Inside Dorset's County Museum

Museums no longer use stuffed animals to tell the story of natural history

In the back rooms of the Dorset County Museum there are hundreds of potential exhibits not on show to the public.

From paintings to preserved animals - many wait for their time on display.

Director of the museum Jon Murden says the fragility or light sensitivity of some of the items means they can only be on show for a limited time.

But a 'backstage' tour will open up these private stores to the public, giving a glimpse of some of the rarer items kept under wraps at the museum.

Mothballs

Inside what looks like a normal house, away from the main museum, is an unusual collection.

As if still in Victorian times, the room is full of stuffed animals and carefully collected insects.

It is filled with the strong smell of mothballs, and there are many rows of glass cabinets featuring preserved animals, all placed in 'rural' scenes to suggest their original habitat.

Museum director Jon Murden acknowledges it can be a peculiar experience: "A 100 years ago, taxidermy was the height of museum fashion, but today some do find it a bit weird and there are of course ethical issues.

"But they are important from a research perspective.

"These are examples of the species that were found in Dorset 100 years ago, and it is important for monitoring ecological change."

An albino otter: "Someone would have shot it and stuffed it," says Jon

Albino otter

One of the stuffed animals is an albino otter.

Jon said: "It was spotted as a curiosity. Someone would have shot it, mounted it and later thought the museum would like it."

Taxidermy is no longer appropriate for modern museum displays, and is no longer actively collected, but the exhibits are still worth preserving as examples of their time, despite today's different attitudes.

He said: "The way you tell natural history now is very different. You tell it now by 'hands on activities'.

"Also there are many international laws about what and how you collect for natural history displays.

"But although many people do find it strange, many people who come here find this really interesting."

Elsewhere in the collection there are some bird skins, near to a large swan covered in an acid-free plastic sheet to help protect it.

Jon says these skins were borrowed by Charles Darwin as he wrote Origin of Species, while working on his then controversial theory of evolution and the idea of 'natural selection'.

Jon says moth collecting would have been the hobby of a rich Victorian

Significant items

This is just one of many significant items that can be found in the storage rooms of the museum.

Among the museum's collection of 5,000 artworks, an original pencil drawing by renowned English landscape artist John Constable is preserved for history.

Jon explained: "For his honeymoon, he stayed at the Vicarage at Osmington.

"He did this pencil drawing of the landscape and apparently it's so accurate local farmers can still recognise the fields there now.

"He then went onto paint another version, as an oil painting, which now hangs in a London museum. But we've got the original."

"It's not the done thing"

It is not appropriate to ask about the financial value of any of the items.

Jon: "We don't think of our collections like that.

"Museums can't never sell their collections anyway, legally we can't.

"It's not the done thing to talk about [how much something is worth] but I always get asked.

Jon Murden says he loves collections, and working at the museum

"I just bat it away."

Jon is a former history lecturer and fascinated by Dorset's history.

He has been at the Dorset County Museum only for a few months, but is enjoying the job - and the national significance and influence of some of the museum's artefacts.

He said: "Only the British Museum, in my opinion, has got better collections in terms of archaeology.

"I love collections - and the chance to work with so many was what attracted me to Dorset.

"I want to maximise their potential and make things interesting for visitors."

More information on the Dorset County Museum website