Aberdeen University has been awarded funding to re-house and catalogue one of its most diverse collections.
The funding will be used in a year-long project to improve the accessibility, storage and interpretation of the mollusc collection at the Zoology Museum on Tillydrone Avenue.
The museum aims to extend the longevity of the collection so it can continue to be used for learning and research in the future.
The university will receive a £1,165 grant as part of the annual Natural Sciences Collections Association’s Bill Petit Memorial Award which supports the conservation of natural science collections.
The mollusc collection includes 2,550 specimens from the 1840s to the late 1970s and is part of a Recognised Collection of National Significance. Most of the specimens were found around the British Isles, but also in the Pacific, Africa, China, Madagascar, America and Canada.
Many of the specimens come with detailed data which the museum staff will now transcribe to produce a historical record of the species and their ecology. The collection records will be available to access for free online when they have been updated.
The research project will hopefully give a better understanding of the donors and collectors and allow the museum to tell their stories in new ways.
The mollusc collection will also be part of a new display at the zoology building to celebrate the use of natural history collections for teaching and the museum’s 50th anniversary.