Henry A. Mcghie

• Curating Tomorrow

Collections-based organizations (CBOs) can play a crucial role in addressing sustainable development (SD), but their aspiration to become more sustainable, as seen in policies and guidelines, is confronted with several challenges in practice. To facilitate a sustainability transition, this process of change needs to be managed and adequate tools ad...

This resource has been developed to help galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) mainstream sustainable development into their planning and operations, by using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their targets. It complements another guide, ‘Museums and the Sustainable Development Goals: a how-to guide for museums, galleries, th...

This Guide is intended to be used as an overview of human rights in relation to museums, as a reference point, and as a planning tool to help mainstream human rights into the work – all aspects of work – of museums.

This Guide aims to help empower museums (small, large and of any kind, anywhere), museum workers, museum networks and their partners to draw on Disaster Risk Reduction approaches. This should help them reduce the impact of disasters, whether COVID-19, climate change, or any other kind of disaster, for the benefit of themselves, their communities, a...

We live in a time of unprecedented environmental change, with climate change, habitat alteration, pollution, invasive species and over-exploitation all contributing to species declines (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005, IPBES 2019). Biodiversity researchers, policy workers, and site and species managers work to stem the tide of declines. Museum...

This brief covers international climate change policies and actions spanning the last 30 years, and traces how they relate to museums’ activities. It also presents opportunities for museums to incorporate climate change into their work in order to accelerate their contributions to climate action. Estimates of the number of museums range from 55,000...

This article explores how museums can help empower people to engage constructively with climate change, through applying a range of time-related concepts to their exhibitions and events. Museums are mostly collections of the past. Climate change now and future presents particular challenges as it is perceived to be psychologically distant. The link...

Investigations into the cultural significance of that most familiar and charismatic group of animals, bears. Bears are iconic animals, playing a variety of roles in human culture. The essays collected here provide a rich selection of views on the human/bear relationships. They explore how bears are an influence in contemporary art, and how they are...

A how-to guide for museums, galleries, the cultural sector and their partners

Dorfman, E. (ed.) The Future of Natural History Museums, Routledge, paperback, £31.99, pp. 268.

Climate change engagement presents a number of challenges to museums, which tend to be most comfortable in dealing with the topics in which they are expert, and focus on presenting information. This chapter will explore some of the challenges and ‘letting go’ that could help museums reposition themselves to engage people more constructively with cl...

In order to address the ongoing loss of biodiversity and degradation of the natural environment, there is a need to engage people effectively in biodiversity and other environmental sustainability issues. There is also a need to engage people effectively in nature for their health, wellbeing and fulfilment, and to promote strong neighbourhoods and...

This paper sets out some reflections on the ways in which museums can approach climate change engagement, based on recent experiences of the re-design of a permanent natural history gallery and a climate change focused exhibition at the Manchester Museum, part of the University of Manchester (Manchester, UK). It emphasises the importance of engagin...

This comprehensive handbook provides a unique overview of the theory, methodologies and best practices in climate change communication from around the world. It fosters the exchange of information, ideas and experience gained in the execution of successful projects and initiatives, and discusses novel methodological approaches aimed at promoting a...

This chapter reveals how ornithology had become divided into factions, with Dresser occupying a distinctive position as one of the last independent naturalists. The British Ornithologists Union had its 50 th anniversary in 1909; this showed how the BOU had become rather left behind in the face of competition from the American school of ornithology....

This chapter explores Dresser’s activities in the 1890s. His relationship with Walter Rothschild, a particularly wealthy private collector, is discussed. Dresser continued to hold a leading position in scientific society and became involved in the early Society for the Protection of Birds. He had some involvement with the British Ornithologists’ Cl...

This book explores the life of Henry Dresser (1838–1915), one of the most productive British ornithologists of the mid-late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; it is also an exploration of ornithology during a period when the subject changed dramatically. The book is based on previously unpublished letters, diaries and photographs to provide...

This chapter introduces the ‘History of the Birds of Europe’, a great book project initiated by Richard Bowdler Sharpe, in partnership with Dresser. The chapter discusses scientific travellers and fieldwork, and the growth of formal and informal scientific travel through the nineteenth century. It describes the collecting manuals and instructions f...

This chapter discusses Dresser’s legacies and explores why he and his contemporaries fell from sight, as scientific ornithology shifted from a collection-based discipline to a hypothesis-driven system. It explores the rise—and fall—of specimen collecting on a near-industrial level. It suggests that Dresser was sidelined as a result of post-imperial...

This chapter explores how Henry established himself into natural history society in London. It explores his participation in the fortnightly meetings of the Zoological Society of London and attendance at natural history auctions in London. It also explores the importance of correspondence networks among ornithologists. The British Ornithologists’ U...

This chapter explores Dresser’s visit to Texas in 1863–64, during the American Civil War. He was employed by some Liverpool and Manchester businessmen to take a cargo of goods to the Confederacy in exchange for cotton, which was in heavy demand in Britain. It follows his eventful journey and 18 months in Texas and Mexico, when he had a number of ex...

This chapter explores Dresser’s life through the 1860s, following his return to England from Mexico and Texas. His father had been bankrupted by the American Civil War, so Dresser had to take over as head the family, as the eldest son. This was a chaotic period when Dresser considered leaving London to live abroad. Ultimately, he settled into busin...

This chapter explores the activities of the collectors who contributed birds and eggs to Dresser’s collection from China, Japan, Central and South Asia, and Africa. In spite of the vastness of the area covered, collectors who were active in these areas shared much in common as most were involved in the machinery of empire and colonialism in one way...

This chapter explores the range of work and practices involved in producing A History of the Birds of Europe , one of the most ambitious bird books of the late nineteenth century. Richard Bowdler Sharpe worked with Dresser on the first twelve parts and then withdrew from the project as he was overworked; Dresser completed the book alone. The book w...

This chapter explores how Dresser consolidated his position in scientific society through the 1870s, when he was working on A History of the Birds of Europe. He and his colleagues ‘ran’ English ornithology, being an elite club of wealthy, ambitious and immensely able ornithologist–collectors. Many of the leading figures lived together in a London t...

This chapter explores the collecting practices of collectors. It discusses the availability of specimens from different sources, including poulterers’ markets, gamekeepers, taxidermists, auctions, dealers and the risk of fraud from commercial dealers. It discusses closed networks among collectors and the importance of correspondence. It establishes...

During 1905–10, Dresser brought out his last major book, on the eggs of the birds of Europe. His Russian collaborators were making important discoveries in Central Asia and Siberia, and provided him with many specimens. Dresser publicised these discoveries in the book and in presentations at the Zoological Society of London. The Eggs of the Birds o...

This chapter explores the 1880s as a time when standards were set in ornithology, in terms of scientific practices of naming and drawing up agreed lists of accepted records of rare birds visiting Britain. Dresser was a key figure in this, at a time when a number of self-proclaimed authorities disputed evidence and practices. Dresser was involved in...

During the first five years of the new century, Dresser published the Manual of the Birds of Europe, an important contribution to ornithology. This book was produced at the same time as another on the same subject but adopting novel approaches; the two books are compared and contrasted. The long-running argument over scientific naming practices was...

This chapter explores Dresser’s family background, establishing the family’s wealth and prominent social position. Dresser was sent to be schooled, alone, to Germany and Sweden, as his father had business interests in Baltic timber. Dresser learnt all of the main European languages at this time. Following this, he spent several years in Finland and...

Two strains, D5088T and D5095, representing a novel yeast species belonging to the genus Saccharomyces were isolated from oak tree bark and surrounding soil located at an altitude of 1000 m above sea level in Saint Auban, France. Sequence analyses of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and 26S rRNA D1/D2 domains indicated that the two stra...

Following recent contributions in BB, this paper discusses some contemporary references to London's Leadenhall Market as a source of specimens and explores the nature of investigations of notable records in the 'early days' of standardised ornithology. Collectors and ornithologists were well aware of the potential for fraud and their working method...

Male common snipe (Capella gallinago gallinago) produce a 'drumming' sound with their outer tail feathers during their mating dives, but little is known about how this is achieved. We investigated the movements and sound producing capabilities of the outer tail feathers. Using a wind tunnel, we compared observations of the frequencies of sound prod...

ΔeΞio∑ Opni∑ - Arnott(W.G.)Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z. Pp. xiv + 288, ills. London and New York: Routledge, 2007. Cased, £60, US$110. ISBN: 978-0-415-23851-9. - Volume 59 Issue 1 - Henry McGhie

This paper presents the first published listing of the holdings of type specimens of mollusc in The Manchester Museum (University of Manchester, UK), the fourth largest mollusc collection in Britain. Type material relating to 480 taxa are included in the present catalogue, mainly coming from the collections of A Abercrombie (India), RD Darbishire,...

June 2005 marked the centenary of one of the most notable events of twentieth-century ornithology: the discovery of the breeding grounds of Ross's Gull Rhodostethia rosea, in northeast Siberia, by Russian ornithologist Sergei Buturlin. News of the discovery was announced in Britain to a meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club on 13th December 1...