Museum Catalogue Research Articles

Adalékok Binder János Fülöp rézmetsző munkásságához

Johann Philipp Binder (1736/7-1811), who worked in Buda in the second half of the 18th century and the first decade of the 19th, followed the Augsburg Rococo engraving tradition of the middle third of the 18th century. Since the publication of György Rózsa’s catalogue of three hundred and eighty-eight engravings by Binder and his workshop in 1998, his work has been the subject of much attention. In my study, I supplement the known oeuvre with nearly twenty signed engravings on religious and secular subjects found in nine books or other printed sources not yet examined in relation to Binder’s oeuvre, and discovered on three separate sheets. One of these may also modify the artist’s biography as known and accepted to date. On the basis of his will published five days after his death on 23 December 1811, I list the possessions he left to his second wife, who was still running the workshop a decade later. Museum catalogues and databases open up new perspectives for research. An important methodological lesson for the compilation of a new, more complete Binder catalogue, and for the processing of the 18th-century Hungarian reproduced graphic corpus in general, is that it is important to take all surviving copies of a book in hand, as not all illustrations are bound in all copies. Such a Binder catalogue would allow an analysis of the change in the artist’s style and the gradual inclusion of assistants.

‘Providing a Layman's Guide to the Scheme’: Museum Computing, Professional Personas and Documentary Labour in the United Kingdom, 1967–1983

Abstract Between the 1960s and early-1980s the museum sector in the United Kingdom (UK) was rapidly professionalised and systematised. A crucial moment in this transition was the creation in 1967 of the Information Retrieval Group of the Museums Association (IRGMA), and the subsequent launch of its system for the machine encoding and communication of museum catalogue records. The rise of IRGMA marked an inflection point in museological practice and the normalisation of computerised work within the UK museum profession, a moment when the desire for a ‘layman's guide to the scheme’ began to give way to new professional personas and forms of documentary labour. This article asks how cultures of museology and professional labour shifted in response to IRGMA. It argues that between the late 1960s and mid-1980s both the implementation of and the debate around computerised cataloguing disrupted the function of UK museums and how museum professionals imagined their labour. And by tracing the emergence of these cultures and their intersections with professional identity and labour practices, this article seeks to tease out the ways museum history can resonate with wider narratives of labour, expertise and technological innovation in contemporary British history.

Captivity's Collections: Science, Natural History, and the British Transatlantic Slave Trade

Grounded in extensive archival research on both sides of the Atlantic, Captivity's Collections mines scientific treatises, slaving companies' records, naturalists' correspondence, and museum catalogs to recover in rich detail the scope of the slave trade's collecting operations. The book reveals the scientific and natural historical profit derived from these activities and the crucial role of specimens gathered along the routes of the slave trade on emerging ideas in natural history.

Morphological description of two scallops, Chlamys albida (Arnold, 1906) and Volachlamys tranquebaria (Gmelin, 1791) from the coastal waters of the northern Bay of Bengal

Abstract. Islam MDR, Hossain MS. 2024. Morphological description of two scallops, Chlamys albida (Arnold, 1906) and Volachlamys tranquebaria (Gmelin, 1791) from the coastal waters of the northern Bay of Bengal. Biodiverstas 25: 900-907. The commercial marine scallop Chlamys albida (Arnold, 1906) was first discovered in the Sonadia, Bangladesh coastal island. It was acquired and deposited in the Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS) museum catalog, University of Chittagong. The species was taxonomically studied based on its external morphology as well as compared with Volachlamys tranquebaria (Gmelin, 1791), a species from the same family of Pectinidae, which was previously reported along the coast of Bangladesh. Study specimens were collected randomly and hand-picked from the intertidal zone of Sonadia Island. This study examined morphological characteristics as well as morphometric measurements. The study also determined the studied species distribution pattern, habitat biology, and ecology. This species has not yet been registered in this region, presumably due to the lack of long-term research on bivalves and its low abundance. The present study increased the number of reported mollusc species in Bangladesh, which may facilitate further molluscan research.

Establishing pathology museum in a new medical college: Processes and challenges

A good pathology museum is intended to strengthen the intellectual material for the undergraduate students and visits to a pathology museum are an indispensable part of teaching pathology to medical students. The preservation of anatomy of pathological specimen is of utmost importance as the new successful current methods of therapy are changing the picture of diseases beyond recognition. We aim to elaborate the processes, difficulties and challenges faced in developing and setting up the pathology museum in a nascent medical college in a rural area. The new museum was set up in accordance with the guidelines provided by the National Medical Commission in addition to the guidelines of the state university. Literature search and discussions with other medical colleges all over the country also played an important role in the setting up of the museum. Our effort is to present our experience as hands on experience for setting up a pathology museum from a scratch for the pathologists, students and the technicians and also to increase the awareness to utilize the museum for innovative and interactive learning sessions for students by usage of QR coded specimens, museum catalogues, interactive E-kiosks and maintaining of log books.

Moving On: Rethinking Practice and Transforming Data at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge

Scholarly attention is increasingly focusing on museum catalogues: their histories, challenges and, as this paper explores, their potential. Many databases contain outdated information and offensive language, the legacy of colonial-era knowledge production and digitization processes that translated catalogue cards into database entries. Much has been written about the potential of catalogues to act as sites of contact and collaboration, as well as how institutions can and should mitigate harm stemming from discriminatory language within their catalogues. Yet as museum practitioners are acutely aware, the extensive work required to enact change throughout a database is rarely perceived as exciting enough to garner dedicated project funding. This paper uses the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the Stores Move Project (2020–2024) as a case study to illustrate how museums can, and realistically must, integrate critical documentation work into larger projects in order to achieve these objectives. The authors first engage with MAA’s own history of collecting and cataloguing, before detailing how collections staff have incorporated documentation priorities (re-cataloguing, historicizing data, and addressing bias) into the larger Project. They conclude with the hope that by making this work more visible and demonstrating its value, such projects might attract dedicated funding in the future.

Shape of storage memory: A digital analysis of the museums’ storage of Northeast Europe

Objects in museums’ storage constitute “storage memory” that sets the limits to our knowledge and interpretation of the past. Spread out across thousands of institutions, it has been inaccessible for empirical inquiry until recently. Theoretically, the digitization of museum catalogs allows the uniting of dispersed containers of institutional data into a vast connected digital archive, turning “storage memory” from a theoretical concept into an empirically explorable phenomenon. The study examines national digitized museum catalogs of three countries—Latvia, Estonia, and Finland—with a two-fold purpose: first, to explore if and how they can be used to produce a structural overview of the storage memories of each of the three included countries, both separately and in combination; second, by documenting the process of exploration, to examine critically how these new digital data collections are structured and formatted and to what extent they allow to transgress institutional and national boundaries.

The German Collection: Emotions and Narratives

The article presents the history of origin, as well as the structure and content of the German collection belongs to the Dnipro Historical Museum. The information potential of the collection is proven in the context of museum exhibitions and while using it as a source for theoretical historical research. The collection of the Dnipro National Historical Museum includes about 600 items of German origin or related to Germany. Due to the peculiarities of the formation of the German state and changes in its borders, a lot of Czech, Austrian, Polish and Ukrainian origin objects from the museum catalogs are also identified as German. A large part of the collection tells about the life and culture of the German colonists who settled in the South of Ukraine in the second half of the 18th century. For a long time, their faith, lifestyle, and farming methods kept their unique features and were very different from their surroundings. Therefore, the study of the history of colonists in our region has not lost its relevance for more than 30 years. University historians made the main contribution to the research, but museum workers also tried to record historical information and preserve the object component of the culture of the German colonists. For this, in 1990, an ethnographic expedition was conducted to the village of Dniprovs’ke (the former colony of Yamburg). Then the collection of the museum was replenished with a unique complex of sources – memories, photographs, household items of local production or use. Another separate sub-complex is comprised of the things related to the history of the Second World War. Most of the items from the "German collection" are, for the most part, similar household items used by local residents (dishes, decorative things, cameras, musical instruments, etc.). The time of their use and arrival at the museum varies from the 18th to the 21st centuries. Museum objects (books, furniture, porcelain etc.), the circumstances of their using and entering to the museum collection demonstrate potential for exploring and presenting the history of everyday life, social and political life of the region, the history of local and international relations.

Corrado Ricci, pragmatico studioso: aspetti di critica d’arte nei testi del ‘decennio museografico’

This article aims to investigate the relationship between the museum-related publications of Corrado Ricci (1858‑1934) – museum catalogues, monographs, articles and guidebooks – and his parallel work in the so-called ‘museographic decade’, i.e. the early stage of his career at the Regia Galleria of Parma, at Ravenna and at the Pinacoteca di Brera (1893-1908). The analysis of these writings with respect to their contexts enables their connections to art criticism, historical research and connoisseurship to be outlined. In addition, this analysis illustrates the museological criteria that were adopted and the functions of museum catalogues in a pivotal moment for museums in Italy, which were renovated at the turn of the century according to the teachings of Adolfo Venturi.

MATERIALS ON TRADITIONAL EMBROIDERY OF THE MARI PEOPLE IN THE HANDWRITTEN HERITAGE OF T.E. EVSEEV

Timofey Evseevich Evseev (Evsevyev) is a well-known Mari ethnographer-collector, local historian, folklorist, who made a significant contribution to preserve and study the Mari traditional culture in the first third of the twentieth century. The museum collections that he collected on the material and spiritual culture of the Mari are the most valuable source for studying the ethnography and history of the Mari Region.
 
 The purpose of the study is to analyze the collection of manuscripts by T.E. Evseev on Mari traditional embroidery, collected during collecting and field activities in the 1905–1930s.
 
 Materials and methods. The research uses the methods of archival documents and museum accounting documentation analysis, the historical-comparative, historical-typological and quantitative methods. The handwritten documents of T.E. Evseev have been preserved in the fund of the National Museum of the Republic of Mari El named after T. Evseev, giving the opportunity to recreate the history of completing the museum with samples of Mari traditional embroidery in the first third of the XX century.
 
 Study results. The article provides valuable information about the collecting and field work performed by Timofey Evseevich Evseev during his pedagogical and museum activities. The main stages in his ethnographic surveys of Mari villages in order to collect handwritten and tangible material on Mari traditional embroidery are identified. The role of domestic and foreign ethnologists and museum specialists in forming the ethnographic collections of the Mari Regional Museum on the topic of embroidery is noted. On the basis of preserved manuscripts, accounting and clerical documents of T.E. Evseev, the article presents a quantitative analysis of museum collections of the first third of the XX century; the types of collected samples of traditional embroidery among various ethnoterritorial groups of meadow Mari are characterized.
 
 Conclusions. Materials on Mari traditional embroidery presented in the handwritten heritage of T.E. Evseev are the most valuable source for studying the development of traditional embroidery among various ethnoterritorial groups of the Mari and can be used to create exposition and exhibition spaces, to prepare museum catalogues and to develop museum and educational programs on the history and ethnography of the Mari people.

The Holocene record of the slow loris (Nycticebus sp.) in Java (Indonesia).

(Sub)fossil lorises are rare in Southeast Asia. Their taxonomic relationship with extant populations, and the extent to which their distribution and morphology are influenced by changing environmental conditions, remains poorly understood. This study provides a synthesis of Nycticebus occurrences in Holocene Java. A morphometric analysis of a sample of craniodental remains aims to improve our understanding of their taxonomic status. Morphometrics were also used to explore potential size changes during the Holocene. Based on the literature and a review of museum catalogs, a synthesis was compiled of (sub)fossil slow loris occurrences in Java. Morphometric data on the mandible and maxilla of 10 (sub)fossil lorises were compared with a dataset of extant specimens to assess variation in size and shape. Five Holocene Nycticebus occurrences were identified in eastern Java. All specimens fall in the range of N. javanicus and N. coucang. The specimens from Hoekgrot, Gua Jimbe, and Sampung suggest an affinity to N. javanicus. The remains from Gua Jimbe and Hoekgrot gave values close to the largest N. javanicus specimens, but the (presumably older) Song Terus specimen was of average size. The distribution of Nycticebus suggests that it originally occurred throughout the island. The remains are probably best identified as N. javanicus or N. coucang, but the Neolithic finds from Hoekgrot and Gua Jimbe are presumably N. javanicus. Size variation in Nycticebus was clinal, but although some large specimens were present, no evidence was found for size diminution during the Holocene.

Corroborating the autoptic identification of archeological glyptics in museum collections: The contribution of portable Raman spectroscopy

AbstractA collection of Hellenistic–Roman glyptics, kept at the Regional Archaeological Museum “Paolo Orsi” (Syracuse, Italy), was investigated in situ with portable Raman spectroscopy with the aim of assessing the viability of this approach, not only for the immediate identification of the gemstones but also for a more in‐depth successive data treatment. At the same time, a corroboration of the autoptic identification of the materials, both archeological and belonging to historical collections, was looked for in order to verify and potentially correct what reported in the museum catalogue. Actually, most of the identifications could be confirmed, the glyptics being mainly made of chalcedony. Other materials found were garnet, glass, and amber. The larger group of chalcedony Raman spectra was subjected to principal components analysis treatment that, after appropriate pretreatment, resulted successful in separating spectra with higher or lower contribution of the band due to the presence of moganite and SiOH bonds. The garnet spectra were instead subjected to quantitative study to identify the main end member. Both the quick identifications and the more detailed studies on chalcedonies and garnets were achieved thanks to the nondestructive and noninvasive investigation, directly in situ, with no sample preparation and minimal interference with the museum's activities.

A list of the invertebrates of the Mackenzie area, New Zealand

ABSTRACT A list of 3052 invertebrate taxa of the Mackenzie area, South Island, New Zealand is compiled from published surveys, museum catalogues and other sources. The class Insecta comprised 90% of all taxa recorded, followed by Arachnida (5%). The most diverse orders were Lepidoptera (24%), Diptera (19%), Coleoptera (18%) and Hymenoptera (11%). Over all taxa, 64% are endemic, 6% native, 7% exotic and 23% undetermined. Twenty-eight are only found in the Mackenzie region and 123 are assessed in the New Zealand Threat Classification System.

A bug’s tale: revealing the history, biogeography and ecological patterns of 500 years of insect invasions

The arrival of Europeans to the Americas triggered a massive exchange of organisms on a continental scale. This exchange was accelerated by the rapid increase in the movement of people and goods during the 20th century. In Chile, scientific and technical literature contains hundreds of records of non-native insect species established in different parts of the territory, from the hyperarid Atacama Desert to the Magallanes Region. Here, we analyse temporal trends, taxonomic diversity, biogeographic origin and main impacts of these species on different sectors in Chile from the European arrival to the present. Our task includes a review of old records in museum catalogues, libraries, collections, expedition records and catalogues. Almost 600 species of non-native insects have been reported to be established in Chile. Introductions started with the very arrival of Europeans to the central valley of Chile and underwent a huge acceleration in the second half of the 20th century. The order Hemiptera was the most prevalent amongst non-native insects. Most species are linked to agriculture and forestry. Species are of Palearctic origin in more than 50% of the records. In terms of temporal trends, the rate of established non-native species shows an abrupt increase at the beginning of the 1950s. This change may be associated with the strong development in agriculture and forestry in Chile after World War II and the increase in intercontinental air traffic. We believe that the understanding of past patterns of introductions is an important component in the design of current policies to minimise the impact of invasive insects.

Статистические методы при работе с амфорными каталогами и базой APE

the article is devoted to the possibilities of using statistical methods in the analysis of amphorae material contained in museum catalogues and the APE database. The composition of the collections of various museums by the centers of amphora production, the time of their manufacture, chronology and typology is analyzed and it is proposed to consider the potential of using these data to build models of trade relations in the Northern Black Sea region.

The Museums of Science and Technology: From a Collection of Technical Innovations to Historico-Technical Collections

The emergence of the museums of science and technology is associated with many factors such as the Industrial Revolution, the interest in collecting, and society’s demand for education and training. As a rule, museums were created based on already assembled collections or by organizing major exhibitions in order to collect relevant objects. The article discusses the history and goals of establishing two largest science and technology museums in Europe, the Kensington Museum (Science Museum) in London and the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers in Paris, and the Polytechnic Museum in Moscow, whose creation was influenced by the aforementioned European museums. The article also analyzes the shifts in the composition of collections in these three museums, depending on their maturity, and shifts in the attitude towards “aging” items. Based on museum catalogs and other published sources, the development of museum collections is traced from the predominance of new technologies to the formation of historico-technical collections.

Řeka Ohře ve světle vědeckých a praktických rybářských aktivit Antonína Friče realizovaných v rámci záchranné akce na zvýšení populace lososa obecného (Salmo salar) v řekách na území Čech v poslední třetině 19. století

The present study addresses the previously neglected activities of Professor Dr Antonín Frič (1832–1913) from the Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia (now the National Museum, Prague), realised for the purposes of fisheries development as part of the protective actions in the 1870s through the 1890s to increase the population of the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in Czech rivers. Primary attention is devoted here to Frič’s interest in the Ohře River and its tributaries, which became a major focus for him in the 1880s. Migration of fish into the Ohře, then faced with significant pollution, had been blocked for over a century thanks to the construction of the fortress in Terezín in 1780–1790. A significant event in this respect was the creation of two fish ladders, then still unique in Bohemia, installed in 1885 and 1887 on the strategic weir below the fortress bridge across the New Ohře. Mention is made of Antonín Frič’s achievements in founding fishing associations (Louny, Karlovy Vary, Žatec) and their mutually enriching cooperation. The text is derived primarily from the research results published by Frič and his colleagues in the journal Vesmír and in book form, as well as the study of Frič’s correspondence (Archive of the National Museum, Literary Archive of the National Literary Monument), historic museum catalogues, and Frič’s personal fisheries collections (zoology department of the Museum of Natural Sciences, National Museum, Prague).

Análisis en clave de género de contextos mortuorios en una capital incaica del Collasuyu (Tilcara, Argentina)

From a gender perspective and through contextual and bioarchaeological studies of women found in the Pucará de Tilcara, Quebrada de Humahuaca, we propose to analyze and determine differences in social status and funerary practices. The Pucará de Tilcara has a vast collection of human skeletal remains, so far consisting of 227, mostly male, individuals. We analyzed the archaeological contexts of recent systematic excavations and established the sets of remains found in collections, by examining the entry numbers of the museum catalogs. We also estimated sex, age, and signs of the presence of artificial skull deformation. In relation to mortuary practices that can provide information on social divisions between women and men, as we deepened the bioanthropological and archaeological studies of the samples, we understood that there are no marked differences in terms of biological sex or exclusivity in the demarcation of gender. The differences detected in the various types of mortuary treatment occur in both female and male contexts. This first characterization of the type of mortuary treatment once again reflects on the manifestations of gender identity in pre-Hispanic Andean societies. In conclusion, the evidence shows that there was a wide range of forms of positioning within society, both in life and during death, in which pre-Hispanic gender expressions did not occur as it was considered for centuries, that is, as a consequence of a Western imposition.

THE SILENCES SHAPING THE MEMORY OF THE MAPUCHE IN THE NATIONAL HISTORICAL MUSEUM OF CHILE

Abstract A widespread link between the process of nation‐building and the rise of museums is evident in late‐nineteenth‐century Latin America. The Chilean National Historical Museum (MHN) was founded in 1873 with the purpose of exhibiting the nation's heritage, beginning with the Spanish colonization. This article focuses on examining the narrative displayed in the MHN, particularly the silences surrounding the Indigenous Mapuche. It analyzes the implications this absence brings to the collective memory of the nation. Using museum catalogs, newspapers, and nineteenth‐century literature, this research traces the contrast between how Indigenous and colonial artifacts are exhibited in the museum, wherein the Mapuche are framed aesthetically, therefore relegating them to the past. By stripping from them any contemporary existence, the Mapuche are relegated to an anecdote of ancient times. I document how the primary collection of the museum reproduces a narrative by which European heritage is the starting point of the nation's progress, silencing the voice of Mapuche history and hence producing a script that lacks a nuanced understanding of Chile's Indigenous reality. At a time when Chile is experiencing violent conflict in the Araucanía region, the MHN obscures Mapuche identity and inhibits a dialogue between Indigenous communities and the state. [museum, Mapuche, national identity, colonialism, Indigenous]

The helminth endoparasite type specimens of the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense, Indonesia.

A list of the type specimens of helminth endoparasites in the Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense (MZB), Indonesia, is presented. There are types of 93 helminth endoparasite species consisting of 63 species of nematodes, 22 species of cestodes, and 8 species of trematodes that have been deposited in MZB. Altogether, there are currently 211 deposited numbers of type-specimens at MZB, which contain 817 specimens wet preserved and 85 specimens mounted. The list has now been added to the scientific publication record and museum catalog.