We added several thousand pinned insects to the Frost Museum collection in 2020, and collectively entomologists pin hundreds of thousands of pterygotes annually. It’s a useful method for preparing specimens, in that it provides one with a handle for manipulating these fragile arthropods and also a way to readily affix associated data labels. Given the essential and ubiquitous nature of pins you might assume that there is a consensus regarding which type of metal, which brand, and which size is ideal for the long term stability of specimens. But, of course, there isn’t. Similar to the situation with adhesives in entomology, there are no formal studies — no published data — regarding which pin brand and style is best. Check out these two pins, for example:

The top one is a famous Elephant brand pin, which is enameled (sometimes referred to as japanned). The bottom pin is a contemporary, stainless steel one from BioQuip. Note the differences in texture and sharpness. What are the longterm impacts of these characteristics and metal composition? The topic also came up recently on the ECN listserv, with no real conclusion other than there needs to be more research on the pins that are available for entomologists (something that was stated all the back in 1992 as well, in this report by John Morse about recommendations from the National Institute for the Conservation of Cultural Property).

A group of us at the Frost planned to have a weekly discussion this semester about collection management and conservation. Today was our inaugural session, and we focused on pins. We read the Morse report mentioned above, as well as these articles: Garner et al. paper about verdigris and de-pinning, this Berenbaum gem about the pinning wars (ongoing?), and a Hancock et al. paper about the history of pinning. We’ve got big ideas now about future research we might pursue this semester. Stay tuned for more! In the meantime, what’s your favorite type and brand? What about size?