In 2013 the tercentenary of the birth of the Third Earl of Bute is being celebrated across Britain with a series of events and new publications. Curators from Amgueddfa Cymru have contributed to a special publication published by Friends of the Luton Hoo Walled Garden, at one of Bute’s former residencies. Maureen Lazarus will also give a lecture at Luton Hoo in the autumn.

Bute was a powerful figure in eighteenth century Britain, both as a politician and as a botanist. He was a friend and confidante of George III who encouraged him to become a politician. In May 1762 he became Prime Minister. However, Bute proved an unpopular leader. Bishop Warburton wrote at the time “Lord Bute is a very unfit man to be Prime Minister of England, first, he is a Scotchman; secondly, he is the King’s friend; and thirdly he is an honest man.”

After a year of political turmoil and dissention, Bute resigned his post. He retired from public life to his house at Highcliffe in Hampshire with his vast botanical library. Here he rekindled his former enthusiasm for botany. Bute worked on several botanical publications and was strongly influenced by the renowned Swedish taxonomist Carl Linnaeus. Bute’s best known publication is entitled Botanical Tables containing the different familys of British Plants distinguished by a few obvious parts of Fructification rang’d in a Synoptical method (1785). Its aim is to explain the principles of Linnaeus’s new and controversial taxonomic system. Angueddfa Cymru is fortunate to own a complete set of this rare and exquisite publication.

John Miller (1715-1790) became the main artist of the Botanical tables, a huge task of over 600 illustrations detailing the sexual organs and their number to comply with the Linnaean system. The volumes cover the whole range of plant life from mosses, lichens and seaweeds to fungi and grasses, flowers and trees. Twelve copies of the Tables (each consisting of 9 volumes) were printed by Lord Bute at his own expense at a cost of £1,000. 

In his retirement, Bute was quite isolated. He was closer to European rather than British botanists, perhaps partly as a result of his travels on the continent but probably partly due to his unpopularity in Britain. Curiously, he was never elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London or of the Society of Antiquaries, something which his role as a patron alone ought to have virtually assured him. In spite of this rejection, botany was, no doubt, a satisfying way for him to spend his time in later life in order to avoid the melancholy he referred to in the introduction to Botanical tables.

Bute was particularly keen to explain the taxonomic system to women since he felt that this “delightful part of nature” was peculiarly suited to the attention of the fair sex. Botany, under their protection, would soon become a fashionable amusement. True to this aim Bute presented seven out of the ten copies to women including Queen Charlotte and Catherine II, Empress of Russia.

In 1994 Amgueddfa Cymru acquired a complete copy of the Botanical tables. The curators of the collection, as part of their background research, decided to trace all 12 copies. So far ten sets have been traced, seven of which can be identified with their original recipients. Full details of this project may be found in this paper; Lazarus, M.H. and Pardoe, H.S. (2009) Bute’s Botanical tables: dictated by Nature. Archives of natural history 36 (2): 277–298.

Heather Pardoe and Maureen Lazarus

So the weather forecast is predicting rain next week which is fine as we have plenty going on at National Museum Cardiff throughout the school holidays.

Starting tomorrow and continuing on Sun 21st, Wednesday 24th, Thursday 25th and Friday 26th staff from the Clore Discovery Centre will be running noisy dinosaur workshops based on our newly published children's story book 'Albie the Adventurer'. The book was written by me (Grace Todd) and illustrated by local illustrator and designer Caroline Duffy (google her, she is great)

The workshops will be running at 11am, 1pm and 3pm on the days listed and can be booked at the front desk. They will be loud and lots of fun!

Hopefully see you there.

Professor Dimbledare of Warthogs University is a geneticist working on the evolution of parasites in insects. This is important because bee populations are currently declining partly due to being attacked by increasing numbers of parasites; this threatens human food production, as bees are the most important pollinators of many fruits and vegetables. Professor Dimbledare wants to find out whether there is historic evidence for temporary increases in parasite attacks on bees. He wants to look at museum collections worldwide and extract DNA from specimens. Where does he start looking for suitable collections?

Can you help me find...

This is a hypothetical scenario, but a typical example of the sort of enquiries frequently received by museum curators. Museums are being approached either through the mailing lists of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (which has a worldwide reach), the Natural Sciences Collections Association (UK), or – and this is really hard work – individually, one by one. When (15 long years ago) I undertook the research for my PhD I wrote to more than 20 individual botanic gardens around the world to ask if they had any clippings of a wonderful little fern-like plant called whisk fern (Psilotum nudum).

Museums are vast repositories of nature, and there are thousands of them. They document life on Earth (past and present) by housing specimens and associated data. Not all museums contain everything, but combined they represent a brilliant account of the natural history of a country and even our planet (see the Distributed National Collection article below).

Museum specimens are being sought for research projects, exhibitions in other museums, and by school teachers and university lecturers for education inside and out of the classroom. Museums are usually very happy to let people look at, study, and even borrow specimens. But finding an example of an animal, plant, fossil or mineral in a museum collection can be extremely difficult. The chances are you have some specimens in a museum near you – how do you find out where?

Internet data bases

Both the scope and quality of databases vary. Some only list basic collections information and contact details of staff (e.g. Index Herbariorum and Registry of Biological Repositories). Others contain information about individual specimens, both living and fossil (e.g. GBIF, Geological Collections of Estonia); these types of data bases are created specifically for researchers. Others again try to capture the culture, history and natural history of an individual country (People’s Collection Wales), aimed for use by the general public. The number of records in these data bases is huge, reaching into the billions.

There is, however, a discussion amongst scientists how much information we want to make available publicly. Sometimes it is not a good idea, for example, to publish information of where to find species that are endangered. Museums do have a responsibility to care for not only their collections, but also the conservation of living species. It would not be a good idea to alert everyone and their dog to the occurrence of species listed as threatened or endangered by CITES;because nobody would want to drive them closer to extinction through overcollecting.

So, where does this leave Professor Dimbledare? Increasingly there are attempts to include global information in data bases, so he should find it easier in the future to locate the specimens for his research. Some data bases are merging, e.g. Index Herbariorum and Registry of Biological Repositories. And in Wales, the People’s Collection is currently being redeveloped to make it more user-friendly; in the near future it will be easier to upload and search for information on museum collections, including natural science collections.  With increasing digitisation it gets easier all the time to locate museum specimens.

Here in the Clore Discovery Centre we've been running round like crazy preparing to deliver a busy programme of Family Learning workshops throughout the summer holidays. Starting on Saturday 20th July we'll be running a different workshop every week for six weeks.

Have a look at the photo below for a taste of what we (you!) will be creating!

Every workshop links to an exhibtion,display or collection at National Museum Cardiff. The schedule for the six weeks is:

Week 1 (July 20th - 26th)Dress to Impress Bronze Age Style Visit the Mold Cape for inspiration to create your own lunula

Week 2 (July27th - Aug 2nd) Dress to Impress Bronze Age Style Visit the Mold Cape for inspiration to create your own Bronze Age Shield

Week 3 (Aug 3rd - 9th) Fishing for the Future
Discover what you can do to protect the fish in our seas and make some fish-inspired art to take home.

Week 4 (Aug 10th - 16th) Mughal India
Make your own story inspired by work in the exhibition.

Week 5 (Aug 17th - 23rd) Flying Lizards
Find out more about Pterosaurs and make a flying lizard to take home.

Week 6 (Aug 24th - Sept 1st) Pop Art
Make your own vinyl album cover inspired by works of art from the ‘Swinging Sixties’.

These workshops will happen in the Clore Discovery Centre between 11am and 4pm

They are free, and are drop in sessions which means places may be limited at times! But worry not, we have a gallery full of awe inspring museum objects for you to explore through handling, as well as plenty of trails and worksheets.

Hope to see you during the Summer!

Dont forget to follow @cloreexplorer

Dwi newydd fod yn lloffa trwy'r dudalen blogie - dwi heb wneud ers sbel a mae'n wych gweld cymaint o flogwyr newydd, yn trafod pynciau newydd yma. Da iawn bawb!

Mae fy nghyfraniad i wedi bod braidd yn dameidiog, a dwi'n gobeithio y gallwch faddau hynny, annwyl ddarllenwyr.

Er ein bod ni wedi bod wrthi'n gwneud lot o waith caib a rhaw yma yn Sain Ffagan, mae'r rhan fwyaf ohono di bod y 'tu ôl i'r llen' - gwaith technegol, manwl, efo darnau mawr iawn o bapur, yn hytrach na gwrthrychau. 'Dyn ni wedi bod wrthi yn cynllunio, yn gwerthuso a chofnodi, ac yn fuan iawn y byddwn ni'n dechrau gweld newid go-iawn ar y safle yn ei sgîl. 

Gwaith is-adeiledd ydi'r rhan fwyaf o'r hyn yr ydym wedi ei gwblhau, yn ogystal ag astudio dichonoldeb defnyddio signal 3G a wifi ar ein safle coediog, eang. 'Dyn ni hefyd wedi bod yn gweithio gydag ymgynghorydd mewn hygyrchedd, i ddysgu sut y gallwn ni wneud yr amgueddfa'n le mwy croesawgar i amrywiaeth fwy eang o bobloedd. 

Ein bwriad ni yw i gadw naws arbennig yr amgueddfa, ond i wella'r cyfleusterau hefyd. 'Dyn ni'n trio bod mor agored a chyfranogol â phosib, felly 'dyn ni wedi bod yn gwrando ar farn gwahanol grwpiau mewn fforymau i bobl ifanc, athrawon a chrefftwyr. Mi fyddwn ni'n ail-wampio'r orielau hefyd, a dwi'n edrych ymlaen at gael gweld pa wrthrychau 'mae fy nghyd-weithwyr wedi eu dewis ar gyfer yr arddangosfeydd newydd.

Yn y cyfamser, liciwn i gadw mewn cysylltiad â chi trwy'r blog - ond sut?

A ddylwn i sgrifennu mwy am hanes yr adeiladau sydd yma'n barod? Neu ddangos yr rhai newydd wrth iddynt dyfu?

Ddylwn i adrodd y straeon mawrion, neu hanes y rhyfeddode dyddiol? Beth am ein cynllunie i gynnal nosweithie preswyl a pherfformiadau? Mwy o Duduriaid? Llai o Duduriad?

Dwi'n credu'n gryf y dylwn i ofyn, os nad ydw i'n gwybod. Felly dyma ofyn i chi:

• Beth hoffech chi ei weld ar y blog 'ma?

Gadwch sylw os oes barn neu gais gennych chi - dwi'n edrych ymlaen at gael clywed beth sydd gennych i'w ddweud.