Whilst on my placement at Haslemere Educational Museum I was given the task of digitising the Rupert Long Collection of butterflies and moths.
The act of digitising collections is becoming more and more popular in museums. Not only does it increase the publicity of the museum, but more importantly it increase access to the museums collections. More often than not the most valuable and academically important collections are kept behind the scenes under lock and key. By digitising such collections and objects, people who are unable to visit the museum due to physical or geographical reasons/issues, can see what the museum has to offer.
The Rupert Long Collection contains well over 7,000 specimens of butterflies and moths that have been collected over the UK in the last century. Despite having specimens from across the UK the collection mainly contains examples of butterflies and months from Sussex, Hampshire and Surrey. It is for that reason that this collection is so significant, with a centuries worth of specimens from a concentrated location, variations in size, distribution and colouration can be researched.
My favorite drawer in the collection.
In the space of 2 months I was able to photograph and digitise well over 700 specimens within the collection. The Museum decided against digitising the entire collections (*phew*) as not only would this take forever, but it would include a large degree of repetition. Instead it was decided that a male, female and a ventrally displayed specimen would be digitised. In addition any interesting variations within species where recorded and digitised.
Below are some photographs of my favorite parts of the task but first the all important link!
Beautiful!
Cheeky Hawk Months masquerading as bees!
Lots of literature was needed to identify the more tricky specimens.
Mammoth moths (thumb for scale)!
Tools of the trade!
The final draw of the magnificent Rupert Long Collection of butterflies and moths.
Museum Musings 