The Manchester Museum cares for over 1,500 specimens from the HMS Challenger (1872-76) voyage. These include birds, foraminifera, bryozoa, fish, molluscs, corals and geological samples.
HMS Challenger and the Manchester Museum
The museum is associated with 3 notable people from the voyage:
- Arthur Waters – a Cheshire-based naturalist, described many of the bryozoa found on the voyage. His collection is in the Museum, along with his ‘Challenger’ medal.
- William Hoyle, the first Director of the Museum, described the cephalopods of the expedition in the ‘Challenger’ reports.
- Frederick Pearcey – the youngest member of the scientific staff on board Challenger. He was recruited to work at the Museum during the 1890s.
In addition to specimens included on this site the museum also has many uncatalogued sediment samples, as well as foraminifera models and ‘type slides’ made by FG Pearcey.
HMS Challenger on display
The Museum has specimens from the voyage on display in the ‘Nature’s Library’ gallery. These include sediment samples, birds and even Arthur Water’s Challenger Medal.
About the Manchester Museum
The Manchester Museum is part of the University of Manchester. It has enormous collections covering both natural sciences and humanities disciplines, amounting to 4.8 million objects and specimens. In 1997 the collections were Designated as being of national and international importance. The collections can be searched online and include:
- Archaeology
- Archery
- Living Cultures
- Botany
- Egyptology
- Entomology
- Earth Sciences
- Numismatics
- Zoology
Using Manchester Museum’s data
Permission has been given to use specimen information and photos in accordance with the HMS Challenger Project IR Statement.
Contact
To enquire about the zoology collections please email Henry McGhie
To enquire about the geology collections please email David Gelsthorpe