Biology
store at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
Biological
and geological specimens can be seriously
effected by light, damp and damage and it is
part of the museum’s job to care for our
specimens in the best possible way.
Bright lights fade the colours of animal and
plant specimens so the lighting in the natural
history gallery is kept fairly low and our
storerooms are dark most of the time.
The humidity of the surrounding air has a
major effect on specimens. If the humidity is
too low then insect wings become very brittle
and animal bones can crack whereas if it is
too high mould can grow on specimens. The
museum has a carefully controlled air
conditioned environment to minimise such
problems.
Biological specimens (and textiles) can be
attacked by pests like moth larvae or grubs of
the museum beetle. We monitor our stores
careful to ensure that any pest problems are
dealt with immediately.
All museum objects can also incur physical
damage as a result of improper handling or
vandalism. We handle all our objects very
carefully to keep such damage to a minimum.
So that the data associated with our specimens
can be made available to anyone worldwide, we
have a long term project to enter the
information on MODES (Museum Object
Documentation Entry System).
