National Science and Engineering Week Katie Mortimer-Jones, 21 March 2014 Yesterday, Natural Sciences Staff took part in the 'Meet the Pollinators' Event run by First Campus, a partnership between higher education institutions, further education colleges and schools in South East Wales. The event was part of National Science and Engineering Week and was attended by approximately 100 Year 9 pupils from six schools. The pupils had the opportunity to speak to the curators and find out about 'a day in the life of museum scientists'.
'A day in the life' - a post for the Twitter event 'Museum Week UK' Jennifer Evans, 21 March 2014 I begin my day by checking our general library inbox for any inquiries that we might have received over the weekend. This morning [as usual] there were quite a few but they were mercifully straight forward so didn’t take too long to answer. Next, I spent a very enjoyable hour squirreling away through our old photograph drawers for some interesting images to share with everyone during this Museum Week UK on Twitter and what treasures I have found [but more of that to come via Tweets from @amgueddfa_lib during the week]! Vintage albums and photographs Main Library photograph drawers I also took some photographs of the pages of a giant old scrap book full of museum ephemera; it contains tickets, pamphlets, public announcement posters, order of services, lists of lectures and just about anything else you can stick down with heavy duty glue and sellotape…However, my day begins in earnest with the post – as Assistant Librarian one of my main priorities is to manage the journal subscriptions. We maintain around 700 titles, a combination of paid subscriptions, exchanges and gifts. Therefore, after our Administration Assistant has opened and checked it, I weed out all the journals and record them onto our database. By doing this I am alerted to previous issues not received and will then chase them up with relevant suppliers. This time, there are no missing issues to chase but we have received a few duplicates, and [as always] these are from suppliers who categorically promised that no further duplicates would be sent out! Next, I count and measure the post so that at the end of the year I am able to supply our Principle Librarian with the total number of actual issues received and the meterage of space they will have covered. For instance, our statistics for 2013 were 1972 issues received that covered just over 11 metres of shelf space. Next, I date stamp and separate them into departments. Our subscriptions naturally correspond with the curatorial departments, so we receive journals on the following disciplines: Art, Archaeology, Zoology, Botany, Geology and Industry and we also subscribe to more general subjects kept here in the Main Library. Once all this is done, it’s time to go and shelve them in the departmental libraries. These are dotted all around the museum so I wait until I have a little pile, normally a few days’ worth, before I go on my shelving travels. My next task is to work through any invoices received in the post and this morning there quite a few. The way I process these has changed recently and whereas it has taken a little time to get used to the new system, it is much more straightforward and done in no time at all. Walking into town for lunch, looking back over my shoulder... After lunch, it’s all about the special collections! I begin by photographing books for a new post on the Museum Blog; I have been posting articles for some time now and really enjoy it. This next post I’m working on concerns books with “marginalia” and we have some excellent examples so here is a little sneak peak… Cambria Depicta: a tour of North Wales by Edward Pugh [1816] Instructions for collecting and preserving insects; particularly moths and butterflies by William Curtis [1771] The last few hours of the afternoon are spent working on a talk I will be giving in April as part of the Museum’s Behind the scenes series where the curatorial departments allow groups of visitors in to show them what goes on behind the scenes. My working title is “Curios” and the talk will be based on a small selection of our more unique items, such as fore-edge books, annotated books, and books made from unusual materials and bindings! On my way out I leave via the art galleries, it does take a little longer to get out going this way but it gives me the chance to browse and see what's on display and today there were two things in particular I wished to see. First, the new exhibition Wales Visitation: Poetry, Romance and Myth in Art which includes works by David Jones, Graham Sutherland and Richard Long. And also the new Constable painting [currently on loan from the Tate]; Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows is a stunning work and I particularly like the dark storm clouds brooding behind the rainbow. A selection of books on WWI all ready for the 1914-2014 Centenary This post has been produced as part of the Twitter event #Museum Week UK [24-30 March 2014] All photographs in this post taken by the author
Professor Plant’s flowers have opened! Catalena Angele, 21 March 2014 I am so excited because my flowers have finally opened! They are so pretty and make me smile every time I see them! My crocus opened on 16 March and was 90mm tall, my daffodil opened one day later and was 240mm tall. Here is a photo of them.Thankyou very much Stanford Gardening Club from Stanford in the Vale CE Primary School in England for sending me a photo of your first daffodil! Would anyone else like to send me some photos of their plants? I will put them on the website too!Which schools have had their first flowers?Abronhill Primary School, Culross Primary School, and Glencairn Primary School in Scotland, and Christchurch CP School, Coleg Meirion Dwyfor, Gladestry C.I.W. School, Rogiet Primary School, Ysgol Clocaenog, Ysgol Gynradd Cross Hands, Ysgol Deganwy and Ysgol Santes Tudfulin Wales, have all seen their first flowers open. In England, Arkholme CE Primary School, Burscough Bridge Methodist School, Coppull Parish Primary School, Hillside Specialist School, John Cross CE Primary School, Pinfold Primary School, Scotforth St. Paul's CE Primary School, SS Philip and James CE Primary School, St Laurence CE Primary School and Woodplumpton St. Anne's Primary School all sent their first flower records. Well done to all these schools!One more week to go…There is only one more week to go before the Spring Bulbs project deadline. Please remember to send in your records by the 28 March.What do you do if your flowers have not opened by the deadline?Please keep sending in flower data! If your flowers have not opened and you would like to carry on with your investigation then please do! When they open you can still record the flowering date and plant height on our website.I set a deadline because every year I write a special report that gives a summary of all the data sent in so far. I need to write the report in April. All records sent in before the deadline will be included in this year’s report. Records sent in after the deadline will be added to our database and will be included in next year’s report.All the records that you send are very important. I promise you that all your data will be included in the project and will help the investigation to be more accurate in the future. Have you seen any signs of spring while you have been out playing? On the weekend I saw a bumblebee, a ladybird and some little baby lambs! I looked in a pond but I didn’t see any frogspawn. Have you seen any frogspawn? What other signs of spring have you seen? Would you like to be a Nature Detective? The Woodland Trust have lots of Fun Spring Activities for you to do, click here for how to spot the early signs of Spring. Click here for lots of other fun Spring ideas. Your questions, my answers: Ysgol Bro Eirwg: Roedd y mesurudd glaw yn llawn ar ddydd Llun gan ei fod wedi casglu'r holl law dros hanner tymor. Rydym ni yn gyffrous iawn bod rhai o'r bylbiau wedi dechrau agor. Rydym wedi sylwi bo'r bylbiau sy'n agor yn hwyrach llawer yn llai, oes rheswm am hyn? Athro’r Ardd: Rydw i’n falch iawn bod eich blodau chi yn agor Ysgol Bro Eirwg! Da iawn chi am arsylwi mor ofalus ar y planhigion a gofyn cwestiwn gwyddonol gwych. Yr ateb yw… dwi ddim yn siŵr!! Efallai bod rhai o’r bylbiau yn llai na’r lleill wrth gael eu plannu. Gallai hyn olygu eu bod nhw’n cymryd mwy o amser i flodeuo a’u bod nhw’n llai o faint. Oes gennych chi unrhyw syniadau i’w esbonio? Sut fyddech chi’n profi eich syniadau wrth dyfu rhagor o blanhigion y flwyddyn nesaf? Raglan VC Primary: Our flowers are blooming now! The shoots are 85 cm tall! Prof P: Do you mean 85mm tall Raglan? An 85cm tall flower would be HUGE! Glencairn Primary School: It was very foggy on Thursday night and Friday morning! Prof P: Great weather reporting. I love fog, it’s quite spooky isn’t it? Hillside Specialist School: Our first flower opened. By K. Prof P: Well done K and everyone else at Hillside School. Greyfriars RC Primary School: It was fun me and R. really enjoyed it. Prof P: Hooray! SS Philip and James CE Primary: A lot of our crocus flowers had come out over the holidays! Prof P: Fantastic! A lot of people’s flowers opened during the holidays. Pinfold Primary School: Mystery bulbs started opening on Monday. We think they're daffodils. Other bulbs are growing very well. Prof P: Great news Pinfold. Ysgol Terrig: our bulbs are growing great they are now 7cm tall !!!!! Prof P: Fantastic news Ysgol Terrig! Chatelherault Primary School: During the week it has been sunny and because of this our plants has started to blossom although the flowers are still closed. We have had a lot of spiders in our pots. Prof P: Oooh, how cool! I love spiders! Their webs are so beautiful and the way they make them is so clever. Culross Primary School: We have been very busy in P5-7 recently with trips to Scottish Parliament and also the Foodbank with a collection we organised. Sorry for the lack of records for Tuesday and Thursday! Matt is the name of my daffodil and he was the first one to flower here at Culross PS. It has been quite warm here at Culross and we haven't had any snow, so the daffodils are now beginning to grow. O's crocus is called Coco and measures 50mm. Her’s is the first crocus to flower here at Culross. Well done to O.! Prof P: Wow you sound like you have had some really interesting school trips Culross Primary. Well done for collecting for the Foodbank. I love the names you have given to your plants! Darran Park Primary: The first crocuses flowered on the 7th of march. Their colour is purple\violet. The bees have already started collecting the pollen and they are 6 cm tall. Some of the other crocus bulbs have only just started to sprout through the soil. Prof P: Great observations Darran Park, I like your description of the crocuses as purple/violet. Arkholme CE Primary School: Sun shining at last it is doing the flowers a world of good they have come out to see it!!! Prof P: It is doing me the world of good too Arkholme! Many Thanks Professor Plant
John Constable Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831 20 March 2014 Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows 1831 John Constable (1776 – 1837) Photograph © Tate, London 2013Purchased by Tate with assistance from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Manton Foundation and the Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation) and Tate Members in partnership with Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales, Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service, National Galleries of Scotland; and Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. When this painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy, Constable quoted nine lines from The Four Seasons: Summer (1727) by Scottish poet James Thompson to expand on its meaning.As from the face of heaven the scatter’d clouds Tumultous rove, th’interminable sky Sublimer swells, and o’er the world expands A purer azure. Through the lightened air A higher lustre and a clearer calm Diffusive tremble; while, as if in sign Of danger past, a glittering robe of joy, Set off abundant by the yellow ray, Invests the fields, and nature smiles reviv’dJames Thompson, The Seasons: Summer (1727)The poem tells the mythical tale of young lovers Celadon and Amelia. As they walk through the woods in a thunderstorm, the tragic Amelia is struck by lightning, and dies in her lover’s arms. The poem has a religious message: it is an exploration of God’s power, and man’s inability to control his own fate. It is also a poem of hope and redemption. The rainbow appears as a ‘sign of danger past’.The story of Celadon and Amelia has clear resonances with Constable’s own tragic loss. His wife Maria died of tuberculosis in 1828, after just twelve years of marriage. It is likely that the poem had special significance for the young couple. When Maria was unsure whether or not she should marry Constable, he quoted lines from the poem to her, to allay her fears. Explore the Painting Click on the links below to explore the details of the painting Cathedral Storm clouds Rainbow Leadenhall Wooden Bridge St Thomas’ Church Wagon and Cart Cathedral When Constable painted Salisbury Cathedral, the future of the Anglican Church was in doubt. He shows the Cathedral under a black cloud, lightning striking the roof – will it survive the storm? The spire – which Constable described as‘dart[ing] up into the sky like a needle’ - pierces through the darkness into a patch of light, perhaps suggesting his hopes for the future of the Church. Storm clouds When this painting was first exhibited, a reporter for The Morning Herald complained that ‘the sky is in a state of utter derangement’. Others described it as ‘chaos’. It is a key part of the painting’s meaning. For Constable, the sky was more than just a backdrop. It can be used to convey mood and changing emotional states. The sky here is often seen as an expression of the grief and anxiety he felt at this time. His wife Maria had died of tuberculosis in 1828, and he was deeply concerned about the troubles facing the Anglican Church. The vigorous brushwork adds to the emotional charge. Rainbow Constable once said ‘nature… exhibits no feature more lovely nor any that awaken a more soothing reaction than the rainbow’. The rainbow represents a glimmer of hope in turbulent times, a sign that the storm is passing. Leadenhall The rainbow ends at Leadenhall, home of Constable’s supporter and close personal friend, the Archdeacon John Fisher. This is no coincidence: Fisher had provided comfort and emotional support to Constable in his grief after the death of his wife, and it was Fisher that first encouraged Constable to paint Salisbury Cathedral. He died just a year after the painting was first exhibited. Wooden Bridge Constable was fascinated by the humblest details of rural life. ‘Old rotten planks, slimy posts, and brickwork, I love such things’ he wrote in a letter to his friend John Fisher. The paint here is thick and coarse suggesting the natural texture of the wooden bridge, a simple detail which most artists of the day would have overlooked. St Thomas’ Church Just visible through a clearing in the trees is the parish Church of St Thomas. The Church can’t actually be seen from this viewpoint, so why has Constable drawn attention to it? Is it purely for compositional reasons, or is there another explanation? The answer is uncertain. Wagon and Cart Constable believed that no landscape was complete without traces of everyday life. He would fill his sketchbooks with small details which he would later include in his paintings. Here a horse-drawn wagon crosses the river Nadder. This vignette is often compared to The Hay Wain (1821), one of his best known paintings. The sheepdog appears in other paintings by Constable, such as The Cornfield (1826). Both paintings are in the collection of the National Gallery, London. Download this page as a PDF here.
Twin Peaks Blog Update Katie Mortimer-Jones, 20 March 2014 There are two sides to exploring biodiversity. One is fieldwork, often in interesting and remote places looking for new or otherwise interesting forms of life. As an entomologist with an interest in tropical flies this often means extended trips under challenging conditions armed with a net, various kinds of insect trap, a pair of binoculars and a notebook. We know so little about tropical insects that discovery of new species is a daily occurrence and almost everything encountered is interesting for one reason or another. Unfortunately, identification of most insects in the field is quite impossible, let alone proper recognition of new species. This is where the second and perhaps less glamorous part of exploring biodiversity comes in involving long hours of study back in the laboratory when the true identity of captures may be revealed and their significance evaluated. My ongoing collaboration with Wichai Srisuka as the Entomology Section of Queen Sirikit Garden in Thailand (http://www.qsbginsects.org/) is starting to provide thousands of specimens for study. Wichai and his staff have been running a type of trap known as a Malaise trap to sample insects on the forested slopes of two of Thailand’s highest mountains, Doi Inthanon and Doi Phahompok. Specimens they have collected have been sent to me in Cardiff where I am beginning the process of ‘working up’ the samples. This involves first sorting the specimens into groups (or families and genera as systematists call higher groupings of species). Insect diversity is so great that no one person can be an expert in all of them. For this reason, many of the sorted samples are sent to collaborating colleagues around the world who are specialists in the groups concerned. I retain the rest for my own specialist studies.Thereafter each specialist concentrates on identifying species that are already known and describing as new to science those that are not. The work does not stop there as once we have data on actual species and where they are found it can be interpreted to tell us more of, for example, the evolutionary history of a group of insects, their ecology or their biogeography (the study of how species and ecosystems are distributed geographically and historically). Furthermore, the results are of profound interest to conservation planners as they enable important areas of biodiversity to be recognised. As the work progresses I hope to feed back some of the more interesting finds through this blog.by Adrian PlantPrevious Information:http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/blog/2014-02-17/Exploring-Insect-Diversity-in-Thailandhttp://www.museumwales.ac.uk/blog/2014-01-16/Exploring-Insect-Diversity-in-Thailand
