Dear all

 

We have recently heard from a gentleman interested in oologists who wishes to collect and share information via a new website about historic egg collectors and to highlight museum collections for research purposes. His particular interest is in the practice itself, the collectors and the social history – the collector’s lives and times.

 

He has approached us first as his local museum but has plans to research and visit more widely. These museum visits would form part of a blog.

 

This is my first experience of a query of this kind, and am naturally a little nervous about doing the right thing – both for protecting and promoting the collection. One of my concerns is that some of our egg collections have come into the museum recently (last 20 years) and therefore close relatives will still be around. Secondly, while we’re happy to promote the use of historic birds eggs collections for research, the museum would not want to encourage illegal collecting (the most convicted birds egg collector is based in Coventry).

 

So

 

·         Are there any resources already online I could point him towards?

·         Do you request references for people wishing to view sensitive collections such as birds eggs, and if so what kind of reference / referee do you ask for?

·         Do you have any other comments or concerns?

 

Many thanks in advance for any advice you can offer.

 

Best wishes

 

Ali

 

Ali Wells
Keeper of Collections - Herbert Art Gallery & Museum
Culture Coventry

024 7623 7573
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www.theherbert.org / @the_herbert

 

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