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One of the many highlights of the Sheffield #BSLS2020 would have been a tour of the Alfred Denny Museum @ADMsheffield-and who doesn't like a good natural History Museum? So we spontaneously teamed up with one of their volunteers to bring you an ad-hoc digital whistle-stop tour!/1
Today the Museum looks a bit like this when you first enter it (there's even a floor & shelf plan, if you want to know exactly where which specimen is located, with a photo of it: http://admuseumguide.weebly.com/floor-plan.html ), but.... /2
The Museum was once located in Firth Court (the venue of our conference dinner
), where it spanned 3 floors. This would explain how the museum could accommodate the entire giraffe skeleton it once used to own! Sadly, much of the museum & its collections were destroyed in WW2 /3
), where it spanned 3 floors. This would explain how the museum could accommodate the entire giraffe skeleton it once used to own! Sadly, much of the museum & its collections were destroyed in WW2 /3
As the Museumās website states, it's named after the uniās first professor of biology, who taught from 1884 for 41 years. He was an excellent teacher & public speaker & his lectures on āEvolution and Adaptation in the Animal Worldā drew an audience of over 600 people each night/4
Today the museum is well hidden in the Alfred Denny building (of Simon Armitage's poem 'In Praise of Air' fame: https://catalyticpoetry.org/ ) - with this splendid Darwin wood carving on the ground floor.
But now for the collections... /5
But now for the collections... /5
The @ADMsheffield has a fascinating history, really extraordinary collection items & some great anecdotes!
As a teaching collection, some specimen are especially prepped for insightful teaching: i.e. halved!
(Ever wanted to see a toucan beak from the inside? You're welcome) /6
As a teaching collection, some specimen are especially prepped for insightful teaching: i.e. halved!
(Ever wanted to see a toucan beak from the inside? You're welcome) /6
A particularly great one of these is the porpoise: legend has it, that it was found at a local Sheffield fish market, and was transported to the university, in a wheelbarrow, via the bus (not by Prof Birkhead himself, we hasten to add)
(picture credit: The Daily Mail) /7
(picture credit: The Daily Mail) /7
The Museum also has a full human skeleton - with a slightly grim history. Looking closely, the cause of death is still apparent: this person, believed to have been a prisoner of war, very probably hanged themselves: the vertebrae of the neck are damaged. /8
(credit: alamy)
(credit: alamy)
A real highlight are Henry Clifton Sorby's lantern slides: /9
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/aps/about/sorby
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/aps/about/sorby
Aren't they pretty? You can view hundreds of them here: /10 http://collections.museums-sheffield.org.uk/view/objects/asitem/People@1061/0/title-asc?t:state:flow=73eed864-ab0f-4c56-ac57-8c703eec3939
Sorby is a bit of a local celebrity & the Sheff Sorby Natural History Society is after 100 years still going! He was interested in microscopy& his discoveries on the structure of steel are believed to have made possible Henry Bessemer's refinements of the steel making process /11
I took some shockingly poor quality photos of the text accompanying them on my last visit to the museum (not knowing Iād need them one day ā so forgive the poor quality!) /12
But there are all sorts of great things to discover, such as dancing specimen ā¦ /13
Or those that just have the best names /14
https://twitter.com/imogen_clout/status/1101521535922327553
https://twitter.com/imogen_clout/status/1101521535922327553
As @theBSLS are, it has been said, still disgruntled about the two cultures debate, I feel obliged to point out that the museum is not only about the sciences , but also has some great art on offer: /15 https://twitter.com/Murieldesign/status/1042116486356197379
So next time youāre in Sheffield: tours are (normally) run once a month, by volunteers, often biology students ā such as Henry, who supplied some anecdotes & specimen hints for this thread, and appears in this little video (thanks!) /16 https://twitter.com/sheffielduni/status/1129711607460843520
Sheffield has even more things in store for #litsci folk, such as the Ruskin collections at The Millennium Galleries and the Weston Park Museum -- but that is the stuff a future thread is made of! We hope you enjoyed the tour! #bsls2020 /17
