Porifera vs. Paint

During my first week here, Lourdes (Museum Assistant of the Invertebrate Zoology Division) took me on a tour of the wet collections. One of the first things she showed me was a rusted metal can, like a can of Campbell Soup. Written in Sharpie on top of the can was the label: 'PORIFERA'. "Yep, that's a canned sponge." she said matter-of-factly.

Specimens used to be literally "canned" on expeditions to preserve them until back on land, when they'd be transferred into a different vessel, typically containing 70% ethanol. "We get asked by visitors if we're ever going to open this can." said Lourdes. Probably not for the preservation of this preservation method. It's useful to know how preservation and storage methods have changed, what advantages some still retain, and how collection storage improvements continue to be made. 

Over the past century, the preservation and storage of specimens have evolved at the Peabody. Before the Environmental Science Center was renovated in the nineties—where the Peabody's collections are currently housed—specimens were stored in the basement of building. Back then, it was the base of the Bingham Oceanographic Collections. Invertebrate Zoology's collections were housed in Room 4.  "When I got here, every one of these shelves was full—packed, packed to the gills." said Eric. The plain grey room is now occupied by mostly empty frames of blue shelving, besides miscellaneous vessels and the occasional dried-out specimen. "Believe it or not, this room smells like a flower garden, compared to what it used to be." said Eric. Many of the specimens that used to be stored in the room were saturated with formaldehyde vapors. "It just totally reeked. We got those out of here fairly early on." 

What's left of Room 4. Most of the specimens have been transported
to the upstairs portion of the collections now. 

A few items haven't made it out of the room yet. Several ca. 1950s shipping boxes filled with hay for stuffing were in the corner. The boxes are going to West Campus because in the future might use for exhibit, information on boxes still important. Goes into a freezer for a week to get rid of any pests that might be on it, then out to West Campus—so it won't be thrown out.

Shipping boxes from the 1950s

Original customs stamp (H.M. Customs stands for Her Majesty's Customs)
for shipment from the British Museum of Natural History

Straw hay for cushioning

A series of jars of all shapes and tops lined a few of the back shelves. Remove the context of being in the basement of a natural history museum, and one could be in a candy shop that's emptied its wares. "No two jars are alike." said Eric. Molds weren't used to make the tops of the jars, so every top was custom-made to the individual jar and sealed by petroleum jelly. Eric picked up a stout clear blue jar from another shelf. "This is a Mason butter jar." he said. "The patent date on this is May 10th, 1870. The oldest ones in here have a patent date of 1859." 

Ground-glass stopper jars

Mason butter jar

The old glass jars still have advantages. Exhibits will often use them over the modern-day glass jars with plastic screw-on lids. "If you have something with a black lid, it actually obscures your view." said Eric. "This looks much better." The vast majority of the glass jars are now housed at West Campus. "We only broke one jar in the move, and it was me who broke it!" Eric laughed. 

We skimmed a few other mostly-empty shelves for other remnants of the collections: a dried out squid, Willard Hartman's (invertebrate biologist, 1953-1992 curator of IZ, and towards the end of his career, director of the Peabody Museum) old field knapsack, and a worn wooden trapezoidal box with the letters "A.H.F." in red paint. The wooden box is a viewing box for the water, which have been around since the 1800s. "That's what you did before snorkeling or if you were just out in waste-deep water." said Eric. As far as what the initials refer to, it remains a mystery. "AHF—it could've been a person's initials, or it could've been stolen from the Allan Hancock Foundation, which is a foundation in the West Coast." Eric chuckled and threw his hands up in the air. "We don't know!" 

Today, the vast majority of today's specimens are housed in ESC 259. Both the dry and wet collections have UV light filter to minimize specimen discoloration. The temperature is always set at mid-sixty degree Fahrenheit and no more than 40% humidity in the dry collections (a little higher for the wet collections). The controlled environment prevents pests—a collection's worst nightmare—from reproducing. 

Calculating the total number of specimens in the dry and wet collections requires some math. In the collections, 'specimen' actually refers to a specimen lot, which can range from one to hundreds of individuals. The total estimate of specimen lots in IZ is 300,000. Based on the database, a specimen lot averages 7 individuals = over 2 million specimens. But that number doesn't include specimens that have yet to be cataloged. "Most of the mollusks haven't been cataloged yet," said Eric. "There are big suites of shells that would probably drive up the specimen lot average to 10 individuals." So the total number of specimen individuals in the wet and dry collections is more like 3 million. And there's still a lot left to catalog. At West Campus, tens of millions more specimens await in cabinets and jars. What fits in a single jar from the sea can be massive in numbers—a testament to the sheer scale of life that exists in the ocean. 

IZ wet collections

IZ dry collections

The two collections are joined to the division's combined collections management and research space. Throughout the day, people will pop into the room to ask Eric or Lourdes a question regarding permits or an upcoming expedition, drop off specimens, pick up specimens, or anything else in between. Someone is usually seated at a computer cataloging specimens into EMu, the Peabody Museum's database, or examining something under a microscope. "We're playing musical chairs here." said Eric. It is a bustling place—the door is never closed for long.

When referring to 'IZ' at the Peabody, this room comes to mind. 

A couple of weeks ago, Eric found this rusted can in Room 4. He brought it back up to examine what was inside. Today we opened it. 

The can was light. If it held a specimen, the alcohol could have evaporated out long ago. There was also the chance of the can holding paint. The lid rusted tightly onto the top of the can. Eric brought a pair of tin-snips to get a window inside...

Moment of truth: porifera or paint? 

......and lo, it was paint. We laughed enough for Lourdes to check on us to make sure everything was alright. "In fact, I probably used this paint the floor of Room 4 back in the day." said Eric. 

New and old specimens—plus the occasional bucket of paint—are always coming into the collections for use, whether it be for research, teaching, or exhibits. The diversity of the collections provide an incredible insight into the range of marine life on Earth. Improving how they are preserved and stored ensures their continued use and appreciation in the future.