Curious Travellers

Poster for the art/science collaborative project 'On the Seashore', 10 November - 8 February, with a private view at 6pm on November 15th 2026

Yn falch ein bod wedi cydweithio gydag artistiaid yn yr arddangosfa hon, sy'n agor yn swyddogol heddiw yn Aberystwyth! / Very glad to have collaborated with artists in this exhibition, which officially opens today in Aberystwyth!

I had no chance to post about Friday’s fantastic Curious Collections conference for @curioustravellers.bsky.social, but suffice to say these chairs were full as we welcomed nearly 60 guests to @nhm-london.bsky.social for a packed programme on Thomas Pennant and the work (and future🤞) of the project.

A man in a grey jacket gestures at a screen, on which is a picture of a shell and the title "curious collections"

A final response from Prof. Jim Second (History of Philosophy of Science @cam.ac.uk), reflecting on the nature of historical collections in natural history museums.

Many more papers that can't be detailed here, a huge thanks to our hosts at the NHM (@nhm-london.bsky.social) and all our speakers!

A brightly coloured parrot with green blue yellow and black colouring perched on a leafy branch

In the last paper in this session, Hein Van Grouw (Senior Curator, Bird Group, NHM) investigates the possibility that the Eastern Rosella specimen donated from Pennant's collection was the type specimen described by George Shaw in 1792

A title image for 'Indian Zoology' with an illustration of a framed, swooping bird of paradise arching over a hilly landscape

Now Edwin Rose (@edwinrose.bsky.social) moves on to birds, and the original bird of paradise specimen that was illustrated for the title image of Pennant's 'Indian Zoology' - now present in the museum, with starling feet attached to replace the lost originals

Paul Evans and Zoe Hughes continue on Pennant's mineral and fossil collections at the museum - the latter catalogued as "Reliquiae Diluviannae, or Catalogue of such bodies as were deposited in the Earth by the Deluge"- a reminder that Noah's flood remained part of scientific enquiry in Pennant's era

Tom Cotterell describes Thomas Pennant's mineral collection, which was fought over between the London Natural History Museum and the recently-founded National Museum of Wales upon its donation to the former in the 1910s. The Welsh Museum got his son David's minerals (after much wrangling it seems!)

Natural history engraved plate based on an illustration by Moses Griffith, showing a "Puffin Auk" surrounded by details of beaks

Now Odile Kidd, artist at the NHM (@nhm-london.bsky.social), gives a fellow-artist's response to the work of Moses Griffith, the lower-class north Walian who worked as Pennant's primary illustrator

Steph also notes that some items in Pennant's collection are marked with red as 'type specimens' - that is, a specimen that provides a species with its official description

The importance of the owl in Welsh tradition @mxfrankduffy.bsky.social

From Mary-Ann Constantine and Steph Holt (@stephholtnh.bsky.social) we hear of the Duchess of Portland filching shell specimens, and the fact that not only Pennant's specimens but some of his specimen cabinets have made it to the Natural History Museum

Illustration of a small owl in the margins of an eighteenth century book, staring out at the viewer in profile with large yellow eyes

Followed by Liz Edwards from @yganolfangeltaidd.bsky.social telling us about the possibility that this illustrated owl - found by Pennant in a collection at Bryn-y-Pys - might have been one of his favourites, thanks to repeated appearances in his extra-illustrated books

For our first talk today, Alex Deans from @uofglasgow.bsky.social tells us about Thomas Pennants rather disappointed reaction to Caithness in 1769 - an "immense morass", though at least with "a few rows of tolerable trees" (!)

Conference Reveals Welsh Naturalist’s Major Contributions to London’s Natural History Museum The upcoming ‘Curious Collections’ conference at the Natural History Museum, London (November 7th) will shed new light on one of the oldest collections in the museum’s archives and explore the scienti...

A conference in London on 7 November explores the scientific legacy of Thomas Pennant (1726–1798) from Holywell, Flintshire - an internationally renowned naturalist whose specimens form a core part of the Natural History Museum’s collections. Read more here:
www.uwtsd.ac.uk/news/confere...

I'll pass this idea around, thankyou!

Conference Reveals Welsh Naturalist’s Major Contributions to London’s Natural History Museum The upcoming ‘Curious Collections’ conference at the Natural History Museum, London (November 7th) will shed new light on one of the oldest collections in the museum’s archives and explore the scienti...

We're looking forward to our conference at the Natural History Museum (@nhm-london.bsky.social) on Friday - read our press release to find out more!

A sequence of upright great auks, a black and white bird depicted in silhouette, are projected within eggs in a darkened room

"Pennant’s great auk reflects...a paradigm shift precipitated by the realisation that a species could vanish; and therefore that a ‘resource’ could in fact become exhausted and disappear altogether"

Artist Sean Harris on extinction and animation for our blog

curioustravellers.ac.uk/curating-the...

Too busy having fun to post - and @gillianobrien.bsky.social took better pics in any case - but great to catch up with @curioustravellers.bsky.social and other colleagues in North Wales last week #plasnewydd #llangollen #wales #research #ladiesofllangollen #HolyheadRoad

Curious Collections: Day Conference at the Natural History Museum Curious Travellers is a collaboration between the University of Wales Trinity St David, the University of Glasgow and the Natural History Museum, London, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. It studies the world of C18th travel and natural history through the works of Flintshire naturalist Thomas Pennant (1726–1798), whose multi-volume British Zoology, and Tours of Wales and Scotland helped shape public understanding of the habitats, cultures and histories of the British Isles. We are currently preparing digital editions of the Welsh and Scottish Tours and examining the valuable Pennant collections held at NHM. On Friday 7th November we are holding a day conference in the Natural History Museum exploring the connections between Pennant’s writings, the art-works he commissioned, his vast correspondence network and his specimen collections. We would like this to be a springboard for future cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional collaborations, so please join us for an invigorating day of presentations and discussions! Places are limited so please book by 30 October: a.elias@cymru.ac.uk (01970 636543) Short papers from the Curious Travellers research team and NHM curators, pairing specimens and archive material with research stories drawing on Pennant’s correspondence, travel writing and commissioned art-works. A session exploring intersections between natural science, cultural history and the digital humanities. A chance to see specimens from the Pennant Collection with items from Library and Archives, to talk to the team, and to see panels and creative work from the recent Curious Minds exhibition held in Selborne. A Future Directions panel exploring strategies for research development. Free lunch and a drinks reception (5.30pm-6.30pm).

Come join us at @nhm-london.bsky.social on November 7th for a day conference on the connections between natural history collections and enlightenment travel writing.

For more information, programme and registration details, follow the link!

curioustravellers.ac.uk/curious-coll...

Back to history today and a lecture for the Oxford History Faculty Environmental Humanities group on @curioustravellers.bsky.social and our Curious Minds: Thomas Pennant and Gilbert White exhibition. #HistoricalResearch #DigitalHumanities #ThomasPennanr #GilbertWhite @ox.ac.uk

Thoroughly enjoyed attending @curioustravellers.bsky.social ECR Day yesterday. Enjoyed listening to some amazing and thought provoking papers and presenting on Maria Graham’s South American travel writing

Second, Rhys Kaminski-Jones's 'Welsh Revivalism in Imperial Britain', in which Pennant features in a chapter on Enlightenment science, imperialism, and the image of the druid

First, Ffion Mair Jones's 'Thomas Pennant: Cysylltiadau Cymreig', published by @gwasgprifcymru.bsky.social

Two members of the Curious Travellers team will be launching books including Thomas Pennant at the Gorwelion Conference this week!

Very excited and grateful to have been given the chance to present at the ‘Journeys of Curiosity’ symposium, where I’ll be chatting a bit about curiosity, the sublime, and imperial anxieties in Romantic travel accounts of the Himalayas. Really looking forward to hearing all the other papers as well!

Curious Travellers are delighted to be partnering with the long-running Liverpool Travel Seminar to host an Early Career Symposium dedicated to ‘Journeys of Curiosity’

Bluecoat, Liverpool, 25/09. Free (including lunch), registration by September 19th

curioustravellers.ac.uk/journeys-of-...

You can learn more about Pennant's Greenfield and its connections to different forms of unfree labour in our project publications.

'Travels at Home' Exhibition Booklet:

shop.wales.ac.uk/product/trav...

Mary-Ann Constantine, 'Curious Travellers' (2024):

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Thomas Pennant's writings shed light on Welsh aspects of this "workhouse-plantation nexus" - in the Greenfield Valley in north east Wales, Pennant gives a whitewashed account of the conditions of child labourers, sent from distant parishes to work in the plantation-supplied cotton mills of Holywell

Had a wonderful visit to @nhm-london.bsky.social Tring last week to examine some of the bird collection compiled by the naturalist Thomas Pennant (1726-98) - a very rare surviving 18th century ornithological collection. @curioustravellers.bsky.social