‘Dedicated Naturalist’: Shackleton’s Penguin

Though the Explore Your Archive event at National Museum Cardiff last Saturday was about the Wonder Women of Wales (like our dedicated naturalist Dr Mary Gillham), the thing that initially attracted the attention of passers-by to our stand was this penguin. And it was every inch the star attraction.

It’s a King penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) that was presented to the museum by renowned Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. 

Standing around 90cms tall, the King penguin is a most impressive bird and proved taller than many of the small children who admired it standing proudly in its glass case. 

As the chart below, from Mary Gillham’s book Instructions to Young Ornithologists: IV Sea Birds (Museum Press, 1963) shows, the King is second only in size to the Emperor. 

Strictly speaking, it’s not actually an Antarctic penguin as it prefers slightly warmer climes and it breeds on the sub-Antarctic islands that are dotted around the globe below New Zealand and Australia, Africa and South America.

The Nimrod, Photographs of the Nimrod Expedition (1907-09) to the Antarctic, led by Ernest Shackleton; image dated 1908; source: Archive of Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. This image is in the Public Domain.

The penguin was collected on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1908-09 Nimrod expedition. In its archives the museum still has a letter about Shackleton’s gift of this penguin, sent to The Director of the National Museum of Wales on 17 March 1910 from the British Antarctic Expedition 1907 HQ in London and signed by Shackleton:

Dear Sir,

In reply to your letter of yesterday’s date, I beg to say that I have much pleasure in presenting a King Penguin to the National Museum for the Principality of Wales. I have instructed Messrs Rowland Ward, Piccadilly, London, to send one on to you.

Rowland Ward Limited was a well-regarded firm of taxidermists that processed many of the dead creatures that made their way back to Britain from world explorations of the Victorian era and later, and the company also specialised in game-hunting trophies and in manufacturing bizarre items made from animal off-cuts, like zebra-hoof inkwells. Perhaps surprisingly, the firm is still trading, though is now based in South Africa.

From left: Frank Wild, Ernest Shackleton, Eric Marshall and Jameson Adams, on their return to the Nimrod from their Antarctic explorations; Photographs of the Nimrod Expedition (1907-09) to the Antarctic, led by Ernest Shackleton; image dated 1908; source: Archive of Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. This image is in the Public Domain.

Have you worked out yet why we had Shackleton’s penguin alongside our stand at the Wonder Women event? Well, Shackleton and his crew aboard the Nimrod returned to Britain via the sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island, one of the places where King penguins live and breed, so it’s highly likely this penguin was collected during that stopover. And Mary Gillham was one of the first four women ever to enter the Antarctic region, spending a month on Macquarie Island over Christmas 1959 – New Year 1960. As well as studying Macquarie’s flora, Mary conducted scientific research into the island’s bird life including, of course, King penguins.

The Mary Gillham Archive Project will be blogging about Mary’s Antarctic adventures in December so keep an eye on the project website for those posts. And you can read more about this and the other penguins in the National Museum Cardiff’s collection here.

‘Dedicated Naturalist’: The story behind the story

Today marks the beginning of Explore Your Archive, a campaign co-ordinated jointly by The National Archives and the Archives and Records Association that ‘aims to showcase the unique potential of archives to excite people, bring communities together, and tell amazing stories’.

From my volunteer work on the ‘Dedicated Naturalist’ Project, helping to decipher and digitise, record and publicise the life’s work of naturalist extraordinaire, Dr Mary Gillham, I know from personal experience how exciting it is to read diaries about everyday life in my native New Zealand in the 1950s and how our work with Mary’s archives is revealing the amazing stories of her adventurous life.

So, to celebrate the start of Explore Your Archive, here’s my story of Mary’s story behind the newspaper story.

This newspaper article about Mary appeared in Britain’s Daily Mail on Friday 22 November 1957.

Dr Mary spends a fuming week-end

An English woman botanist returned to Tauranga today from a week-end spent in one of the world’s loneliest spots – a fuming island-volcano.

She is Dr. Mary Gillham, whose parents live at Ealing, W. She left England a year ago to study the effects of salt spray and seabirds on the plant life of the world’s islands.

She accompanied 19 Maoris to White Island, the crater of a volcanic mountain rising from deep water 27 miles from the coast.

The Maoris go there once a year to collect mutton birds (sooty terns), a native delicacy.
...

In her New Zealand diary, Mary records her meeting with the reporter:

Wednesday 20 November 1957

The boat nosed in, without tying up, heaving clumsily, and I leapt the gap while the pilot handed the luggage aboard. And so once more to Tauranga where the sub editor of the ‘Bay of Plenty Times’ awaited me on the wharf but missed me, coming instead to the Masonic Hotel at breakfast time next a.m. He had, however, been forestalled by his editor, Lachi McDonald, 20 years on the staff of the Daily Mail and their Far East war correspondent. The chappy came in and interviewed me at length just as I was finishing a session with Ken Fraser in the Masonic Lounge. It seemed that my adventures were front page news as (a) landings were only effected on White Island 4-6 times a year and (b) the Motiti Maoris were very conservative and seldom received a pakeha in their midst.

This additional note has been written in the diary at a later date:

McDonald cabled Daily Mail, London with my story and on 21 November my parents were visited for a photo. They gave me and the tuataras, and on 22nd I hit the British headlines and it seemed my acquaintances throughout G.B. buzzed with interest. Particularly topical as there were 2 BBC broadcasts on White Island that same week. Upshot: Letter from F. Muller, Fleet St publishers, saying they would publish a book of my travels if I cared to write on my return!!

As it turned out, the book, A Naturalist in New Zealand, was not published until 1966 and then by Museum Press in London, with a co-edition by Reed Books in New Zealand. Mary was on her way to becoming famous!

For the full story about the Mary Gillham Archive Project, check out our website, and follow our progress on Facebook and on Twitter.

Walking with Mary: Cwm George woodland

At the start of May, SEWBReC, the South East Wales Biodiversity Records Centre, issued a challenge. As part of the Heritage Lottery Funded project ‘A Dedicated Naturalist’, it asked the people of South Wales to take a walk with Dr Mary Gillham at one of the many sites Mary visited often and surveyed most thoroughly, Cwm George woodland at Dinas Powys. ‘Will you find as much as Mary? Has the species composition changed drastically? Can you add new species to the list?’, were the challenges they raised.

Always up for a challenge that involves a walk in a beautiful woodland, my friends and I went exploring. We were a great team: Emma, our fungi specialist (and her son, Callum, budding naturalist); Liam, our insect aficionado; Calum, the best plant-spotter I know; Cliff, our expert ears and bird whisperer; and me, knowing little about anything much but recording and photographing for posterity.

Emma soon disappeared into the deepest darkest areas of the woodland, emerging every now and then with a ‘Look what I found’. Liam scooped up beauties in his net and popped some into plastic tubes for closer examination – all got re-released unharmed. Calum pointed out wildflowers and nibbled at edibles, urging us to try a bit of this or that, and Cliff walked quietly ahead, listening acutely and watching intently. Little Callum beamed from ear to ear as he also caught specimens in his mini net, and, like the hoverflies that were prolific on the expanses of flowering Ramsons, I hovered here and there, trying to keep up with all that was happening.

Though we explored very little of its woodlands and meadows, Cwm George was glorious, and most generous with its offerings. And, though certainly not as extensive as Mary’s, we were very pleased with our final species list of 99 different types of insects, fungi, wildflowers, trees and birds.

Insects: Brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni), Orange-tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines), Small white butterfly (Pieris rapae), Peacock butterfly (Aglais io), Common carder bee Queen (Bombus pascuorum), Red-tailed bumblebee (Bombus lapidarius), Buff-tailed bumblebee Queen (Bombus terrestris), Tawny Mining Bee female (Andrena fulva), Ashy mining bee female (Andrena cineraria) (above, centre), Dark-edged bee fly (Bombylius major), Orange ladybird (Halyzia 16-guttata), Harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis), Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus), Hoverfly (Rhingia campestris), Hoverfly (Eristalis pertinax), Nomad bee male (Nomada lathburiana), Bee Fly (Bombyliidae), unidentified Weevil, Oak marble gall, another type of oak gall, Hoverfly (Syrphus ribesii), Ramsons Hoverfly (Portevinia maculata), Beetle (Cantharis pellucida) (above, left), Beetle (Sphaeridium scarabaeoides) (above, right).

Fungi: King Alfred's cakes Daldinia concentrica), Unidentified woodwort, Artist's bracket (Ganoderma applanatum), Jelly ear (Auricularia auricula-judae), Beech mast ascomycetes, Candle snuff (Xylaria hypoxylon), Dead Moll's fingers (Xylaria longipes), Red elfcup (Sarcoscypha sp.), Glistening inkcap (Coprinella micaceus), Turkey tail (Trametes versicolour) (above), Arum rust (Puccinia sessilis), Bramble rust (Kuehneola uredinis).

Wildflowers: Yellow Archangel (Lamium galeobdolon), Red Campion (Silene dioica), Hedge Woundwort (Stachys sylvatica), Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris), Herb Paris (Paris quadrifolia) (above, left), Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum), Bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) (above, right), Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium), Old Man's Beard (Clematis vitalba), Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis), Common dog violet (Viola riviniana), Wood Anemone (Anemone nemorosa), Primrose (Primula vulgaris), Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum), Wild garlic (Allium ursinum), Creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens), Meadow Cranesbill (Geranium pratense), Herb Bennett (Geum urbanum), Honeysuckle (Lonicera periclymenum), Jack-by-the-hedge (Alliaria petiolata), Opposite-leaved golden saxifrage (Chrysosplenium oppositifolium), Common sorrel (Rumex acetosa), Forget-me-not (Myositis sp.), Wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca), Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale agg.), Ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata), Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna), Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris), Cuckoo flower (Cardamine pratensis), Cleavers (Sticky Willy) (Galium aparine), Ground ivy (Hedera helix), Common vetch (Victa sativa), Wood spurge (Euphorbia amygdaloides), Bramble (Rubus fruiticosus agg.), Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata).

Trees: Beech (Fagus sylvatica) (above), Oak (Quercus robur), Hazel (Corylus avellana), Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), Ash (Fraxinus excelsior), Willow (Salix sp.), Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), Elder (Sambucus nigra), Wild cherry (Prunus avium), Field maple (Acer campestre).

Birds: Buzzard (Buteo buteo), Blackbird (Turdus merula), Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla), Blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus), Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula), Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs), Coal tit (Periparus ater), Dunnock (Prunella modularis), Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis), Great tit (Parus major), Green woodpecker (Picus viridis), Greenfinch (Chloris chloris), Robin (Erithacus rubecula), Song thrush (Turdus philomelos), Stock dove (Columba oenas), Woodpigeon (Columba palumbus), Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes).