[Nhcoll-l] Formalin in exhibition instead of ethanol

Fri Feb 4 12:42:43 EST 2022

Hi Bo,

maybe a comment pointing into a slightly different direction (similar to 
what colleagues did in Berlin), as you mentioned you are planning for a 
major renovation of your exhibitions:

An alternative would be to have a cabinet that is "inaccessible" for 
visitors and equipped with necessary installations to comply with 
fire-safety regulations (like a tank in an public aquarium). Thus the 
specimen would be visible for the visitors, the container as such 
however would not be part of the publicly accessible visitor space. This 
could help to avoid transferring the specimen into a different fluid, 
potentially causing secondary conservation problems.

At the MfN in Berlin they used this alternative to make the fluid 
collections accessible and discoverable for visitors, while keeping the 
visitor and collection space simultaneously strictly separated. They 
also used this concept for a huge glass cabinet that shows a large 
diversity of collection objects on display, including fluid-preserved 
specimens.

Maybe worth a thought ...

With best wishes
Dirk

Am 04.02.2022 um 16:40 schrieb Bo Delling:
>
> Hi again,
>
> Thank you all for detailed and interesting information on this topic. 
> Glycerol seems to be very interesting making nice specimens for 
> exhibitions if you have fresh specimens with nice color. I will try it 
> in the future for some small richly coloured fish. Is it correct that 
> if you keep the concentration at 65% you don’t run in to problems with 
> mould?
>
> Regarding our squid(s) they aren’t that nice and if we can’t continue 
> with ethanol I think we transfer selected specimen to a formalin 
> solution after all (Jon, thank you for the publication with relevant 
> references). James, I will check if we have any pictures and size 
> estimates. The length of the mantel is about 1 m for both specimens. 
> Ironically, the one we had for display is the one in worst condition 
> (in several pieces, semi rotten I would say) collected close to 
> Scotland around 1990 or so. The other one was collected by a shrimp 
> trawler from Sweden in 1960 and this specimen have commonly been 
> referred to as “the green squid” . Initially it was stored in a tank 
> made of cupper. Nevertheless it’s in much better physical condition 
> and consequently we will continue having a giant squid on display but 
> not the same specimen.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bo
>
> *Från:*Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> *För *Bo Delling
> *Skickat:* den 3 februari 2022 12:15
> *Till:* 'nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu' <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
> *Ämne:* [Nhcoll-l] Formalin in exhibition instead of ethanol
>
> Dear all,
>
> Up to recently we had a giant squid /Architeuthis /sp/. /in exhibition 
> (“Liv in Vatten” = Life in Water/Aquatic life). It was contained in an 
> aquarium, 80% ethanol (650 liters!). For the moment, we are planning 
> for thorough modernization, i.e. the exhibition will be rebuilt from 
> scratch but we wish to keep the squid. It is very popular. However, we 
> might face problems regarding fire safety regulations and one idea 
> that came up was to transfer the specimen to weak formalin solution (1%).
>
> -Anyone having any experience and perhaps suggestions regarding 
> concentration and suitable buffer?
>
> My limited experience is based on museum specimens (mainly fishes) 
> that previously were in the old NRM exhibitions. I come across them 
> now and then in the scientific collection and according to older 
> documents, the ethanol was replaced with formalin around 1960 because 
> the expense. Anyway, this old exhibition jars with specimens look very 
> nice (except for bleaching of specimens) and the fluid (formalin 
> solution) looks like clear water.
>
> All the best,
>
> Bo
>
> Bo Delling, PhD Ichthyology
>
> Curator of Fishes and Herptiles
>
> Swedish Museum of Natural History
>
> Department of Zoology
>
> Frescativägen 44
>
> P.O. Box 50007
>
> SE-104 05 Stockholm
>
> Phone: +46 85195 4240
>
>
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-- 

Dirk Neumann

Tel: 089 / 8107-111
Fax: 089 / 8107-300
neumann(a)snsb.de

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---------

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Fax: +49-89-8107-300
neumann(a)snsb.de

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