Suave Morbida (@maitre-poulard.bsky.social)

En 1709 en Mandchourie, le jésuite Jartoux découvre lors d'une expédition géographique pour le compte de l'empereur de Chine un spécimen de ginseng. Il en réalise un dessin et une description détaillée, publiés en 1713 dans les Lettres édifiantes et curieuses des jésuites 🧵1/8

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Victorian Mahogany Cased ‘Cabinet of Materia Medica’ - Victorian Mahogany Cased ‘Cabine...

finch-and-co.co.uk

Twisted Tales of Gallery Oldham’s Collection of Fish Casts

_Written by Patricia Francis, Natural History Curator,Gallery Oldham. _ So, what’s a fish cast? Fish are particularly difficult creatures to preserve. Fish taxidermy is tricky as even a freshly dead specimen rapidly loses it colour and can quickly start to decay. Fish skin is thin and tears easily and obtaining the work of an experienced fish taxidermist is very expensive while fluid preservation involves the use of chemicals which alter the skin colouration. _Dace (1932-54 )_ Modelling or casting is often chosen as an alternative way to represent the animal rather than using the actual fish skin as taxidermy does. A cast now might be made using a resin but historically plaster has been used. Then comes the clever bit, accurate painting of the cast to appear like the living animal. Oldham has a large collection of beautifully painted plaster fish casts, mostly in good condition considering their extreme fragility. Interestingly many of the casts are enhanced by the dried fish fins and tails of the original fish. They are numbered variously either with ‘1932’ as the year of acquisition followed by a running number; prefixed ‘NHT’, standing for ‘natural history temporary’ with a running number and some are prefixed with ‘Q’ with a running number. I have no idea what the ‘Q ‘stands for! _Crucian Carp (1932-93)_ I always presumed these were all one collection as they all appear similar, the different numbered specimens are mixed up across 40 large same sized boxes. They are also mixed in terms of fish classification, freshwater and marine species and were arranged like this before I joined the Museum. I was also aware there was a correspondence file connected with the fish casts. _Whiting (NHT522)_ In May 2025 I saw a message on the NatSCA JISCMAIL list sent from Mike Rutherford at the Hunterian Museum at the University of Glasgow. He was researching the fish casts in their collection attributed to Alfred Joseph Gear and was asking other curators about their holdings. I’d seem the name Gear on some of the database records so responded positively to the message and at the same time started my own research by delving into the historical correspondence. It seems Gallery Oldham has two separate acquisitions of plaster cast fish. Those with NHT numbers were probably acquired in 1912 (31 specimens) and made by Percy Horn, 330, Central Park Road, East Ham, London. For some reason these were not given an accession number. It was also this group that at some time had been given the ‘Q’ prefix. Rudd (1932-56) Those with 1932 numbers (correspondence indicates 62 objects and that tallies with the database) were the personal collection Alfred Joseph Gear (1850 – 1932) of ‘Roselands’, Cossington Road, Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. They were purchased for the Oldham Museum using monies from the Dr James Yates Bequest, a generous Oldham benefactor, from E. Gerrard & Sons after Gear’s death. Interestingly the initial message from Gerrards auctioneers was steered to Oldham Museum by Percy Horn. Knowing what species were already represented at Oldham, those that he had made himself and sold to them in 1912, Percy Horn made helpful suggestions of missing species made by Gear that Oldham should purchase. _Alfred Joseph Gear_ A colleague of Mike’s located a photograph and researched some biographical details of Gear. It appears he was a dentist by trade and made the models in his spare time. He was considered a skilful modeller during his lifetime with glowing comments such as this made by the British Sea Anglers Society in 1906 on the presentation of a fine cast of the head of the large male angler fish (_Lophius piscatorius_), the fourth model in a series: _“They are valuable additions to the fast-growing museum, being necessarily true to the form of the fish, and by very skilful colouring give a far better idea of what the fish was in life than any preserved specimen.”_ So, the Oldham collection has the specimens which were not only made but Gear but the ones he had kept for himself. Oldham was in good company as the other museums who responded to Mike’s request in May 2025 were National Museum Wales and the University of Cambridge. _Cod (NHT517)_ Some of these casts, those representing species of locally found freshwater fish, will feature in a new gallery: ‘Our Beautiful Oldham’ opening at Gallery Oldham in June 2026. _Bream (NHT519)_ ### Share this: * Tweet * * * * Share on Tumblr * Share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit * Print (Opens in new window) Print * Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email * Like Loading... ### _Related_

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A history of disinfected mail

As soon as humans became aware that infectious diseases could be transmitted by fomites (inanimate objects), attention was directed to developing methods of disinfection. Postal and public health authorities had to deal with a wide variety of extremely dangerous infections (cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, leprosy, anthrax), and applied a surprising variety of techniques to letters and packages sent through the mails, beginning as early as the 15th century in Venice. A very informative philatelic exhibit presents examples of how the U.S. has dealth with potentially dangerous items. Shown at the top, for example, are two letters from locations where yellow fever was present; they have been punctured to allow fumigating agents to reach the inside of the envelope. The bottom envelope in this image - - had its corners clipped off so that formaldehyde gas could be introduced to kill smallpox. Other letters and postcards were autoclaved or steam sterilized, which could be deleterious to the letters inside. These precautions were not limited to the preantibiotic era. In 2001 threats of anthrax attacks were made in the United States, and a variety of special precautions, including x-irradiation, had to be undertaken, beginning at this page of the exhibit and continuing for a dozen pages thereafter. And these letters from Hawaii in 1900 show how holes were punched in the envelopes - - so that sulfur fumes could be insufflated before they were sent from areas quarantined for bubonic plague. Other examples are shown of disinfection of mail from the Hawaiian leper colony. Philatelic exhibitions are conventionally mounted on a series of glass-fronted frames, with up to 16 letter-size pages in one frame, and in this case spread onto six frames. This award-winning exhibit was created by William A. Sandrik of Arlington, Virginia. The entire exhibit may be viewed at Exponet (frame 1, frame 2, frame 3, frame 4, frame 5, frame 6). And those interested in philately (stamp and postal history collecting) should browse the Exponet site beginning at this index page. Over 600 exhibits are accessible, on a huge variety of topics, in a wide variety of languages. **Reposted** from 2011 because of its timely subject matter. Today a New York Times article addresses the question of transmission of coronavirus by mail: > A representative for the U.S. Postal Service was unwilling to discuss current sanitization protocols. But the agency’s website reports that**the only mail items receiving treatment are letters and parcels sent to ZIP codes beginning in 202, 203, 204 and 205, which serve federal government agencies in Washington, D.C.** In a process that began shortly after the 2001 anthrax attacks, the Postal Service sends mail destined for those ZIP codes to New Jersey, where they are put on a conveyor belt and passed under a high-energy beam of ionizing radiation that kills bacteria and viruses. The letters and packages are then “aired out” for a while, before being forwarded to their destinations. The paper is left slightly faded and somewhat crispy, but sterile. > > > > > Should mail irradiation be extended beyond these exclusive ZIP codes, to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus? On CBS News’s Face the Nation on Sunday morning, Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, warned that **SARS-CoV-2 could potentially be transmitted by contaminated objects**. “This is a sticky virus,” he said. The structure of the coronavirus’s protective envelope helps it bond tightly to certain surfaces: skin in particular, as well as fabric and wood, but also plastic and steel... > > > > > David Partenheimer, a spokesman for the Postal Service, noted that the surgeon general, Dr. Jerome M. Adams, along with the Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization, has “indicated that there is **currently no evidence** that COVID-19 is being spread through the mail.”.. > > > > > **Then again, contact transmission is notoriouslydifficult to study and document**... **Reposted from 2020 to accompany a newer and related post.**

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File:Brooklyn Museum - Entomologist (Design for a Fan) - Jean-Louis Hamon - overall.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

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Presses universitaires de Rennes

pur-editions.fr

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File:Sir Richard Owen. Lithograph by A. Orton after E. C. Rye. Wellcome V0004407.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

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Votre visite | Collection de Minéraux

mineraux.sorbonne-universite.fr

Image Making as Knowledge Production: Earth, Heavens, and Body

How does the act of drawing, engraving, painting, or photographing play a role in thinking and understanding? What is the role of image-making in knowledge production? Across three themes (Earth, Heavens, and Body) we will discuss these questions in case studies from the late Middle Ages to the contemporary.

biblhertz.it

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