[Nhcoll-l] Numbers on specimens

[Sam McLeod]

Hi Liath,

To paraphrase George Gaylord Simpson ..  If you can, write the number on the specimen.  If you can't, do something else.  Just do your best to associate the specimen and its number as permanently as you can.

Cheers,
SAM

Samuel A. McLeod, Ph.D.
Vertebrate Paleontology
LACM Natural History
900 Exposition Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA  90007

(213) 763-3325 [voice]

________________________________
From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> on behalf of Liath Appleton <liathappleton at gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2022 9:15 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Numbers on specimens

As most of you know, specimens often have their old numbers written somewhere directly on the surface of the object. In our collections we do not write numbers on the specimens, primarily because the previous curator didn't want to police the handwriting skills of her volunteers. That makes sense, but I think that we really should have the numbers on there somehow. Some people have suggested printing out the numbers and using some type of glue to adhere the numbers to the specimens. I've seen this done before, but I've also seen many of those labels falling off over time. When I managed mollusk collections, writing directly on the shell surface was usually easy to do, but for my current collections that consist primarily of fossils, rocks and minerals, writing on the surface can be tricky. For those of you who do apply numbers to specimens, what are your thoughts on the subject?
Thanks ---Liath


Liath Appleton
Collections Manager
Non-Vertebrate Paleontology Lab
University of Texas at Austin
Bldg PRC122 - campus mail code R8500
10100 Burnet Road
Austin, TX 78758

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