[Nhcoll-l] Numbers on specimens

[Carrie A. Eaton]

Hi Liath,
We apply numbers directly to specimens here – minerals, rocks, fossils alike. Depending on the coloration, surface texture, etc I will use a few different techniques using an archival varnish, titanium white acrylic paint, india ink, and other archival safe products. We use a technique in our prep lab now to keep data with the specimen where preparators will cut out a small piece of Japanese rice paper or archival tissue, write the number on with archival pen, and then adhere this small rectangle of paper to the surface with B72 or B76 (stole this idea from Amy Davidson – thank you!) as a ‘temporary number’ but so far it seems like our temporary prep lab labels have been staying on just as well as the painted/ink ones. My students/volunteers have varying abilities when it comes to writing tiny and/or cleanly so when I find a student who has great tiny writing, they almost always get put on cataloging and numbering for as much as they can stand it. Other curatorial duties (cavity mounts, making boxes, data entry) are then the tasks of my students from whom handwriting is a challenge. It all is helpful!
Cheers,
Carrie

Carrie Eaton, Museum Curator
UW Geology Museum
1215 West Dayton Street
Madison, WI 53706
608.262.4912
twitter @uwgeologymuseum
facebook.com/uwgeologymuseum

From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Liath Appleton
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2022 11:16 AM
To: 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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