How a Distanced Professional Training Year Can Still Be Enjoyable and Successful
As an undergraduate, studying biosciences at Cardiff University, I am able to undertake a placement training year. Taxonomy, the study of naming, defining, and classifying living things, has always interested me and the opportunity to see behind the scenes of the museum was a chance I did not want to lose. So, when the time came to start applying for placements, the Natural Sciences Department at National Museum Cardiff was my first choice. When I had my first tour around the museum, I knew I had made the right choice to apply to carry out my placement there. It really was the ‘kid in the candy shop’ type of feeling, except the sweets were preserved scientific specimens. If given the time I could spend days looking over every item in the collection and marvelling at them all.
Of course, the plans that were set out for my year studying with the museum were made last year and, with the Covid-19 pandemic this has meant that plans had to change! However, everyone has adapted really well and thankfully, a large amount of the work I am doing can be done from home or in zoom meetings when things need to be discussed.
Currently, my work focuses on writing a scientific paper that will be centered on describing and naming a new species of shovel head worm (Magelonidae) from North America. Shovel head worms are a type of marine bristle worm and as the name describes, are found in the sea. They are related to earth worms and leeches. So far, my work has involved researching background information and writing the introduction for the paper. This is very helpful for my own knowledge because when I applied for the placement I didn’t have the slightest clue about what a shovel head worm was but now I can confidently understand what people mean when they talk about chaetigers or lateral pouches!
Part of the research needed for the paper also includes looking closely at species found in the same area as the new species, or at species that are closely related in order to determine that our species is actually new.
Photos for the paper were taken by attaching a camera to a microscope and using special imaging stacking software which takes several shots at different focus distances and combines them into a fully focused image. While ideally, I would have taken these images myself, I am unable to due to covid restrictions, so my training year supervisor, Katie Mortimer-Jones took them.
Then I cleaned up the backgrounds and made them into the plates ready for publication. I am very fortunate that I already have experience in using applications similar to photoshop for art and a graphics tablet so it wasn’t too difficult for me to adjust what I already had in order to make these plates. Hopefully soon, I will be able to take these images for myself.
My very first publication in a scientific journal doesn’t seem that far away and I still have much more time in my placement which makes me very excited to see what the future holds. Of course, none of this would be possible without the wonderful, friendly and helpful museum staff who I have to express my sincere thanks to for allowing me to have this fantastic opportunity to work here, especially my supervisor, Katie Mortimer-Jones.
Mae noson Calan Gaeaf ar y gorwel ac mae’n siwr fod plant ledled Cymru yn ysu am gael hyd i’r wisg ddychrynllyd berffaith ar gyfer y noswaith, a phwmpenni ar draws y wlad yn cael eu gwacáu a’u cerfio. Daw rhai o’r traddodiadau hyn oddi wrth ein ffrindiau dros ddyfroedd yr Atlantig, ond yn y blog hwn hoffwn gynnig blas o’r ffyrdd eraill y dathlwyd y dyddiad hwn yng Nghymru.
Diwedd y Cynhaeaf
Gyda chasglu’r cynhaeaf a dyfodiad Calan Gaeaf roedd y gwaith amaethyddol trwm yn dod i ben am y flwyddyn. Roedd diogelu’r cynnyrch yn barod at y gaeaf yn dynodi diwedd yr haf a dechrau’r gaeaf, sef diwedd yr hen flwyddyn Geltaidd ar Noson Calan Gaeaf. I ddathlu’r achlysur pwysig hwn byddai llawer yn paratoi gwledd foethus yn llawn danteithion a cherddoriaeth er mwyn diolch i gymdogion am eu cymorth yn hel yn cnydau. Roedd hi hefyd yn arfer i ladd anifeiliaid fferm yn y cyfnod hwn er mwyn cadw’r cig at y gaeaf.
Bwganod ar Bob Camfa
Ond, yn ôl pob sôn, gallai pethau rhyfedd iawn ddigwydd ar noswaith Calan Gaeaf. Roedd rhwydd hynt i ysbrydion grwydro’r wlad a chredid y byddai eneidiau’r meirwon i’w gweld ar bob camfa am hanner nos. Byddai i’r ysbrydion hyn nodweddion gwahanol o ardal i ardal ond dau o’r bwganod mwyaf cyffredin oedd y Ladi Wen, ac yn arbennig yn y gogledd, yr Hwch Ddu Gwta. Arferid cynnau coelcerthau wedi iddi dywyllu, ond wrth i’r fflamau farw ac wrth i’r tywyllwch ennill y nos, ofnid gweld yr Hwch Ddu Gwta. Rhaid oedd brysio adref heb oedi, ac wrth wneud hynny, byddai rhai yn adrodd:
Adref, adref am y cynta’, Hwch Ddu Gwta a gipio’r ola’
neu
Hwch Ddu Gwta a Ladi Wen heb ddim pen
Hwch Ddu Gwta a gipio’r ola’
Hwch Ddu Gwta nos G’langaea
Lladron yn dwad tan weu sana.
ac hefyd
Hwch Ddu Gwta, yn brathu coesau’r hogia’ lleia’.
Stwnsh, Tair Powlen a 'Thwco ’Fale'
Roedd llawr o ofergolion yn gysylltiedig â’r adeg hon o’r flwyddyn, yn enwedig y rhai hynny a fyddai’n eich galluogi i ddarogan y dyfodol. Dau gwestiwn pwysig ar lawer tafod oedd pwy fyddai’n priodi a phwy fyddai’n cwrdd ag anffawd marwol. Er mae’r un oedd y cwestiynau, byddai y modd y’u hatebid yn amrywio o sir i sir. Yn Sir Drefaldwyn, byddid yn paratoi stwnsh o naw cynhwysyn (yn eu plith ceid tatws, moron, erfin, cennin, pupur a halen), wedi eu cymysgu gydag ychydig o laeth ac yn y canol, rhoddid modrwy briodas. Byddai pawb yn cymryd ei dro i brofi’r stwnsh hwn a’r sawl a fyddai’n dod o hyd i’r fodrwy yn siwr o briodi ymhen dim.
Traddodiad arall oedd plicio croen afal mewn un darn, a thaflu’r croen dros eich ysgwydd. Byddai siap y croen ar y llawr yn dynodi llythyren gyntaf eich darpar briod.
Yn ardal Llandysul byddid yn llenwi tair powlen: un â phridd, un â dŵr â gwaddod ac un â dŵr clir. Wedi rhoi mwgwd am y llygaid, rhaid oedd estyn a chyffwrdd un o’r powlenni. Roedd gwahanol ystyr i’r dair. Byddai’r cyntaf yn darogan marw cyn priodi; yr ail yn darogan priodas gythryblus a’r drydedd yn dynodi priodas hapus. Arferid hefyd chwarae gemau megis 'twco ’fale', neu fersiwn braidd yn fwy peryglus, ceisio dal afal yn hongian o’r to ynghlwm wrth gannwyll, yn eich ceg!
Eitemau Brawychus ein Casgliadau
Mae sawl eitem dychrynllyd yn ein casgliadau. Yn eu plith bydd dol o Wlad Belg a gasglwyd gan Edward Lovett (1852-1933). Roedd gan Lovett ddiddordeb mawr mewn swynion, boed yn rhai lwcus neu’n rhai anlwcus. Gwnaethpwyd y ddol hon o gwyr a gellid ei defnyddio i niwedio eraill trwy osod piniau neu unrhywbeth miniog ynddi, ac os am achosi marwolaeth araf boenus i elyn, gellid ei thoddi yn araf mewn simne. Gwrthrych dychrynllyd arall yw potel gwrach gyda swyn wedi ei gosod ynddi. Mae’n debyg nad agorwyd y botel hon erioed. Gosodwyd poteli tebyg mewn waliau adeiladau i amddiffyn rhag ysbrydion drwg.
Straeon i Godi Gwallt Pen
Recordiwyd miloedd o siaradwyr gan Archif Sain Amgueddfa Werin Cymru dros y blynyddoedd. Ymysg ein recordiadau ceir toreth o straeon am brofiadau arswydus, am fwganod ac ofergoelion. Mae rhai o’r straeon yn perthyn i’r siaradwr ei hyn tra bod eraill yn rhai a drosglwyddwyd ar lafar o’r gorffennol o un cenhedlaeth i’r llall.
Just prior to lockdown we were able to run the first LGBTQ+ tours at the National Museum Cardiff which were created in partnership with Pride Cymru. As the doors unlock and visitors can start to return to the museum and also to mark and celebrate Pride Cymru 2020, I would like to share with you my favourite set of objects from the tours.
When I first saw the exquisite silver sleeve clasps with a centrally suspended chrysoprase teardrop gemstone flanked by two apple-green orbs, I was utterly charmed. What rooted me to the spot and caused goosebumps to tickle my skin though was the name of the owner and the donor: Miss May Morris, given by Miss M. F. V. Lobb.
Echoing in my mind was a talk, The Great Wings of Silence,that I’d seen Dr Sean Curran deliver at an LGBT+ History Month event at the V&A museum on their relationship. Curran also wrote about May Morris (1862-1938) and Mary Frances Vivian Lobb (1879-1939) saying, “people like Mary Lobb and May Morris are part of a still barely visible queer heritage that can contribute to legitimising contemporary queer identities”.
I felt what I was seeing was evidence of their relationship. Though, as it turns out, there are two great collections that hold jewellery made by May and gifted by Mary, National Museum Cardiff and my ‘home collection’ of the V&A. Somewhat ironic!
The Welsh Connection
The link between May and the V&A, I think, is easy to deduce: William Morris had significant influence in the early years of the V&A and after he died May, a respected artist in her own right, carried on his work teaching about good design principles and maintained a strong relationship with the museum.
While the Morris family were proud of their Welsh ancestry, the question of how May’s jewellery ended up specifically at National Museum Cardiff involves a curious path that takes in sites from all across Wales, and certainly affirms the significant relationship between May and Mary.
May was a skilled jewellery maker and embroiderer and took charge of the embroidery department of her father’s renowned company Morris & Co. when she was 23. By the time Mary came into her life, May was living alone in the Morris family summer residence, Kelmscott Manor in the Cotswold.
Mary was from a Cornish farming family and during the First World War and as an early recruit to the Women’s Land Army she was involved in demonstrations showing how women could support the war efforts, even making the news with a headline “Cornish Woman Drives Steam Roller”!
At some point after the war, Mary joined May at Kelmscott Manor and the couple became a familiar sight, even attending local events together. Then, perhaps as it is for some now, not everyone was sure what to make of the relationship: Mary has been variously described as Morris’s close companion, housekeeper, cook, and even bodyguard!
When May died in 1938 she bequeathed her personal effects and £12,000 to Mary, an amount larger than any she left to anyone else. She also secured the tenure of Kelmscott for the rest of Mary’s life, however, Mary tragically died five months later in 1939. In those short months, Mary arranged the donation of May’s jewellery as well as her own scrapbooks to the National Library of Wales.
The scrapbooks were not given much consideration and were broken up and scattered across various sections of the library. It was researcher Simon Evans who began slowly reassembling the collection, and as he did so started to realise the significance and how it helps paint a clearer picture of the relationship between May and Mary.
Rediscovered items include watercolour landscapes painted by May, which suggests the pair traveled extensively together across Wales with journeys including Cardigan, Gwynedd, Swansea, Talyllyn and Cader Idris (one of my favourite images of the couple is a photograph from the William Morris Gallery that shows them camping in the Welsh countryside).
The Queer Perspective
Sandwiched in the scrapbooks is also a cryptic note in a letter from May to Mary, "after posting letter, I just grasped the thread at the end of yours, and having grasped (how slow of me!) I will be most careful.”
To contextualise, Evans also describes a postcard (at Kelmscott Manor), written on a trip in Wales, in which Mary asked someone back at the Manor to send Morris’s shawl which is in "our" bedroom, which seems to put to bed the rumour May and Mary shared a room. Further, writer and curator Jan Marsh concludes in her book Jane and May Morris by saying the relationship between May and Mary was, in contemporary terms, a lesbian one.
Through the jewelry gifted to the National Museum Cardiff we have a small glimpse of two lives intertwined, an intimate relationship between May and Mary that was full of love, care, and concern for each other. Theirs is one story among many on the free volunteer-led LGBTQ+ tours, which will return in the future when it is safe to do so.
In the meantime, labels for 18 objects have now been written that help highlight works with an LGBTQ+ connection for visitors. Connected to the May and Mary is a stunning hair ornament, which resembles a tiara, formed by floral shapes studded with pearls, opals, and garnets with silver leaves, all meeting symmetrically in the middle of the head.
There are landscapes and a self-portrait by Swansea born painter Cedric Morris and several portraits by the renowned Gwen John who hails from Haverfordwest, as well as a bust of her by lover Rodin. Other highlights include works by Francis Bacon, John Minton, Christopher Wood, and 'Brunette' - a ceramic bust of Hollywood star Greta Garbo by Susie Cooper.
It is also now possible to explore the museum’s queer collection online by searching for ‘LGBTQ’ in the Collections Online. This will allow you to see works like The Wounded Amazon by Conwy sculptor John Gibson, a painting of Fisher Boys by Methyr Tydfil born artist Penry Williams (Gibson and Williams lived together in Rome and are understood to be lovers), and a ceramic plate that features perhaps the most famous lesbian couple in history, the Ladies of Llangollen, who lived together at Plâs Newydd.
It is a joy and a privilege to be able to share the rich history of Welsh queer culture in such a historic place. I'm pleased to say the tours and the related research are merely just getting started! There are so many more stories to be found and told, many that will take us down interesting intersectional paths too. So do stay tuned for more from the National Museum Cardiff and Pride Cymru volunteers.
For now I wish you a happy Pride. However you’re celebrating it, I hope it’s with as much sparkle as May and Mary’s glamorous bling!
Arweinwyr teithiau LGBTQ+
Dan Vo is a freelance museum consultant who founded the V&A LGBTQ+ Tours and developed the Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd National Museum Cardiff LGBTQ+ Tours. He is currently the project manager and lead researcher of the Queer Heritage and Collections Nework, a subject specialist network supported by the Art Fund formed of a partnership between the National Trust, English Heritage, Historic England, Historic Royal Palaces and the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (University of Leicester).
Lewis Weston Dillwyn is part of the influential Dillwyn family in south Wales during the 19th century. They were pioneers in photography, culture, industry, politics and science. Lewis Weston himself was a campaigner for social justice, a Whig MP for Glamorgan (1832-37), mayor of Swansea (1839) and a magistrate. He studied the natural world and advanced our scientific understanding of it, becoming a Fellow of the Royal Society and a founder member of the Royal Institution of South Wales.
Lewis Weston was born 1778 to William Dillwyn, an American Quaker and anti-slave campaigner. After settling in England in 1777, William was one of the 12 founding committee members for the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade formed in 1787. In 1802, William established Lewis Weston Dillwyn, then aged 25, as owner of Cambrian Pottery in Swansea. A year later Lewis Weston moved to south Wales and four years after that married Mary Adams, heiress of John Llewellyn, firmly establishing the Dillwyn-Llewellyn family’s influential position in south Wales. He was an abolitionist like his father but was also close friends with the De la Beche family who owned slave plantations up until the early 1830s. His son Lewis Llewellyn Dillwyn married Elizabeth De la Beche in 1838.
It was mainly during the time he was head of Cambrian Pottery that Lewis Weston studied algae.
The Book of Algae
Lewis Weston had a scientific interest in the natural world, most notably plants, beetles and molluscs. At a time when art, industry and science were often pursued in conjunction with one another rather than separately, he introduced many natural history designs onto the products made at his Cambrian Pottery.
The Museum holds Lewis Weston Dillwyn’s book of pressed seaweeds and algae. Inside are over 280 specimens of algae from both fresh and seawater, mainly from Wales and England. Many are thought to have been collected by Dillwyn himself, and many were sent to him by scientists from the UK and Ireland. The book contains algae that were completely new to science and described by Dillwyn for the first time. Some of these new to science algae were discovered for the very first time in Wales. The book is an early record of the natural heritage of Wales and a glimpse into the scientific life of a prominent 19th century philanthropist.
New to Science
It was particularly between 1800 and 1810 that Lewis Weston Dillwyn focussed on algae. He noted that Linnaeus, who was classifying the whole of the natural world, “was too busily engaged in the immense field he had entered on, to spare the time necessary for an investigation of the submerged Algae.” (Dillwyn, 1809, British Confervae). Dillwyn felt he had found a niche for his scientific study.
The algae that Lewis Weston studied was a group with very thin fine branching known as the Confervae. He collected specimens, pressed them and placed them into the book now held at the Museum. His many connections led to a network of scientists who would send him specimens he was interested in to his home in south Wales. He described 80 kinds of algae new to science.
Someone in Dillwyn’s position could afford to buy a microscope powerful enough to study this group which have very small features. He would also have needed expensive books and his standing in society meant he was able to access the libraries of friends such as William Jackson Hooker and of the Linnaean Society in London, where he was made a Fellow. It also meant he was able to discuss current thinking with other prominent scientists of the time and gauge where to place his efforts.
At the time, there had been little work done on this difficult to study group. Dillwyn knew the algae he was looking at were probably unrelated, but in his published work he put them into one group. He had done the initial pioneering groundwork to describe them but he himself modestly admitted that it was flawed. The pressed algae in his book at the Museum includes what scientists now know belong in many different groups: green algae, red algae, brown algae, lichens, fungi, cyanobacteria, stoneworts and diatoms. Dillwyn published the results of his studies in instalments, culminating in the publication ‘British Confervae’ in 1809.
Mae mis wedi mynd heibio ers i ni lawnsio ein holiadur Casglu Covid digidol. Os gofiwch chi, nod yr ymgyrch hon yw casglu profiadau unigolion a chymunedau ar draws Cymru am fywyd yn ystod y pandemig presennol.
Hyd yn hyn, rydym wedi derbyn dros 800 o gyfraniadau cynhwysfawr, gyda’r niferoedd yn cynyddu bob dydd. Mae’r holiadur yn rhoi cyfle i bobl fyfyrio ar eu profiadau diweddar, i fynegi eu teimladau a’u hemosiynau, yn ogystal â’u dyheadau a’u pryderon am y dyfodol. Mae’r ymatebion sydd wedi dod i law yn du hwnt o bwerus – straeon am golled a dioddefaint, pryder ac unigrwydd, ochr yn ochr â thystiolaeth am ddyfeisgarwch a charedigrwydd teulu a chymdogion. Dyma flas o rai o’r cyfraniadau hyd yma.
Mae nifer o fy ffrindiau lleol a minnau wedi teimlo'n euog am gael cystal amser yn y pandemig – heb golli anwyliaid eto, heb golli swyddi… Mi fydd felly yn ddyletswydd ar y rhai ohonom sydd wedi cadw neu atgyfnerthu ein iechyd meddwl i chwarae rhan gweithgar yn cefnogi y rhai llai ffodus pan awn yn ôl at rywbeth tebycach i'r hen arferion. Bydded hynny trwy helpu 1-1 neu trwy weithredu'n wleidyddol neu rhywbeth arall.
Sali, Gwynedd
Methu ymweld â fy mam yng nghyfraith 96 oed yn yr ysbyty a ninnau'n gwybod gymaint oedd ei hiraeth am ei theulu. Welon ni ddim mohoni am fis cyn ei marwolaeth. Gorfod mynd â dillad a sebon iddi yn yr ysbyty ond ddim yn cael mynd ymhellach na desg y dderbynfa a hithau ond ychydig lathenni i ffwrdd. Eistedd yn y ty dros benwythnos y Pasg yn aros i'r ysbyty ffonio i gyhoeddi ei marwolaeth ar ôl iddyn nhw ddweud bod y diwedd o fewn ychydig oriau, ac nad oedd modd i ni ei gweld.
Sylfia, Pontypridd
Mae'r emosiynau yn newid o ddiwrnod i ddiwrnod. Diolch byth bod gen i deulu i gael cwtsho. Meddwl am rai sydd methu cael cwtsh wrth eu teuluoedd.
Rhian, Abertawe
Dwi di siarad mwy yn y clo hwn nag erioed. Gynt rhyw 'Sut ma hi heddiw?' ac ymlaen oedd hi. Rwan da ni'n aros a chael sgwrs iawn a diddorol o un ochr y lon i'r llall… Mae arferion yn treiddio i'r meddwl. Heddiw mi geis fy hun yn dal dair metr o'r wraig, ac yna sylweddoli, 'be ti'n neud?' Mae pob am dro di bod yn igam ogam, ond y sgwrsio di bod yn fwy ar draws ffordd, o bafin i bafin.
Di-enw, Llanrug
Mae fy nheimladau'n dod fel tonnau. Gallai fod yn ddiolchgar, derbyn y sefyllfa a trio gweld positif yn y sefyllfa ar y mwyaf ond reit ddagreuol dros bethau bach adeg eraill.
Leri, Caerdydd
Yn bositif, y gwanwyn godidog na'th helpu cymaint. Y gwasanaeth hollol wych greodd siop y pentre i'r gymuned. Mynd ati i goginio cacennau a phlanu hadau, ac agor gwely llysie – fel pawb arall mae'n debyg! Pethau gwych fel COR-ONA ar Facebook a gweld y fath dalent greadigol yn dod at ei gilydd yng Nghymru i godi calon a diddanu.
Cathryn, Cilgerran
Diolch o galon i bawb sydd wedi cyfrannu eu profiadau hyd yn hyn. Drwy ymateb a chymryd rhan, rydych yn ein helpu i greu archif anhygoel fydd yn galluogi cenedlaethau’r dyfodol i ddeall sut brofiad oedd byw drwy COVID-19 yng Nghymru.
