals of the Endangered François’ langur ( ) to assess the mtDNA diversity...Farré, Marta ; Johnstone, Cameron ; Hopper, Jane ; Kitchener, Andrew C ; Roos, Christian …
Captive populations, mtDNA , Conservation genetics , and François’ langurs
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2022
Book chapter
The King and I: Commemorating the privilege of royal statue dedication in Ramesside Deir El-Medina
It is generally understood that in ancient Egyptian statuary, “a private person is never sculpted together with the king”. However, an unusual small limestone statue in the collections of National Museums Scotland contradicts this understanding, depicting a man kneeling to offer a statue of a king (NMS A.1956.139). Clearly Ramesside...Maitland, Margaret
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2022
Journal article
First large‐scale quantification study of DNA preservation in insects from natural history collections using genome‐wide sequencing
Insect declines are a global issue with significant ecological and economic ramifications. Yet, we have a poor understanding of the genomic impact these losses can have. Genome-wide data from historical specimens have the potential to provide baselines of population genetic measures to study population change, with natural history collections representing... -
2022
Journal article
Signatures of increasing environmental stress in bumblebee wings over the past century: Insights from museum specimens
Determining when animal populations have experienced stress in the past is fundamental to understanding how risk factors drive contemporary and future species' responses to environmental change. For insects, quantifying stress and associating it with environmental factors has been challenging due to a paucity of time-series data and because detectable population-level... -
2022
Journal article
‘Is Radioactive Iodine Present Equally in the Cream on Milk as in the Milk Itself?’: Lonely Sources and the Gendered history of Cold War Britain
This article argues that one way to foreground and privilege women's perspectives on the Cold War is by re-interpreting their historical experiences of food and drink. The article develops this argument by analysing one letter, from an unknown woman to the BBC, in the context of nuclear health concerns in...Douthwaite, Jessica
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2022
Journal article
Edmund Jarzembowski at 70: An appreciation
Edmund Aleksander Jarzembowski (BSc PhD FGS FRES) is currently a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow; Scientific Associate (researcher) at The Natural History Museum London (NHMUK); and Professor at the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS), Nanjing, specializing in the study of fossil insects (palaeoentomology).Austen, Peter A ; Wang, Bo ; Ross, Andrew J ; Coram, Robert A
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2022
Journal article
Joseph Anderson (1832–1916) and the Scottish historical collection in the Antiquities Museum, 1869 to 1892
Joseph Anderson (1832–1916) was an influential figure within the history of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and Scottish archaeology during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But while Anderson is best known for his contribution to the development of Scottish prehistoric and early medieval archaeology, there has been...Holder, Julie
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2022
Journal article
Phenotypic plasticity determines differences between the skulls of tigers from mainland Asia
Tiger subspecific taxonomy is controversial because of morphological and genetic variation found between now fragmented populations, yet the extent to which phenotypic plasticity or genetic variation affects phenotypes of putative tiger subspecies has not been explicitly addressed. In order to assess the role of phenotypic plasticity in determining skull variation,... -
2023
Journal article
Textiles in a Viking Age hoard: Identifying ephemeral traces of textiles in metal corrosion products
This paper presents a novel method and terminology to identify and describe textiles from ephemeral traces in metal corrosion products. Since the 1980s, mineralised textiles (positive and negative casts in Janaway’s terminology) have been an important source of archaeological evidence. A major issue now is the identification of textiles in...Davis, Mary ; Harris, Susanna
Textile , Mineralisation, Silver, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Microscopy, Copper corrosion, Viking age, and Anglo-Saxon
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2022
Journal article
A curated DNA barcode reference library for parasitoids of northern European cyclically outbreaking geometrid moths
Large areas of forests are annually damaged or destroyed by outbreaking insect pests. Understanding the factors that trigger and terminate such population eruptions has become crucially important, as plants, plant-feeding insects, and their natural enemies may respond differentially to the ongoing changes in the global climate. In northernmost Europe, climate-driven...Nyman, Tommi ; Wutke, Saskia ; Koivisto, Elina ; Klemola, Tero ; Shaw, Mark R …
population regulation, parasitoid , molecular identification, barcoding , insect outbreaks, and metabarcoding
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2023
Research report
‘Collecting the New Past: developing representative collections of the present for the future’ National Museums Scotland National Training Programme Report for Contemporary Collecting Symposium, 21 November 2022
This report outlines the discussion and outcomes of the contemporary collecting symposium held by National Museums Scotland in November 2022. The symposium covered three key themes: how contemporary objects represent current issues in Scotland and contribute to expanding representation in museum collections; collecting with communities; and care of short-lifespan material....Vullinghs, Georgia
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Journal article
First recorded stranding of a short-finned pilot whale, Globicephala macrorhynchus, in Britain
A male pilot whale, Globicephala sp., was reported as a live stranding on 1st March 2012 at Hazelbeach, near Neyland, Pembrokeshire. It was euthanased and its skull was recovered during an onsite necropsy. Examination of the skull and contemporary photographs of the stranded animal confirm that this is the first...Kitchener, Andrew C ; Hantke, Georg ; Penrose, R S ; Perkins, M W ; Deaville, R
Globicephala melas, Delphinidae, skull, and Globicephala macrorhynchus
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2022
Journal article
Psittacopedids and zygodactylids: The diverse and species-rich psittacopasserine birds from the early Eocene London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze (Essex, UK)
The Daniels collection of fossil birds from the early Eocene London Clay of Walton-on-the-Naze (Essex, UK) contains multiple specimens of the Psittacopedidae and Zygodactylidae, which are here for the first time studied in detail. The Psittacopedidae include Parapsittacopes bergdahli, Psittacomimus eos, gen. et sp. nov., ?Psittacopes occidentalis, sp. nov., and...Mayr, Gerald ; Kitchener, Andrew C
Psittacopasseres, evolution, fossil birds, Aves, and systematics
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2022
Journal article
Experiment, Experience and Enchant: Knowledge sharing between museums and contemporary practitioners
Knowledge sharing between contemporary practitioners and museum professionals can be more than just investigating how something is made. It is also about working together to understand why an object was created, and by whom; how each artefact has a story to tell, of its journey through time and the places...Maldonado, Adrián ; Rothwell, Sarah
sculpture, knowledge sharing, The Glenmorangie Commission, contemporary practitioners, museums, and Simone ten Hompel
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2022
Journal article
Gerhard Bersu in Scotland, and his excavations at Traprain Law in context
Bersu’s excavations on the hillfort of Traprain Law in south-east Scotland are reviewed in the light of his British and Irish digs and other work on the hill itself. It differs from the rest of his British excavations, which mostly focussed on houses, but is entirely in keeping with his...Hunter, Fraser ; Armit, Ian ; Dunwell, Andrew
Scotstarvit, League of Prehistorians, hillfort , O. G. S. Crawford , Traprain Law, Vere Gordon Childe, and roundhouses
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2022
Journal article
GLASS BANGLES IN THE BRITISH ISLES: A STUDY OF TRADE, RECYCLING AND TECHNOLOGY IN THE FIRST AND SECOND CENTURIES AD
Glass bangles are found in southern England and Wales from the mid-first century and become common in the north of England and southern Scotland in the late first century, before their numbers decline a century later. British bangles develop at a time of change, as Roman glassmaking practices were introduced...Paynter, Sarah ; Crew, Peter ; Campbell, Richard ; Hunter, Fraser ; Jackson, Caroline
Late Iron Age , Roman , glass bangle , artefact and material culture studies , archaeometry , and Britain