When I trained as a conservator at Fleming College in Ontario, Canada, an unexpected challenge was choosing an internship. The programme covered a wide range of collection material, which made the idea of limiting myself to one kind of institution difficult.
But I had a breakthrough one day in the student bookstore when a cover featuring insects and dinosaur skeletons caught my eye. It was Richard Fortey’s Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum. And boy, did it deliver on that cover.
The book is a wonderful combination of science, history and behind-the-scenes gossip. In addition to being a social history of London’s Natural History Museum, it introduced me to a world of scientific concepts. As a former humanities student, it was the first time I had heard of the taxonomist Carl Linnaeus or a type specimen.
It also sold me on the idea that an internship at a natural history museum would not only fulfil my interest in a diversity of materials, but also let me in on the diversity of life itself. It slyly influenced my decision to move to the UK for work after graduation.
Although I now work as a photo conservator – a skill I developed working with the Canadian Museum of Nature’s glass plate negative collection – thanks to Fortey, a piece of my heart will always be in the fascinating store rooms of natural history museums.
But I had a breakthrough one day in the student bookstore when a cover featuring insects and dinosaur skeletons caught my eye. It was Richard Fortey’s Dry Store Room No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum. And boy, did it deliver on that cover.
The book is a wonderful combination of science, history and behind-the-scenes gossip. In addition to being a social history of London’s Natural History Museum, it introduced me to a world of scientific concepts. As a former humanities student, it was the first time I had heard of the taxonomist Carl Linnaeus or a type specimen.
It also sold me on the idea that an internship at a natural history museum would not only fulfil my interest in a diversity of materials, but also let me in on the diversity of life itself. It slyly influenced my decision to move to the UK for work after graduation.
Although I now work as a photo conservator – a skill I developed working with the Canadian Museum of Nature’s glass plate negative collection – thanks to Fortey, a piece of my heart will always be in the fascinating store rooms of natural history museums.
Elspeth Jordan is a photograph conservator at Library and Archives Canada, Ottowa
