Today is a very special day…it’s World Octopus Day! So, what better opportunity to celebrate the life of the eminent Cephalopod expert Dr William Evans Hoyle. Here at Amgueddfa Cymru Hoyle has a particularly special place in our hearts as he was our first Director and donated part of his Cephalopod collection to our museum containing some 463 jars of specimens.

So, who was this man…?

Born in Manchester in 1855, Hoyle followed a varied and interesting career but his passion was always for science and nature. From an Oxford degree in Natural History to a diploma in medicine; from writing Challenger Reports to being Keeper and Director of the Manchester Museum; whatever the challenge, Hoyle took it on with energy, enthusiasm and a great sense of humour.

The challenge of Challenger:

It was in 1882 that he was invited to be a naturalist on the editorial staff of the “Challenger” Expedition, under the supervision of Sir John Murray. This was to be the start of his life-long love for cephalopods. All of the cephalopods collected over the four years of the expedition (1872-1876) were passed through his hands. His skills in dissection and anatomy meant he was an excellent candidate to carry out their thorough examination. He produced diagnoses and descriptions of these creatures which were compiled into a preliminary report in 1885 and a final report in 1886.

His tenure with the Challenger team lasted six years but for the remainder of his life he studied and analysed cephalopods from all over the world and produced numerous publications. Examples of some of his studies are those collected by Herdman from Ceylon (1924); Stanley Gardiner from the Maldives and Laccadives (1905); those collected on the National Antarctic Exhibition (1907); and the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1912). Hoyle was a meticulous worker and drew many of his own beautiful illustrations for these publications, some of which now reside in the archive at Amgueddfa Cymru. He quickly became recognised as a chief authority in the subject.

Director of the National Museum of Wales

After 20 years of working at the Manchester Museum, including a period as Director, Hoyle took his final career change in 1909 when he was appointed Director of the National Museum of Wales (now Amgueddfa Cymru). By this time he was already considered the most prominent science museum director in Great Britain. For Hoyle this was the perfect job and represented the fulfilment of a life long ambition. It allowed him to be involved in the development of a museum, both as a building and a concept, from the beginning. The museum was chartered in 1907 but Hoyle joined the team at a time when he could participate in the architectural discussions and was responsible for some major changes in the design of the building. As part of his research he visited many museums in both Europe and America so he could learn from their mistakes and find the best methods of development. He noted particularly that often not enough space was allocated for collections and their future growth.

A place for exploration and discovery

Hoyle applied great energy to his work and with his exceptional organisational skills and knowledge he pushed this museum forward. With such a strong scientific background, and experience of working with material from expeditions, he was a strong promoter of the museum as a science and research institute. He promoted it as an arena for exploration and discovery of the world. Hoyle also had good acquaintances with fellow natural historians, especially as a member of the Cardiff Naturalist Society, and so encouraged them to donate their collections. His years at NMW put this museum on the scientific map and made it a place where eminent scientists were proud to bequeath their collections.

As a concept Hoyle was a great believer that museums should be “Schools for learning” as well as store houses for interesting objects. He was very well known as a popular lecturer in a great many subjects and his sense of humour and enthusiasm brought his talks alive. He was also known to have a wonderful ability to interest children and pass this enthusiasm onto them.

He was Director through the First World War which proved a great difficulty at times and caused frustrating delays in the development of the building. Sadly, Hoyle retired due to ill health in 1924 and was never to see the completion of the museum as he died on 7th February 1926 in Porthcawl. 

Re-visiting no smoking policies to include non-tobacco replacement products.

AC-NMW has recently banned the use of e-cigarettes from its galleries. E-cigarettes are considered a less harmful version of conventional cigarettes – do they really need to be banned from museums?

What's the problem?

An electronic cigarette, also known as an e-cigarette, is an electronic inhaler that vaporizes a liquid solution into an aerosol mist, simulating the act of tobacco smoking. E-cigarettes use a rechargeable battery to power the vaporizer.

Many people use e-cigarettes as a way of quitting smoking and while this is deemed a positive development, the act of using an e-cigarette does look like smoking which is disconcerting to other people. Users of e-cigarettes should be sensitive to the impression that using the substitute may give to others. For example, there are questions surrounding the appropriateness of smoking e-cigarettes in public, especially around children.

Smoking ordinary cigarettes violates established museum policies and therefore, for the sake of consistency, the use of e-cigarettes has been prohibited at AC-NMW on health and safety grounds (and in line with existing legislation covering smoking in public places) since May 2014.

In addition, there are good conservation reasons against ‘vaping’ in museums. Electronic cigarettes work in a similar way (with a chemical carrier, such as propylene glycol, nicotine and a cocktail of flavouring chemicals) to scent and smoke machines that historic houses and museums have rejected in the past to protect collections from damage.

What is the effect on museum collections?

What does the science say about the effects of e-cigarettes? A summary report recently reviewed 29 studies on the chemistry of e-cigarettes and found that refill solutions and aerosols contain nicotine, tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs), aldehydes, metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), flavours, solvent carriers and tobacco alkaloids (Cheng 2014). However, not all of those chemicals are necessarily emitted by a user exhaling vapour from an e-cigarette. In fact, the average nicotine concentration in e-cigarette vapour is considerably lower than the amount found in tobacco smoke (Czogala et al. 2013).

In addition, e-cigarette vapour does not appear to contain some of the other toxic products found in cigarette smoke. VOCs, including acetone and formaldehyde, are seemingly not emitted at all (Czogala et al. 2013), or at levels considerably lower than from conventional cigarettes (Schripp et al. 2013) – the slightly different results depend on the analytical methods used. Crucially, acetic acid is emitted by e-cigarettes (Schripp et al. 2013).

Acetic acid is very problematic in museum galleries and collections stores. Airborne acetic acid leads to destructive corrosion of metals and minerals, including calcitic bivalve shells and fossils. And while the levels emitted by each individual e-cigarette may be small, many museum conservators and curators have first-hand experience at dealing with damage caused by airborne indoor pollutants.

Pre-cautionary principle applies in museums

We have a duty to maintain our fantastic heritage, and to care for the collections of Wales to ensure their continued and future preservation. It is best to put the objects first and limit the chemical and aerosol exposure of museum collections by prohibiting the use of both conventional and e-cigarettes in museums.  

References

Cheng, T. 2014. Chemical evaluation of electronic cigarettes. Tobacco Control 23: ii11-ii17.

Czogala, J., Goniewicz, M.L., Fidelus, B., Zielinska-Danch, W., Travers, M.J., Sobczak, A. 2013. Secondhand exposure to vapors from electronic cigarettes. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, doi:10.1093/ntr/ntt203.

Schripp, T., Markewitz, D., Uhde, E., Salthammer, T. 2013. Does e-cigarette consumption cause passive vaping? Indoor Air 23: 25-31.

Visitors to our I Spy….Nature pop-up museum at the Capitol Shopping center over the summer were given the opportunity to enter a drawing competition, using our museum specimens as inspiration for their artwork. Nine winners were chosen in three age groups, winning Natural History prizes from the museum shop. As part of the prize, all winners were offered the opportunity to have a special tour behind the scenes at the museum. Several of the prizewinners have already been to visit us and the rest will be visiting us over the next few weeks. All of the winning entries can be viewed here. 

Well, the week has finally arrived. After months of planning and discussing, later this week the #popupmuseum will become a reality. Whilst we already have some stories ready to share as part of the #popupmuseum and some museum objects to showcase, such as Billy the Seal, the truth is, we have no idea what it will become as it relies completely on people coming to the Wales Millennium Centre on Thursday and Friday (9^th and 10^th October) with their stories and/or objects that relate to or remind them of Cardiff.

This is how it will work. The #popupmuseum will be in the foyer of the Wales Millennium Centre, and manned from 9am to 5:30pm on both days. You can either donate an object and leave it with us, with a written or audio description of what it is, or you can have your picture taken with the object. If you choose to leave anything with us, it will be returned to you after the #popupmuseum comes to an end! Alternatively, if you have a story, you can either write it down or be filmed telling us the story, and it will be displayed as part of the #popupmuseum.

Still with me? Good...

All will be well if people turn up. Hence why we need your help. Please spread the word, by talking about the projects to friends and family and helping us promote via social media. Objects don’t have to be valuable or typical museum objects. They can be funny, quirky, strange, serious, surprising – in fact, anything goes as long as they have a Cardiff story. They can mean something to you personally or can be part of the story of a Cardiff institution or organisation. This really is your opportunity to create a different kind of museum.

For further information, please email heledd.fychan@museumwales.ac.uk or @heleddfychan

The 13^th September 2014 was not your average day at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea. There was childlike music playing, story-time in front of the caravan exhibition and a strange fellow walking around who seemed to have lost his famous Chocolate Factory. The Youth Forum was also there, collecting stories and memories of caravanning holidays from visitors to the Museum to feature alongside the main exhibit of the family caravan.

Roald Dahl day certainly attracted a lot of families to the Museum, and many of them were more than happy to share their own personal stories of caravanning. We even managed to film a few people, including one person who could only remember the bad weather – this is Wales after all! The weather was a constant theme in the recollections, but happily many people enjoyed caravanning and camping despite the rain. My favourite memory would have to be the person who towed a 2-berth caravan with their Harley-Davidson motorbike, although I wouldn’t want to be stuck behind them in traffic! People young and old were sharing their memories and stories of caravanning with their family and friends, showing that caravan holidays are still a popular choice for many people in the age of package holidays.

All in all it was a nice day for the children and families, and we were able to collect lots of memories to travel alongside the caravan when it moves to St Fagans National History Museum as a key display in one of the new galleries.

Daisy Binks Youth Forum Member