#NaturesMemory
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jackdashby.bsky.social
ON THURSDAY I'll be at @linneansociety.bsky.social to chat about whether natural history #museums really represent nature, how they talk about their own [sometimes troubling] histories, & how they help save the world: the 3 themes of my book #NaturesMemory. Come!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/natures-me...
Nature’s Memory | Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums
Get an insider guide to the secrets of natural history museums, as we consider how they shape our society and relationship with nature.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 12:30 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
#OTD in 1858 a Malay teenager called Ali collected this bird-of-paradise for Alfred Russel Wallace & described its behavior. It led to the species' first scientific description. I wrote about how a far greater diversity of people deserve credit in the history of science in my new book #NaturesMemory
A black and white studio photograph of Ali, wearing a dark suit, waistcoat and light bow-tie, from 1862. A museum study skin of Wallace's standardwing bird-of-paradise. It is a thrush-size irridescent green bird specimen lying on its back, with two long white plumes alongside each wing. It is the "type specimen" (the specimen used to describe the species), at the University Museum of Zoology in Cambridge.
October 24, 2025 at 10:24 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Natural history #museums are magical, but do they really represent nature, or the people that actually built them? And how they can help save the world?
Can't wait to be chatting about my book #NaturesMemory at @linneansociety.bsky.social on 13th Nov. Come along!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/natures-me...
Nature’s Memory | Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums
Get an insider guide to the secrets of natural history museums, as we consider how they shape our society and relationship with nature.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
October 22, 2025 at 4:53 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
There's a special buzz when you spot your book in a #bookshop window! 🤩
I spy #NaturesMemory in @grovebookshop.bsky.social (ahead of my talk at @ilkleylitfest.bsky.social later)
The window display of the Grove Bookshop in Ilkley A close-up of the display, with Nature’s Memory at the front
October 18, 2025 at 1:35 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM FANS (and skeptics), if you're around #Yorkshire this weekend, I'll be speaking at @ilkleylitfest.bsky.social about #NaturesMemory: Behind the Scenes at the World's Natural History #Museums.
Book here: ilkleyliteraturefestival-tickets.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/...
The cover of Nature's Memory by Jack Ashby on the left, with a list of upcoming talks on the right, reading: Yorkshire: Ilkley Literature Festival, 18 Oct London: Linnean Society: 13 Nov Cambridge: Sedgwick Museum: 20 Nov
October 15, 2025 at 4:44 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
On Friday I was "in-conversation" with the outstanding journalist, writer & science communicator @zoekeansci.bsky.social at the #Hobart Bookshop, chatting about #NaturesMemory.
Huge congrats to Zoe: her book Why Are We Like This was described as the century's top nonfiction book by The Science Show!
Jack Ashby and Zoe Kean talking at the event in the Hobart Bookshop Jack Ashby and Zoe Kean having dinner. Jack is holding Zoe's book "Why are we like this". Zoe is holding Jack's book "Nature's Memory: Behind the Scenes at the World's Natural History Museums
October 9, 2025 at 6:22 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
I know it seems conceited to look for your own books in every bookstore you pass, but after all that goes into writing a book, there really is a sense of accomplishment when you spot them out in the world. Really thrilled to see #NaturesMemory, #PlatypusMatters & WILD all across #Tasmania & #Sydney.
A bookshop shelf display, showing Nature's Memory, with its cover facing out A bookshop shelf, including Platypus Matters A bookshop shelf, including Nature's Memory A bookshop shelf, including Wild: A Family Guide to the Animal Kingdom
October 5, 2025 at 6:36 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
I spoke to ABC Radio #Hobart about #NaturesMemory & life behind the scenes at natural history #museums, inc. what gets left off display, trends in taxidermy #thylacines & links between colonial violence in #Tasmania & museum collecting. From 2.10 (24mins from the end):
www.abc.net.au/listen/progr...
Jack Ashby outside a sandstone building with the ABC logo on it
September 30, 2025 at 11:28 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
TASMANIANS!
This time next week I'll be at The #Hobart Bookshop talking about #NaturesMemory: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums, in conversation with local author @zoekeansci.bsky.social.
It's free - come along. Book here:
www.trybooking.com/events/landi... #Tasmania
Author Event: Nature's Memory (Jack Ashby)
We are delighted to be hosting an in-conversation event to celebrate the release of Nature’s Memory by zoologist and writer Jack Ashby, joined by...
www.trybooking.com
September 26, 2025 at 8:03 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Australia did a pretty good job of recreating the Oxbridge vibe with the University of Sydney (but with extra sunshine). Looking forward to chatting about #NaturesMemory at the Chau Chak Wing Museum later, and for some meetings about potential #platypus collaborations! 😀
Jack Ashby stood in front of University of Sydney quadrangle - a nineteenth-century red-brick building
September 19, 2025 at 12:22 AM
learnfromnature.bsky.social
Looks great that NEW book of yours #NaturesMemory ~ as good as #Platypus Matters?? @jackdashby.bsky.social
March 7, 2025 at 10:57 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Big day... My book #NaturesMemory: Behind the Scenes at the World's Natural History #Museums is published TODAY.🤩
Over the last 20+ years of working in these incredible institutions, I've noticed some surprising things about them, and this book shares some of these "secrets", as an insider's guide.🧵
The cover of Nature’s Memory – a green snail shell on a black background
April 24, 2025 at 8:39 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Now it's PUBLICATION DAY, #NaturesMemory: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History #Museums is appearing in shops. 🤩
If you want to get your hands on a signed copy, there are a bunch here in our shop at @zoologymuseum.bsky.social in #Cambridge. (Remember, museum shops are the best shops)
Three books by Jack Ashby on a shop bookshelf: Platypus Matters, Animal Kingdom and Nature's Memory Piles of Nature's Memory, with an open copy in the centre being signed. Three skulls sit alongside
April 24, 2025 at 2:17 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
12. The final part of #NaturesMemory makes the bold claim that natural history #museums help save the world.
Chapter 9 shows how they are essential for understanding biodiversity. Describing species requires museum collections. Without knowing what species exist, informed conservation is impossible.
Jars of fishes labelled “Charles Darwin: Beagle Voyage”
April 24, 2025 at 8:39 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
It's unusual to find #taxidermy animals suckling (although it's a defining feature of being a mammal). It's not a coincidence that when it does happen, it's with rats: subconsciously highlighting their status as pests.🐀 The biased messages hidden in museum specimens is a key theme of #NaturesMemory.
A taxidermy rat at Kelvingrove Museum, with a large litter of babies suckling
June 20, 2025 at 11:58 AM
camglamresearch.bsky.social
we are in!
#GLAM #Whales #NaturesMemory
jackdashby.bsky.social Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · Mar 26
OTD in 1891, the #BlueWhale now hanging spectacularly in @nhm-london.bsky.social died after stranding in Ireland.
In #NaturesMemory, I suggest we can make a universal tour of natural history #museums. #Whales tick all the boxes for inspiring awe & wonder (but it's
crazy-hard to prepare & hang them).
"Hope" the blue whale skeleton hanging in the central hall of London's Natural History Museum.
March 26, 2025 at 2:25 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
On Tuesday I'm in #Cambridge chatting about my book #NaturesMemory with the brilliant Rebecca Kilner FRS. We'll be talking about the ways natural history #museums go about displaying nature, how collections were built, and how they can save the world. Come!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/natures-me...
Nature’s Memory: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums
An evening of conversation about the hidden stories of behind natural history museums, celebrating Jack Ashby's new book, Nature's Memory.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
May 1, 2025 at 2:09 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
I had a little chat with The Naked Scientists about why I wrote #NaturesMemory, and how natural history #museums shape our view of the natural world not just through science but also through politics, colonialism and culture. You can listen or read it here:
www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/int...
How natural history museums shape our view of the world
What they don't show is just as important as what they do...
www.thenakedscientists.com
June 9, 2025 at 7:32 AM
suecumbria.bsky.social
Absolutely great talk about #NaturesMemory at Keswick! So many revelations about natural history collections: I learnt a lot. And will be buying the book of course.
March 16, 2025 at 7:34 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
I'm heading back to Cheltenham Science Festival in June! I'll be talking about my new book #NaturesMemory: Behind the Scenes at the World's Natural History #Museums 📖(out April 24th).
🎟️Tickets on sale from April 23rd (or earlier for members)🎟️
www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/natur...
#CheltSciFest
Nature's Memory | Cheltenham Festivals
Take a behind-the-scenes tour through the world’s greatest natural history museums with zoologist Jack Ashby. Guiding us through a series of extraordinary
www.cheltenhamfestivals.org
April 5, 2025 at 9:47 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
When it comes to certain parts of anatomy, #museums have been deliberately teaching people the wrong thing.
Most #mammals have a bone in their penis but natural history museums usually remove them from display, as I told @iflscience.com (& wrote in #NaturesMemory):
www.iflscience.com/where-have-a...
The Surprising (And Very Unscientific) Reason Why Penis Bones Are So Rare In Natural History Museums
#NotAllMuseums (but a lot of them) seem have to banished the penis bone. Why?
www.iflscience.com
May 5, 2025 at 1:22 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Excited to be back at the BBC to talk on #BBCWomansHour about how displays of animals in natural history #museums can often say more about a society's biased view of gender than they do about natural history: one of the chapters from #NaturesMemory. I'm on around 1030.🤓
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Jack Ashby outside BBC Broadcasting House holding a copy of Nature's Memory: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums Two taxidermy birds of paradise, with the male mounted on top
May 28, 2025 at 8:49 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
It's the first #WombatWednesday since #NaturesMemory was published, and OF COURSE #wombats feature in the book:
💩In how the basalt columns of the Giants Causeway solved how #wombats make cubic poos.
👍As a good example of how to name animals.
🦖Why it's good that not everything in museums is "real".
Screenshot of a page in the book. It reads: These regular basalt columns are inspiring in more ways than one. In 2023, researchers realized that the way in which the volcanic lava had cooled to form the columns could solve the mystery of how wombats make perfectly cubic poos. The shrinking and regular fragmentation of faeces caused by the extraction of moisture in wombat intestines worked on the same principle as how the lava shrank and cracked as it cooled. Magondu, B. et al. (2023). ‘Drying dynamics of pellet feces’. Soft Matter, no. 19, 723–32. Screenshot of a page in the book. It reads: Taxonomic naming can be an act of colonization, as it often involves the over-writing of Indigenous names with ones that fit into Western scientific systems. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Although scientific names have to use Latin grammar, they don’t have to be Latin words, which allows for words from local Indigenous languages to form their universal scientific identities (indeed, this has been happening for centuries – for example Vombatus is the scientific name given in 1803 to wombats, which derives from their name in the Dharug language of the Sydney region; the letter W is not used in Latin). Screenshot of a page in the book. It reads: And at the end of the spectrum are entirely fabricated exhibits, like animatronic dinosaurs. Each step is more sensational than the last, and each is intended to increase the engagement and excitement of visitors. It is thanks to the shift along this spectrum that museums became attractions. My favourite exhibit at the Australian Museum is the massive life-sized model of Diprotodon, the largest marsupial that ever lived. This chunky rhino-sized relative of wombats pops up relatively regularly as a skeleton (or a cast of a skeleton) in museums across the world, but as it died out 50,000 years ago, there’s no chance of displaying a real taxidermy specimen. At the Australian Museum, the fluffy model communicates what the animal looked like whole, in ways that the skeletons can’t. It even has a baby poking out of its pouch to show us it’s a marsupial. But obviously, no part of this ‘specimen’ is real. Jack Ashby with the giant model of Diproton, the rhino-sized wombat relative
April 30, 2025 at 12:20 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Happy #InternationalMuseumDay! A day to celebrate the importance of #museums.
Below is a little thread about my brand new book #NaturesMemory, which sets out just how vital it is that we consider how natural history museums go about sharing stories of nature, and people 👇 #IMD2025
jackdashby.bsky.social Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · Apr 24
Big day... My book #NaturesMemory: Behind the Scenes at the World's Natural History #Museums is published TODAY.🤩
Over the last 20+ years of working in these incredible institutions, I've noticed some surprising things about them, and this book shares some of these "secrets", as an insider's guide.🧵
The cover of Nature’s Memory – a green snail shell on a black background
May 18, 2025 at 7:36 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Happy #EarthDay! Protecting the planet from harm is one of the most important things there is.
The collections in our natural history #museums are the world's best evidence for environmental breakdown and how to mitigate it. This is one of the key themes of #NaturesMemory, which comes out this week!
A collection of swallowtail butterflies, which are extinct in the UK except for one single site in Norfolk A child peers up at a dodo skeleton Seven extinct passenger pigeon skins The cover of Nature's Memory: Behind the Scenes at the World's Natural History Museum. It shows a bright green snail shell on a black background
April 22, 2025 at 9:40 AM