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 Background Information - Collections at the Australian Museum
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What are collections and why they are useful? Here are lots of practical suggestions about how to start your own collection, how to write specimen labels and how to display a collection. You could use collections your students already have, or start a new class collection of either natural history specimens or cultural artefacts.
One of the primary functions of a museum is to house and display collections. Collections are defined as 'sets of objects, specimens, writings, etc, gathered together'. Collection managers make sure the specimens and objects are stored under suitable conditions and supervise the registration, labelling and cataloguing of new specimens on databases. The collections and databases are used for research by museum scientists, other scientists, artists, writers and photographers.
Cultural and natural history collections at the Australian Museum As a cultural and natural history museum, the Australian Museum has many collections covering a wide and varied range of objects, artefacts and specimens. Cultural collections;
Natural history collections;
The list below lists some suggestions for a collection. All of the natural history suggestions have a fieldwork component.
Where to find natural history specimens Note that there is legislation protecting some things from collection, especially in National Parks and reserves. Rock, mineral or pebble specimens may be collected from your home area or from the places visited while on holiday. Encourage students to take only small pieces of rock or pebbles from river banks or beach areas. Ask them to try and collect unweathered pieces of rock that show the mineral content clearly. Minerals may be collected in a similar way. Leaves, flowers, seed pods and bark rubbings can be collected from a wide variety of plants. Students may wish to concentrate on particular groups of plants, for example, eucalypts or garden plants. There are several ways to preserve specimens. They may be preserved by placing them in a flower press and leaving them for a few days or weeks. Alternatively, students may wish to improvise their own press. For example, specimens can be covered by blotting paper or old newspapers and then pressed by placing heavy books on them. Bark rubbings are made by laying a sheet of paper over the trunk of a tree and then rubbing over it using a wax crayon. The pattern of the bark will show up on the paper. Fern fronds can be collected from gardens or any shady natural area. Fungi tend to grow in moist, cool areas where dead organic matter accumulates. Shells, flotsam and jetsam can be collected from rockpools or high tide areas on beaches. Ask the students to check that animals are not inhabiting the shells before they collect them. Feathers can be collected from anywhere there are birds, especially local parks or gardens. Ask the students to collect feathers which have been shed by the bird.
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