University of Aberdeen Collections

A man examines a crucifix while reading a book in a room dark except for the light from a reading lamp. Unbeknownst to him, a grotesque face with large eyes lurks behind him watching.

A figure wrapped in a bedsheet assaults a cowering elderly man.

Today is the anniversary of horror author M.R. James's birth (1862-1936). His stories of antiquarians beset by supernatural horrors feature in our exhibition Fear and Fascination, open now at the Sir Duncan Rice Library.

Find out more: buff.ly/s4DYTaH

Photo of a desktop full of screens, monitors, laptops, tablets all showing different online exhibitions

When you can't decide which online exhibition to start with - get another screen!

Browse our online exhibitions: buff.ly/H9yEg1Y

A very pretty regal looking taxidermy tiger in a display case

Today is #InternationalTigerDay

Rani the tiger was seized at Aberdeen Airport under CITES legislation in 1996, by HM Customs and Excise. Although she was probably a zoo animal, the specimen was mounted in Deeside, and was being exported to the Middle East without the necessary permits.

Snippets of two historical maps and a hand drawn sailing ship

Join us tomorrow, for a map making workshop as part of the Festival of the Sea.

There will be historical maps on display to inspire you, drawing materials and guides so you can create your own map - or add to a collaborative map.

The Library has pretty good air conditioning!

buff.ly/9D5D3nG

Festival of the Sea: Online Talk - Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps with Chet van Duzer Ever wondered why some of the earliest maps and atlases feature fantastical sea creatures?

Ever wondered why some of the earliest maps and atlases feature fantastical sea creatures?

Chet van Duzer, historian of cartography, will be giving an online talk on Tuesday 22nd of July about these legendary creatures and what they reveal about early geographic thought and nautical navigation.

An animal skeleton looking at a colourful crab

Coloured in sheets that make up the crab

A fresh crab up with just a few panels coloured in

It's week 2 of summer at the Zoology Museum and a huge well done to everyone who contributed to creating a very colourful giant spider crab in Week 1! We're starting a new Giant Spider Crab this week so get down to the Zoology Museum and get colouring!

close up of the rounded axe head

the axe with a metal handle

Today is international rock day.

This Jadeite stone axe head was discovered in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire and dates from 4000 BC-2400 BC. It was recently discovery that the jadeite was quarried on the slopes of Monte Viso in the Italian alps, travelling almost 1000 miles 5000 years ago!

close up of the title page of justified sinner

justified sinner open

the patterned inside cover

a fresh cover attached to the book

On this day in 1824 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner was published. This copy, in our exhibition "Fear & Fascination" had some skilled conservation work done by our skilled paper conservator. You wouldn't know from looking but it has had an entirely new board made for it.

a long, handcarved wooden whisk. There are small holes at the bottom of the whisk, presumably to allow for frothing. There is a long handle, which is used to spin between the hands

Today is #WorldChocolateDay

This is a chocolate whisk or molinillo [ABDUA: 8870] from Bolivia. This type of molinillo was invented by Spanish colonisers in Central and South America around the 1600s. It is is spun between ones hands and into a pot of chocolate to froth or mix chocolate drinks.

Photo of skeletons looking at an empty black and white colour in paper of a crab

Our Zoology skeletons have got some new entertainment installed for the holidays, come along to help colour it in and give them something nice to look at!

The Zoology Museum will be open 10-4 Monday-Friday through the school holidays.

A graduation ceremony walking out of a hall. The two leaders a carrying a silver mace each.

We spotted them in use on @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social Instagram story today!

Silver mace. The bowl is embossed with the College arms and those of its founder, Bishop Elphinstone. The head is formed as an imperial crown supporting an orb and a cross over a plate with the Royal Arms.

Looks almost identical to the other mace but a lighter silver colour

Congratulations to everyone graduating from @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social this week!

You might spot these maces being used during graduation ceremonies. Left is the King's College Mace (ABDUA:36876) made in 1650. Right is the Marischal College Mace (ABDUA:36877) from c.1660.

A square of red tartan carpet. There is also some Green, blue and yellow in it.

Red - Physical Disabilities
This is made by a piece of red tartan carpet that came from Balmoral. It was specially woven for Balmoral and was in Queen Victoria's bedroom.
ABDUA:64518

A piece of waste glass with a shiny top made of mostly yellow with some blue

Yellow - Neurodiversity
This is a slice from a piece of glass slag, likely Roman. Enormous slabs of glass would be produced in furnaces, broken into chunks and transported to workshops to be made into vessels.
ABDUA:60632

A painting of a bleak winter landscape covered in snow with some sheep in a field

White - Invisible and Undiagnosed Disabilities
This is from an oil painting - ‘Winter’ by Joseph Farquharson (1846-1935), a Scottish artist well known for his snowy winter landscapes.
ABDUA:33001

a statue of a creature with human and animal parts

Blue - Mental Illness
Egyptian fertility amulet of Taweret. Taweret is a blending of lion, hippo, crocodile, and human attributes. The three animals were some of the fiercest species found in ancient Egypt.
ABDUA:20014

a model of a green steam engine

Green - Sensory Disabilities
This is a from the body of a model of Watt's steam engine for pumping water. This is the same stream engine that fired the industrial revolution.
ABDNP:200045

a round black textured plate

Charcoal - Mourning
Represented here by an Argillite plate. The base is elaborately carved with circles, tobacco leaves, diamonds and curved lines. The negative space is patterned in relief with small raised diamond shapes.
ABDUA:5571

flag with black background and 5 stripes diagonally across in green, blue, white, yellow and red made from items in the collections

Happy #DisabilityPrideMonth from all of us at UoA Collections! Here's a disability pride flag made from images of our collection to celebrate!

Find out where the colours come from in the thread below:

Map with illustrations of ships attacking a coastal fort with cannon fire.

As part of the Festival of the Sea we're running a map making workshop on the 12th July. There will be historical maps on display to inspire you, and drawing materials and guides so you can create your own map - or add to a collaborative map.

Details here: buff.ly/dyxmPBG

On the left, a small yellow plastic rectangular device with googly eyes on it. On the right a larger version, but knitted. Our life is complete.

🤣🚨ATTENTION!!🚨🤣

@traceynormanauthor.bsky.social knitted us a museum environmental monitor and it's the best thing that's happened to us EVER! 😍🤩

Two volunteers, one using a magnifier to check and pest traps and the other with a clipboard

#InsectWeek25 Day 5: Pest Traps with a photo of two slaters in a trap

Integrated Pest Management allows heritage sites to monitor and manage pests to prevent damage to the collections. Two of our volunteers have the glamorous and important job of assisting collection staff to check and record the pest traps this week. Monitoring the traps alerts us to any infestations that could damage items. We admire and appreciate the important role that wee beasties play in our eco system, but we don't want them munching on our historical collections if possible!

Integrated Pest Management allows heritage sites to monitor and manage pests to prevent damage to the collections.

We admire and appreciate the important role that wee beasties play in our eco system, but we don't want them munching on our historical collections if possible!

#InsectWeek

YouTube video by Horrible Histories The Evil Emperors Song 🎶 | Rotten Romans | Horrible Histories

This post has made us start singing "I was quite notorious for catapulting venomous snakes at Rome's enormous crowds, oh how they fled..."

youtu.be/qWwAC9dOTCE?...

watercolour painting of a green grasshopper

#InsectWeek25 Day 4: The de Alwis brothers

Watercolour insect illustrations with text: These watercolour paintings of insects were made by Sri Lankan artists William and George de Alwis around 1834 while Sri Lanka was under colonial rule. The artists' father Haramanis de Alwis Seneviratne (1792-1894), worked as a botanical illustrator for the Botanic Gardens and by his retirement had illustrated over 2000 plants!

Watercolour insect illustrations with text: The brothers drawings were considered so true to form. that between 1849 and 1880 the Governor of Ceylon employed them both to undertake a project to draw the moths and butterflies of the country from nature. They also went on to provide many other illustrations for authors publishing on the Lepidoptera of the time.

These watercolour paintings of insects were made by Sri Lankan artists William and George de Alwis around 1834.

Their drawings were considered so true to form that between 1849 and 1880 the Governor of Ceylon employed them to draw the moths and butterflies of the country from nature.

#InsectWeek

A cloth bound book. An illustration in gold foil depicts a cricket reading from a book surrounded by other insects, plants and a spider in a web.

#InsectWeek25 Day 3: Louise M Budgen

Louise M. Budgen published her book, Episodes of Insect Life, under the pseudonym 'Acheta Domestica'. She described the life-cycle and habits of insects through narrative tales. The binding, which is a beautiful example of Victorian blocked binding, shows a house cricket (Acheta domestic) reciting one of the tales.

This book by Louise M. Budgen, published 1849-1851 describes the natural history of insects through stories. Budgen wrote it under the pseudonym Acheta Domestica, the scientific name of the house cricket.

The Victorian blocked binding shows a house cricket reciting one of the tales.

#InsectWeek

painting of loch awe - A dirt track leads us into the picture across desolate moorland to a ruined castle that is set off by a backdrop of mist covered mountains. There is also a puff of smoke indicating a lone cottage in the distance

Horatio McCulloch (1805-67) died #OnThisDay in 1867. He was a leading Scottish Romantic landscape painter of the 19thC, whose paintings created a romantic Highland image of the country. By the time this was painted in the mid-1800s, a notion of "Scotland" was becoming synonymous with the Highlands.

black and white illustration of flowers with insects on them

graphic with insectweek25 day 2: maria sybilla merian

graphic with a flower with a butterfly on it

graphic with flowers and insects

Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) was the first woman to describe and study the life cycle and metamorphoses of butterflies and other insects. Her first book, The Miraculous Transformation and Unusual Flower-Food of Caterpillars contained over 50 plates, engraved from her own observations
#InsectWeek

photo of three moths with brown and cream spotted upper wings and orange and brown lower wings.

This #InsectWeek we will be highlighting insects from all around the collections.

These are cream-spot tiger moths, localised to southern England and Wales. Moths are normally thought of as only being beige but this is just one example of the beautiful colours they can be.

black and white photo of Aberdeen Harbour with lots of ships with tall masts

Aberdeen Harbour may look a bit like this again this summer with Tall Ships Races coming to Aberdeen!

Find out more about everything happening here: buff.ly/aXzoS0D

📷 GWW, Aberdeen Harbour from Dock Gates, c.1877, MS 3792/E0111

A man in a display case placing a whale jaw

Something doesn't look like it belongs there...

Here's a sneak peek behind the scenes at the installation of our whale jaw in the new @abdnartmuseums.bsky.social Monsters of the Deep: Science Fact or Fiction? exhibition.

Find out more about the exhibition: www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/AAGM/whats-a...