: Casgliadau ac Ymchwil

When someone has a great idea but cannot get it off the ground by themselves, they find a powerful partner with similar interests and join forces. We have done just that: we want to research how we can improve storage for the national Geology collection. We spoke to Oxford University who are that enthusiastic about working with us.

Now that we have a fundraising target and a really tight deadline. What do we do next? Phone a friend?

This is exactly what we are doing now. You are our friend. We are asking: who do you think we should talk to about raising the funds to enable this project to happen?

We know you are as passionate about our cultural and scientific heritage as we are. We need your advice on the best way to reach our fundraising target.

Allow me to introduce the project. Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales looks after 900,000 geological specimens. We use this collection daily to inspire, educate, and research. We have great stores but many minerals react with chemicals in the air and start changing. Sometimes they change so badly that they crumble to dust. Clearly, simply putting our geological specimens into lovely stores is not good enough to preserve them for future generations.

Now, if we want to become better at looking after your collections (they do not actually belong to us, but to you and everybody else in Wales), we need to know where we can make improvements. The challenge is, nobody really knows at present what exactly we need to improve on. We already work to the highest available standards, but the current standards do not tell us much about how minerals react with airborne chemicals.

We want to join forces with Oxford University and the heritage science network SEAHA http://www.seaha-cdt.ac.uk/ for a research project. We have 60% of the funding. All we need now is the remaining 40% and we are all go.

And this is where you come in.

This is the future of museums. We are happy to offer an opportunity to become involved in a high-profile project to improve the long-term storage of geological collections. If you know anyone we should speak to about fundraising please get in touch. If you would like some more information please download our 'Benefits to Partners' leaflet (in the right hand margin).

Thank you.

Find out more about Care of Collections at Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales here.

Standing on what felt like the top of the world and slowly regaining our breaths back, they were soon taken away again when looking at the awe inspiring landscape of Whiteford Sands in Swansea Bay.

Swansea Museum is working on a project called ‘The Lost Treasures of Swansea Bay’, which is funded by the help of the ‘Saving Treasures; Telling Stories’ project. Saving Treasures is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund which is acquiring archaeological objects for local and national collections, providing training for heritage professionals and volunteers and engaging local communities with their pasts.

Last week the museum teamed up with young people from Swansea YMCA, The National Trust and The Glamorgan Gwent Archaeology Trust to hike around Whiteford Sands in the Gower area of Swansea Bay. This walk was intended to give us an understanding of the changing landscape of Swansea Bay since the Bronze Age.

The Landscape

Corinne Benbow is a National Trust Ranger and she led the first half of the walk up a very steep hill in order to get the best viewpoints overlooking the beach and woodland areas.

Corinne explained that what we could see was quite unspoiled, she said: “You’re looking at quite an ancient landscape and it wouldn’t have changed that much since the Bronze Age.”

Pointing over towards the coastline, Corinne spoke about how the landscape has slightly changed over the years.

“This piece of land is actually brand new and doesn’t belong to anyone as it has only appeared over the last twenty-five years; that’s because of the sand being washed in and building up. The new dunes get washed away and are then re-built back up; so it’s always shifting, but is basically the same as it’s been for thousands of years.”

Hidden Secrets

After a lunch break and water painting session of the landscape, we continued our walks through the woods, over the sand dunes and onto the pebbly beach. It was here where Paul Huckfield, an archaeologist from the Glamorgan Gwent Archaeology Trust, revealed some hidden treasures found on the beach.

Paul said: “We are currently stood on a prehistoric ground surface which was originally a forest. This dates back to the late Mesolithic, early Neolithic age at around 5000-4000 BC. As you can see the remains of the trees around you are still here.”

At a first glance you would assume the trees were drift wood washed ashore, but they were in fact, alder trees almost 7000 years old. Paul explained how the landscape which is currently a sandy beach area would have actually been a woodland area similar to the one we walked through. 

Why were they a secret?

Nobody knew these 7000 year old trees even existed until they were found between 2010- 2012 when the beach lost some of its sand and the trees came to light.

The Saving Treasures; Telling Stories Project is a partnership project between Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales, The Federation of Museums and Art Galleries of Wales (The FED) and the Portable Antiquities Scheme in Wales (PAS Cymru) promoting the portable archaeological heritage of Wales through acquiring finds made by the public. The project secured Heritage Lottery Grant funding in October 2014 through the Collecting Cultures programme and runs for five years.

It will help Swansea Museum to acquire and safeguard items of portable heritage with special significance to Swansea Bay for the people of Swansea. It will also enable the museum to work with local communities to engage with and explore these treasures and to find out more about Swansea Bay

The Voices from the Archives series is based on recordings in the Oral History Archive at St Fagans National History Museum. Connected to the agricultural activities, demonstrations and displays at the Museum - they provide an insight into the lives and histories of farming people, the agricultural practices in the past, how they developed into contemporary agriculture.

Lambing in Pembrokeshire, 1984

March is lambing time at Llwyn-yr-eos Farm, the Museum’s working farm. Lambing in the past and present was described by Richard James, Portfield Gate, Pembrokeshire, south west Wales, in a recording made in 1984. Aged 79, he recalled lambing in an interview about his life in farming, but also described how it was being done on a farm in the area in the year of the interview. The following short clips are from the recording.

Pembrokeshire born and bred, Richard James had farmed at Lambston Sutton in the south west of the county. It stood between the large county town of Haverfordwest a few miles to the east, and the coastline of St Bride’s Bay to the west. The lowland coastal areas, warmer climate and lower rainfall made agriculture more diverse than in many other parts of Wales, with the keeping cattle and sheep and the growing of early potatoes and cereal crops. The coastal areas could be exposed to the winds and rain from the Atlantic Ocean though, and weather conditions could strongly influence lambing, to which Richard James refers in the first clip:

When lambing was to take place was decided by when the ewes were put to the rams. Up until then the rams on the farm had to be kept separate from the sheep. It was always a concern that rams might break through a poor fence or hedge and cause lambing to start at the wrong time. Also, a ram of poorer quality or a different breed from another flock could also result in poorer quality lambs and reduced income. After mating, a ewe is pregnant for between 142 and 152 days, approximately five months or slightly shorter.

In this clip, Richard James describes at what time of year lambing took place on a local farm, and how it was being done by a farmer using a former aircraft hangar.

The final clip is about working the day and night shifts:

Croeso Bryn, ein sbesimen hanes natur diweddaraf.

Bryn y Teigr Swmatraidd

Teigr Swmatraidd yw Bryn. Treuliodd ei fywyd yn Sw Mynydd Cymru ym Mae Colwyn fel un o’r trigolion mwyaf eiconig. Yn ystod ei fywyd, rhoddodd bleser mawr i ymwelwyr y sw, gan helpu i godi proffil cyflwr y rhywogaeth hon sydd mewn perygl difrifol. Roedd ganddo bersonoliaeth hamddenol a hoffus ac roedd yn rhan allweddol o’r profiadau ‘Ciper am Ddiwrnod’ a ‘Cyfarfod Anifail’ yn Sw Mynydd Cymru. Bu farw o achosion naturiol ym mis Awst 2016, yn 17 oed. Wrth sefyll ar ei bwys, cewch deimlad go iawn o harddwch a phŵer yr anifeiliaid anhygoel hyn.

Dim ond ar ynys Swmatra yn Indonesia y mae Teigrod Swmatraidd yn byw ac mae ymdrechion cadwraeth sylweddol ar waith ledled y byd. Mae eu niferoedd wedi gostwng yn ddramatig yn ystod y blynyddoedd diwethaf er gwaethaf yr ymdrechion hyn, ac amcangyfrifir bod llai na 400 o deigrod ar ôl yn eu cynefin. Mae colli cynefinoedd, masnach anghyfreithlon a diffyg bwyd i gyd wedi cyfrannu at y gostyngiad hwn. Mae’r teigrod yn byw mewn amrywiaeth eang o goedwigoedd – o iseldiroedd arfordirol i fynyddoedd – ac mae’n well ganddyn nhw goedwigoedd tawel sydd heb eu haredig gydag isdyfiant dwys a llethrau serth. Mae miliynau o erwau o’r coedwigoedd hyn yn cael eu torri bob blwyddyn i wneud lle i’r planhigfeydd cnydau dwys fel olew palmwydd ac acasia. Mae hyn yn golygu bod llai o ysglyfaeth iddyn nhw eu hel, a bod poblogaeth teigrod bellach yn dameidiog, gan beryglu’r broses o adfer y rhywogaethau. Mae masnachu darnau o deigrod yn anghyfreithlon yn dal i fod yn gyffredin er gwaethaf diogelwch cenedlaethol a rhyngwladol llawn, ac mae darnau o deigrod dal ar werth yn agored ar yr ynys.

Felly pam cael Teigr Swmatraidd mewn amgueddfa yng Nghymru? Pam cael anifeiliaid wedi’u stwffio o gwbl? Mae hyn yn gwestiwn sy’n cael ei ofyn yn aml yn yr Amgueddfa. Yn gyntaf, mae amgueddfeydd yn chwarae rhan bwysig fel stordai ar gyfer bioamrywiaeth, drwy roi cofnod o rywogaethau ar gof a chadw. Er enghraifft, mae gennym anifeiliaid diflanedig fel y Thylacine (Blaidd o Tasmania) a’r Carfil Mawr, a sgerbwd Dodo hyd yn oed, yn ein casgliadau. Gyda niferoedd teigrod Swmatraidd mor isel, mae’n bwysicach nawr nag erioed ein bod yn cadw cofnod o’r rhywogaeth hon.

Yn ail, mae creaduriaid eiconig yn rhan bwysig o gasgliadau amgueddfeydd. Mae fertebriaid yn cael llawer mwy o sylw cyhoeddus nag unrhyw grŵp arall o anifeiliaid neu blanhigion. Yn aml iawn, maen nhw’n ddel ac yn apelgar, ac felly’n dod yn symbolau ymgyrchoedd i godi ymwybyddiaeth y cyhoedd o faterion cadwraeth. Gall y creaduriaid hyn gael eu defnyddio i hoelio sylw’r cyhoedd ac i siarad am amrywiaeth eang o faterion sy’n effeithio ar fywyd gwyllt ledled y byd. Fel lleoliad di-dâl, rydym mewn lle da i ymgysylltu pobl gyda’r byd o’u cwmpas. Yn aml iawn, amgueddfeydd yw un o’r llefydd cyntaf y mae pobl yn cael golwg agos ar fywyd gwyllt. Mae hyn yn ein rhoi mewn sefyllfa wych i siarad am y bygythiad i fywyd gwyllt, nid yn unig dramor ond ar garreg y drws. Cofiwch, nid anifeiliaid egsotig mewn llefydd pellennig yn unig sydd mewn perygl. Yr anifeiliaid ‘rhwysgfawr’ hyn yw’r ‘fynedfa’ i anifeiliaid llai rhodresgar ond sydd eto’n wynebu’r un perygl, megis Cragen Las Berlog, Britheg Frown neu Ddafad-Frathwr. Boed yn deigr o Swmatra neu’n durtur o’r DU – yr un yw’r neges. Rydym am i’n hymwelwyr fod yn fwy ymwybodol o’r byd naturiol o’u cwmpas a rhoi’r pŵer iddyn nhw gymryd rhan fwy actif wrth ei fwynhau a’i warchod.

Bryn fydd canolbwynt ein Diwrnod Teigr Cenedlaethol, 29 Gorffennaf 2017, felly bydd cyfle i chi ddod i weld y creadur enigmatig hwn gyda’ch llygaid eich hun. Dewch â’ch teuluoedd a chymerwch ran mewn gweithgareddau, dysgwch fwy am beth mae amgueddfeydd yn eu gwneud gyda’u casgliadau a beth allwch chi ei wneud i ddiogelu teigrod fel Bryn.

Gallwch chi ddysgu mwy am Deigrod Swmatraidd a’r gwaith o’u gwarchod ar wefan y WWF.

Gallwch chi ddysgu mwy am warchod bywyd gwyllt Prydain ar wefan yr Ymddiriedolaeth Bywyd Gwyllt, a gwefan yr RSPB.

Gallwch chi ddysgu mwy am y casgliadau o anifeiliaid asgwrn cefn ar wefan Amgueddfa Cymru.

We wrote of dust before, for example here and here. The museum is like your home, dust gathers everywhere. Unlike my own house though, the museum is very, very big. The museum's dust problems are correspondingly large.

Last year a student from Cardiff University, Stefan Jarvis, undertook a dust monitoring project in the museum. Stefan was studying for an MSc in Care of Collections, which is a subject very close to my heart. Stefan is also the author of one of our guest blogs. Stefan placed a large number of dust traps around the museum building: in stores and exhibition galleries. You may be familiar with some of the galleries he investigated: our Geology gallery with the dinosaurs, the current “Wriggle” exhibition on worms, the Whale gallery and the Organ gallery where we display some of the largest paintings in the museum.

Collecting dust is really easy: prepare a sampler. Leave it out in a suitable location. Wait. For. Four. Weeks.

Once Stefan had gathered some dust he analysed the samples: he identified each particle under the microscope and determined where they all came from. This is where things started getting really interesting. For while undertaking scientific investigations are often laborious and involves much routine work, the results are often extremely illuminating.

This is what Stefan found:

• More dust accumulates in areas of high traffic (i.e., many people walking past).
• More dust accumulates at low levels (the closer you get to floor level the more dust you will find).
• Dust composition differs between spaces. For example, most dust fibres in a library store are paper fibres, while most fibres in public galleries are textile fibres, hair and skin.
• We found biscuit crumbs on the dust samplers in two galleries. This indicates that food was being consumed in these galleries.

Now, we love having people in the museum. In fact we undertake some of our collection care work during museum opening hours so that you can see what we are up to a lot of the time. Therefore, we are happy to accept that visitors always leave us a little reminder that they have been, in the form of a few dust particles. You can feel a ‘but’ coming on: but we do not encourage the eating of biscuits (or any other foodstuffs) in our galleries. Eating food in our galleries bears the risk of small amounts of food ending up on the floor, in displays, behind cupboards - or, as part of dust. Food encourages the spread of pest insects which, once they have eaten all the available biscuit crumbs, then start munching our collections. This is not something we endorse, because we try to preserve our collections for you to enjoy.

This means you can actually help us preserve the collections - by not eating in the galleries. We will be doing more work on this in the near future, by encouraging visitors to consume food in our fabulous restaurant or cosy cafe, not in galleries. In the meantime, we really do appreciate your cooperation and understanding for our no-food-in-galleries policy.

Find out more about Care of Collections at Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales here.