[Nhcoll-l] Fw: [CONCH-L] Natural History Museums

[Callomon,Paul]

________________________________
From: Conchologists List <CONCH-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Allen Aigen <000004bbf24b8ba1-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2022 12:13 PM
To: CONCH-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <CONCH-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: [CONCH-L] Natural History Museums


External.

This is about the Natural History Museum, London, but applies broadly (unfortunately) to natural history museums world-wide.
Allen Aigen

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: N. MacLeod <n.macleod9 at gmail.com>
To: PaleoNet <paleonet at paleonet.org>
Cc: Micropal List <micropaleo at uclink4.berkeley.edu>; Vrtpaleo List <vrtpaleo at usc.edu>
Sent: Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 10:36:12 AM EDT
Subject: Paleonet: Recent UK news item on The Natural History Museum

As a matter of general interest, and since no one else has, I’d like to draw the paleo. community’s attention to an article that appeared in a major UK newspaper this morning under the title “Natural History Museum ‘descending into irrelevance’, claims employee” (see https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/16/natural-history-museum-accused-institutional-vandalism-will/<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2F2022%2F07%2F16%2Fnatural-history-museum-accused-institutional-vandalism-will%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cprc44%40DREXEL.EDU%7Cb545b76783dd4ec210a008da680f5a0e%7C3664e6fa47bd45a696708c4f080f8ca6%7C0%7C1%7C637936712400148012%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=bAKWZontTVIvmAQN3HqWa2XvMqmHxMv3%2BY1%2B44aVpT0%3D&reserved=0>). Full disclosure: I am a former employee of The Natural History Museum and held senior science administrator posts in that institution from 1999 to 2016. The article refers to quite a long editorial by Fred Naggs who is a former employee and current Scientific Associate in the (former) NHM Zoology Department, which can be accessed here: https://www.mapress.com/mt/article/view/megataxa.7.1.2<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mapress.com%2Fmt%2Farticle%2Fview%2Fmegataxa.7.1.2&data=05%7C01%7Cprc44%40DREXEL.EDU%7Cb545b76783dd4ec210a008da680f5a0e%7C3664e6fa47bd45a696708c4f080f8ca6%7C0%7C1%7C637936712400148012%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=bQgfZXfyfFuaU%2F%2BzLmXmx5ETtM0GIEMgLP2wxXZiHx8%3D&reserved=0>. Although Naggs couches his arguments largely in a conservation-biology context, their implications for systematics, taxonomy and, indeed, paleontology are equally clear.

Institutions like the NHM have periodic issues with funding and, as some of the older members of this list may recall, I certainly bear the personal scars of difficult decisions I had to make while I was the NHM Keeper of Paleontology. But, setting that issue aside, Naggs addresses deeper issues concerning the philosophical direction of the NHM, its management, its oversight from trustees, it’s funding from the UK government and (tangentially) the perception of what natural history museums are for and the primary constituencies they serve, as well as their past, present and future. In these contexts, Naggs offers an account of long-term changes in the philosophical direction of the NHM – set by the NHMs immediate past and present directors – that accord with my own, personal experience of that institution at a senior managerial level. Naturally, these latter issues are pertinent for all research museums, not just the NHM. If you care about these institutions, and the place of paleontology in the environment they create, you might want to have a look at this controversy for (I think) it mirrors in microcosm some of the challenges aspects of our field face in macrocosm.

With kind regards.

Norm MacLeod




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