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The Natural History Collections are very important in
the history of the City Museum as their origins go back to
the Museum of the Worcestershire Natural History Society in
the 1830s. In the nineteenth century specimens of animals,
birds and plants were collected from all around the world,
but any current acquisitions are made in collaboration with
local wildlife trusts and are restricted to Worcestershire.
Today, the local material in the collection is valuable as
comparative with the biological records produced by the Worcestershire
Biological Centre at the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust.
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Birds - Some 1300 specimens, with both full mounts and
study skins. The birds collected in the nineteenth century
include important Australian and New Zealand examples, including
the extinct Huia, and the rare Kokako and Kakapo. The noted
ornithologist John Gould was amongst contemporary visitors
who were inspired by and contributed to the collection.
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curator in the 1900s, W.H.Edwards, was also a taxidermist, and
several specimens are his work, such as the large Albatross
brought here in the early twentieth century from one of the
oceans in the Southern Hemisphere. The largest single part of
the collection, including most of the study skins, was bequeathed
to the Museum in 1907 by Robert Fisher Tomes, a local Justice
of the Peace and collector. |
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Fish - A small collection of mainly British freshwater fish,
but including the amazing sturgeon, nearly 2 metres in length, which
was caught in Worcester in the 1830s. |
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Herbarium - By far the largest part of the collections, with
at least 100,000 specimens comprising a wide variety of flowering
plants, mosses, algae, lichens, liverworts, ferns and fungi. It is
now generally very fragile and has never been completely classified,
but the majority are British specimens, and a great number of these
are from Worcestershire. The nineteenth century collections of local
naturalists include those of William Matthews, Harvey Buchanan Holl,
and J.H.Thompson, a clergyman from Cradley. The collection of flora
from Wyre Forest was amassed by George Jordean, butler to a surgeon
from Bewdley. |
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Insects - Several thousand specimens of mainly British butterflies,
moths and beetles, including the collection from the former Malvern
Museum. Whilst many specimens in this collection are very beautiful
they are also extremely fragile. |
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Mammals - A selection of British specimens, purchased
mainly in the late twentieth century, is enhanced by local examples,
groups of horns and bones, and by a collection of foreign specimens,
including big game hunting trophies, which came into the Museum
in the nineteenth century. |
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Marine Material - A small group of mainly British corals, sponges,
sea urchins and crustaceans. |
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Shells - Some 10,000 examples of land, sea and freshwater shells,
including some exotic examples from the Indian Ocean, as well as some
from Worcestershire, making one of the largest such collections in
a provincial museum. |
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Spirit Collection - Comprising over 100 specimen jars
which contain examples of material from most of the above
groups. |
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Archaeology
- Art - Ethnology
- Geology - Natural
History -
Social History
Worcestershire Regiment - Worcestershire
Yeomanry
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Object of the Month