This series of blog posts entitled ‘Curation Conversation’ will provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the process of curation, particularly the development of ways to store and display specimens and data. While visiting a museum is enjoyable, only a small part of the story of how a display came to be is visible. The hours of labeling and adjusting lighting and deciphering the collectors’ scrawled notes and moving specimens is not a part of what the viewer normally sees. The process is messy and trial and error, so it’s difficult to find procedures or protocols online for how to handle material. Here I’ll discuss some of the different facets of working with a collection like the Frost Entomological Museum.
This week culminated with completion of digitizing images of the Anoplura in one cabinet -this amounts to over 10,000 microscope slides! With this, I have begun adjusting and testing the SOP for Odonata imaging of the Beatty collection with a point and shoot camera.
Specimens are housed in cellophane envelopes in boxes, and we are seeking a good template and set up for individual imaging.
One of the most tricky aspects of this process is adjusting the lighting for imaging the specimens. Since there is cellophane enveloping each, finding a means to minimize reflection is crucial. Hence this lighting nest!
Stay tuned for further news on the Odonata imaging and check back for next week’s Friday Night Lice blog post.
Johan says
Hello, just wondered if you’d tried a polariser to cut the reflections. Or even cross polarisation? Regards, Johan
Andy Deans says
Hi Johan. Thanks for the question! We did try one … well … we faked it with some polarized sunglasses, and we couldn’t cut the glare. We did manage to find other ways to reduce glare, and we’ll be posting a follow-up description of our imaging approach shortly.