Natural History Exhibition on Twitter

#ColeEx: A Twitter Exhibition of Twentieth-Century Natural History and Zoology at the Cole Museum of Zoology, UK

This upcoming exhibition is based on a collaborative mini-project between the University of Reading’s Museums and Special Collections (@UniRdg_SpecColl), the Cole Museum of Zoology (@ColeZoology), and the Centre for Collections-based Research. The project involved the creation of a pre-catalogue by PhD student Verity Burke, comprising documents spanning around 100 years of Cole Zoology departmental life, including letters between departmental staff and students who would go on to work with a range of institutions (including the Natural History Museum, UK), field trip photographs, course material and specimen catalogues.

The exhibition will run from Monday 19th to Wednesday 28th October 2015, with media tweets being released around 8.30am and 4.30pm GMT daily. You can follow along via the #ColeEx hashtag and the tweets will be sent by @VerityBurke_ - you don’t have to be a Twitter user to view the tweets, but will need to hold an account to respond on Twitter.

Although the exhibition is discursive and aimed at a general audience, the underlying questions are of interest to a range of researchers, including those in the disciplines of history, literature, biology and zoology, as well as archival and museum practice. Some of these questions will be addressed further at the BSLS Winter Symposium, ‘Science in the Archives’ (more on the symposium here: http://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/science-in-the-archives-bsls-winter-symposium-tickets-18860410997).

What are the intersections between museums, archives and departments? How and where do architectural, literary and pedagogical structures meet? How can we locate literature and science in archival material?

Interaction from any and everyone is highly encouraged, and a Storify will be composed of #ColeEx material and selected responses.

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