[Nhcoll-l] NYT article: Soot on early 20th century specimens

[James and Judy Bryant]

I have to admit that when I first saw the sooty specimens pictured in the NY Times Article they reminded me of mounted specimens I’d seen many times before, in instances where the birds had been mounted and around 1900 and in at least some cases exhibited in museums that would have had coal heat. However, I don’t recall noticing study skins coming out of storage that were this sooty.

James Bryant
SOJOURN Science - Nature - Education
Santa Fe, NM
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On Oct 12, 2017, at 10:08 AM, Erin Cashion <ecashion at ohiohistory.org<mailto:ecashion at ohiohistory.org>> wrote:

Hi all,

I mentioned in my post regarding the historic taxidermy case last week that some of the specimens inside appear sooty. One person replied that it may be caused by mercuric chloride (applied as a preservative during preparation). A couple other people suggested it may be the result of coal dust in the air at their storage location(s) due to coal heating, rather than soot collected from its habitat in life. The study linked below is suggesting the latter. I’m curious how they determined the difference between these two carbon contaminants.

NYT article: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.nytimes.com_2017_10_10_science_birds-2Dair-2Dpollution.html&d=DwIGaQ&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=uXCv72FRZ_0ERkGkOLqtuvdu9eZkqYLbwK-F-H-8QNM&s=lj0cAKYPTCueLuL58SGTpktCVAKSigazcF6adKMokSA&e=<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.nytimes.com_2017_10_10_science_birds-2Dair-2Dpollution.html&d=DwMFAg&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=dfzHto3VHN4FuEv-uwP7f7mbsr1H_yh2ojReafCxjq8&s=ZBPD0yYy34rMSAZuRAtBN5-sqzH9mhdhhOD5PB0vB-Y&e=>
PNAS article (full text behind a paywall): https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.pnas.org_content_early_2017_10_04_1710239114&d=DwIGaQ&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=uXCv72FRZ_0ERkGkOLqtuvdu9eZkqYLbwK-F-H-8QNM&s=7ZKczQCUH4VIyEmXBkXA80_TqGZwSj9phx9CcnbAmQM&e=<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.pnas.org_content_early_2017_10_04_1710239114&d=DwMFAg&c=cjytLXgP8ixuoHflwc-poQ&r=LpYc_Z_iN1KRw0hheb3x6-8MJUMu482qfHowpGYJqwc&m=dfzHto3VHN4FuEv-uwP7f7mbsr1H_yh2ojReafCxjq8&s=scmWJIAHzlAxN4eMmrYbA1Pw2xlL4K8QeeTND5U-IqU&e=>

In any case it’s wonderful to see natural history collections making the mainstream news!


Erin B. Cashion, Curator of Natural History
Ohio History Connection
800 East 17th Ave. Columbus, Ohio 43211
p. 614-298-2054
ecashion at ohiohistory.org<mailto:ecashion at ohiohistory.org>

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