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In order to welcome the collections people to PaleoNet, I submit the 
following as an introduction:


A Brief Description of the Collections of Fossil Invertebrates and Plants 
in the Department of Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum, London.



The collection of Sir Hans Sloane, including natural history specimens, 
was purchased in 1753 by the British Museum at Bloomsbury, and formed the 
foundation of all its collections. In 1880, all the natural history 
collections were transferred to the new museum at South Kensington. The 
collections of fossil invertebrates and plants in the Department of 
Palaeontology are large, extensive and world-wide in scope.

Historical collections include, for example, the fossil plant specimens 
collected by Captain Scott and his team on their last, and fatal, 
expedition to Antarctica. Collections were also acquired for the nation 
from famous early collectors, including those of Brander, from which the 
first fossils were described by Solander, using the new Linnean binomial 
taxonomy; Charles Darwin, made during the voyages of "The Beagle"; Thomas 
Davidson; Koenig; Mantell; William Smith ("the father of English 
stratigraphy"); Sowerby; Thomas Wright.

The collections also include much material from foreign localities, 
especially from countries of historical, political and economic interest, 
such as the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent. The Geological 
Society of London presented its collections of specimens, gathered from 
foreign parts during the last century by explorers, missionaries, engineers 
and military personnel.

Later important collections, made by specialists and generalists, include 
those of E. St.John Burton, whose description of the Barton Beds of the 
type locality of the Bartonian (Eocene) included detailed and precise 
collecting from each bed of the extensive biota (totalling some 600 or more 
species of plants and animals); A. W. Rowe, who made detailed studies of 
and collections from the English Chalk; Stanley Westhead, who collected 
extensively from the Carboniferous of northern England and amassed a large 
collection of crinoids.

Today, the collections of fossil invertebrates and plants, which are 
available for use by bona fide members of the scientific community of the 
world, number some seven million registered items, and are curated by two 
small teams of scientists. One team (under collections manager Dave Lewis) 
curates the arthropods, Bryozoa, coelenterates, echinoderms, graptolites, 
machaeridians, plants and trace fossils. The other team (under collections 
manager John Cooper) curates the molluscs, brachiopods, sponges, worms, and 
sundry smaller groups of animals.

Until recently, the collections data were recorded by manual methods in 
hand-written registers, labels and indexes. Nowadays however, the 
registration is by computer methods which also produce laser-printed 
register pages, labels and indexes to the needs and requirements of the 
users. Specimens are stored in purpose-built storage units which can be 
user-altered to take a variety of fittings, including drawers of various 
depths, shelves and rollers for slabs, as well as conventional slide-
cabinets.

Material can be brought or sent to the Museum for identification by the 
museum scientists, a task which is helped greatly by these extensive 
collections. Taxonomic and other research on the specimens in the 
collections is carried out by the scientists, frequently in collaboration 
with those in other institutions.

Specimens from the collections are incorporated into the public displays, 
with required information being provided by the curatorial and research 
scientists. Other institutions also borrow specimens for their own 
exhibitions.

Today, the collections are enhanced by the addition of material acquired by 
donations and bequests, by staff collecting, by exchange, and by purchase, 
(though this is strictly limited by available funds). Conservation, 
preparation, casting and replication of the specimens are carried out by 
staff in the well equipped Palaeontology Laboratory (manager William 
Lindsay). Experiments to determine causes and cures for conservation 
problems, such as decay and damage to pyritised specimens, are undertaken.

If you have any queries and you think that we can help, please ask - we can 
only say "no".


 ==========================================================================
 David N. Lewis, Collections Manager, Fossil Invertebrates and Plants,
 Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road,
 London, SW7 5BD, England. Tel. +44 (0)71 938 8833; Fax +44 (0)71 938 9277;
 e-mail: internet  dnl@nhm.ac.uk  janet  dnl@uk.ac.nhm

 *********The World is your choice of pearl-bearing mollusc********
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