: Hanes Naturiol

Museum scientists have been popping up in the Capitol Shopping Centre throughout the summer with their I Spy…Nature pop-up museum. Natural Sciences staff spent 9 days there with a variety of specimens from the Museum’s collections. Every day had a different theme from shells, to fossils, plants and minerals to name just a few. The public were able to ask our curators questions and find out about our new exhibition at National Museum Cardiff (I Spy…Nature), which is open until April 2015. We ran a drawing competition alongside the pop-up with some fantastic entries. We have chosen winners in three different age categories and they will be visiting us at the museum to have special tours behind the scenes and to claim their prizes. The winning entries will be posted on-line in the next few weeks. 2437 people visited us on the stand, which is a fantastic figure. Next we will be popping up at Fairwater Library on the 30^th October and visiting 10 schools throughout the autumn.

We recently participated in #MuseumCats Day on Twitter and this involved a quick search through our holdings for some interesting pictures of cats to Tweet and what a gem we have found! Please enjoy this selection of wonderful and [in some cases] bizarre illustrations of cats from the book "Our Cats and all about them" written and illustrated by Harrison Weir in 1889. 

My personal favourites are the surreal disembodied heads [see above], "Sylvie" [she of the magnificent moustaches] and the Russian cat who [in my opinion] has a most unsettling human expression.

Weir was a very interesting character; he was born in 1824 on May 5th [d.1906], and is known as "The Father of the Cat Fancy”. He organizied the first ever cat show in England, at The Crystal Palace, London in July 1871 where he and his brother served as judges. In 1887 he founded the National Cat Club and was its first President and Show Manager until his resignation in 1890. Our Cats was the first published pedigree cat book.

Weir was employed, for many years, as a draughtsman and engraver for the Illustrated London News as well as many other publications and in his lifetime he both wrote and illustrated other books such as The Poetry of Nature (1867), Every Day in the Country (1883) and Animal Studies, Old and New (1885). In 1845 he exhibited his first painting at the British Institution and during his career he was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy.

He was a keen animal fancier, an experienced breeder of cats, carrier pigeons, and poultry and for thirty years often acted as a judge at the principal pigeon and poultry shows. In 1903 he wrote and illustrated the exhaustive book Our Poultry and All About Them.

More information on Harrison Weir via the following links: 

http://www.harrisonweir.com/ 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Weir 

http://www.nationalcatclub.co.uk/History.htm

This book was bequeathed to the Library back in May 1916 along with around 500 other books by the Welsh artist, champion of Wales’ cultural heritage and one of the founding fathers of Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, Thomas Henry Thomas.

Along with the books, Thomas also bequeathed his entire catalogue of prints, drawings and watercolours to the Museum.

More information on Thomas Henry Thomas here:

http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/rhagor/article/2035/

The illustration above appeares in the Chapter "Performing cats". Other chapters include, "Cats as tormentors", "Dead cats", "Fishing cats" and "Lovers of cats" [would you believe... Cardinal Richelieu?].

This book is available to view electronically via the following Project Gutenberg link:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35450/35450-h/35450-h.htm#Page_37

Biographical information on Harrison Weir taken from Wikipedia.

All photographs in this post taken by the author.

Mae dwy fyfyrwraig blwyddyn olaf mewn bywydeg ac amddiffyn cnydau o Brifysgol Sultan Qaboos, Oman wedi cyrraedd Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd ar gyfer pythefnos o brofiad gwaith i ddysgu mwy am nodi dau grŵp o bryfed, pryfed a chwilod a'r technegau a ddefnyddiwn i’w hastudio. Dyma’r tro cyntaf i Sara Mohamed Ahmed Al Ansari a Salma Saif Salmin Almabsli deithio y tu allan i Oman. Ar ôl y pythefnos yma, byddent yn treulio pythefnos arall yn yr Amgueddfa Hanes Natur, Llundain i ehangu eu gwybodaeth o dechnegau tacsonomig cyn dychwelyd at y cynhesrwydd yn Oman.

Saturday 19th July saw the official launch of the 'I Spy...Nature' Exhibition at National Museum Cardiff. The exhibition was officially opened by BBC wildlife presenter Dr Rhys Jones and many families were able to experience the exhibition first hand. Natural Science curators were also on hand showing a plethora of specimens from the Museum's Natural History Collections, including insects, marine invertebrates, fossils, fungi, plants, minerals and much more. The public helped to create fantastic modern and prehistoric scenes with beautifully coloured pictures.

Click here to find out more about the exhibition

O’r chwe deg naw o ysgolion o Gymru a gymerodd ran yn ymchwiliad Bylbiau’r Gwanwyn i Ysgolion eleni, dyfarnwyd y wobr gyntaf i Ysgol Clocaenog o Sir Ddinbych.

Dyma’r Gwyddonwyr Gwych lwcus yn ennill trip llawn hwyl i Amgueddfa Lechi Cymru lle dyma nhw’n dysgu am Stori Llechi, yn chwilio am fwystfilod bach ac yn adeiladu nythod anferth yn y chwarel!

Athro’r Ardd: “Dyma Ysgol Clogaenog yn gwneud gwaith gwych ar gyfer ymchwiliad Bylbiau’r Gwanwyn a nhw anfonodd y mwyaf o ddata tywydd o bob ysgol yng Nghymru! Roedd y gystadleuaeth yn gryf wrth i ysgolion wella eu sgiliau casglu ac anfon data bob blwyddyn. Roedd yn braf cael cwrdd â Gwyddonwyr Gwych Ysgol Clocaenog, a dyma ni’n cael llawer o hwyl yn adeiladu nythod ac yn esgus bod yn adar bach! Dyma ni hefyd yn dysgu llawer am Lechi, a dwi’n credu taw fy hoff foment i o’r diwrnod oedd hollti’r llechi!”

Os hoffech chi gymryd rhan yn y project hwn y tymor nesaf, llenwch y ffurflen gais ar-lein:

Bylbiau’r Gwanwyn i Ysgolion – Ffurflen Gais.