Jump to content

The Pickle Jars


Bobby Rico

Recommended Posts

Hi TFF

Last year I spent a hole afternoon with one of the curators of the Natural History Museum London. I had a behind the scenes look at the Museum's fascinating zoology collection preserved in spirit.

We explore some of the Darwin Centre’s 27 kilometres of shelves,encounter numerous treasures hidden among the 22 million animal specimens housed here.

with the highlight been a 8.62-metre-long giant squid court in the Falklands Islands and a very good look at some of the specimens collected by Charles Darwin himself . I did get to hold Darwin's now pickled pet octopus , 

 

First 3 photos are the Giant Squid

3,4,5 specimens specimens by Darwin

the rest is assorted pickles  jars

 

thank you all for looking

 

cheers Bobby

1psd.jpg

2.jpg

Untitled-3.jpg

D1.jpg

D2.jpg

D3.jpg

ODD1.jpg

ODD2.jpg

ODD 3.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very interesting, Bobby! 

Not sure about the poor tortoise though. 

I'd give it a good burial. 

Or eat it as Darwin often did. 

Life's Good!

Tortoise Friend.

MOTM.png.61350469b02f439fd4d5d77c2c69da85.png.a47e14d65deb3f8b242019b3a81d8160-1.png.60b8b8c07f6fa194511f8b7cfb7cc190.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Tidgy's Dad said:

Very interesting, Bobby! 

Not sure about the poor tortoise though. 

I'd give it a good burial. 

Or eat it as Darwin often did. 

Sorry about that Adam I totally agree with you on that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very cool collection!!

 

I wonder how many of these specimens are holotypes? Probably a bunch!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wow, very cool! Especially the pet octopus and the fact that they were collected by Charles Darwin himself!

“...whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been and are being evolved.” ~ Charles Darwin

Happy hunting,

Mason

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is very weirdly interesting, do they ever change the water in those especially the squid?

Yorkshire Coast Fossil Hunter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, LiamL said:

This is very weirdly interesting, do they ever change the water in those especially the squid?

Yes weird but kind of sublime. The specimens in jars are in alcohol the darker the colour of the liquid is the old the specimen. The squid is in formaldehyde I think. They only charge the sprit if they have too. 

Cheers bobby

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the photos. I'm especially impressed by the size of the tank the squid is in. That's a heck of a lot of formalin! After careful scrutiny I still failed to find Abby Normal among all those jars. Amazing collection though!

 

abby-normal.jpg.0148593be6fe067b53bb716b00f6b3f7.jpg

 

Start the day with a smile and get it over with.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That container holding the giant squid would hold a lot of pickles!

 Frankly, creatures in jars have always creeped me out. Maybe it goes back to having to dissect such things in biology class that resemble these jarred creatures.

I can still remember the smell of formaldehyde. :wacko:

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Pagurus said:

Thanks for the photos. I'm especially impressed by the size of the tank the squid is in. That's a heck of a lot of formalin! After careful scrutiny I still failed to find Abby Normal among all those jars. Amazing collection though!

 

abby-normal.jpg.0148593be6fe067b53bb716b00f6b3f7.jpg

 

Great photo thank you. The tank was built in France by the same company that Damien Hirst used for his work. It was originally going to be placed in the main gallery but after the did a risk assessment. They decided the floor was not strong enough to hold the tank. So it was placed in the basement. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, WhodamanHD said:

Wow, very cool! Especially the pet octopus and the fact that they were collected by Charles Darwin himself!

Yes it was amazing to see and I did get to held the octopus and have good look at the Darwin collection. The tortoise shell has Darwin signature  on the inside of it, if I remember right. 

 

Thank you for  your comments. 

 

Cheers Bobby

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks @Troodon it was one of best day I have ever had. Glad you enjoyed my post.

 

@Ludwigia @caldigger @ynot

I found it really macabre for the first couple of minutes . But the curators knowledge of the collection and for natural history, changed my mind to the fact that this is an amazing resource. He also opened lots of the jars and removed the specimens so I could have a closer look. That was cool.

 

@Foozil I like the snakes too.

@Mediospirifer thanks for the comment . I can’t answer that question but I only took a few pictures , the collection is massive.

 

@Nimravis funny you said that because the curator had worked out what he could eat out of the collection in the advent of a zombie apocalypse.  He was a real joker.

 

thanks you all for all the comments .

 

cheers Bobby 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

@Nimravis funny you said that because the curator had worked out what he could eat out of the collection in the advent of a zombie apocalypse.  He was a real joker.

He could get drunk snacking on exotic animals while trying to avoid the undead.

Sounds like a typical day of mine

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Bobby Rico said:

q1.jpg

 

:blink:

 

How many images did you stitch together for that picture??

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Mediospirifer said:

 

:blink:

 

How many images did you stitch together for that picture??

 

Quiet a few but I will do a better job of it over the weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

This is super cool but chilling too at the same time haha! How did you manage to get in contact with a curators at the Natural History Museum and get yourself authorised to view the behind the scenes?! That's amazing.

5d738606eab6e_2018-11-1322_54_57-Greenshot-newlogo.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Jaimin013 said:

This is super cool! How did you manage to get in contact with a curators at the Natural History Museum and get yourself authorised to view the behind the scenes?! That's amazing.

We are freinds with his wife. I spent about 3 or 4 hour with him and had a real laugh too. He opened lots of the jars and got the specimens out . Thank you for you kind comments too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...