Shirehall Study Centre

We are looking for a volunteer to help us digitalise our collection of Margaret Fountaine's journals.

The Fountaine-Neimy collection is a world-renowned collection of over 24000 worldwide butterflies collected between 1892 and 1940. The collection is a result of Margaret Fountaine and her partner Khalil Neimy who travelled around the world collecting and breeding specimens. Most of the collection being bred from eggs or caterpillars leading to exceptional condition. There are also 5 types in the collection. Researchers from all over the world come to see this important collection.

In addition to the collection the museum also holds the 12 journals detailing Margaret Fountaine’s life from the age of 15 until her death in 1940. Margaret Fountaine bequeathed a sealed box with instructions to not open until 1978 exactly 100 years after she started documenting her life. The journals are an important insight into Victorian collectors and more specifically female Victorian collectors. 

What's involved?

This role will help make these sociologically significant literature be more accessible to researchers and the public through digitisation.

Main Duties:

• Digitising the remaining 7 volumes of Margaret Fountaine’s journals. 

• Taking images of individual pages

• These images will then be combined to form PDFs of the different volumes.

• If time allows and the volunteer is keen, trying to create accessible formats of the journals using AI transcribe functions could also be added to the project. 

The duties will be completed under the guidance of Dr Tony Irwin, Honorary Research Associate and Dr Leanne Melbourne, Senior Curator of Climate change and the Dynamic coast. 

This role will take place on Fridays, 10am-1pm, based at Shirehall Study Centre.

Volunteers will need to be over 18.

Why get involved?

This is a fantastic opportunity to gain hands-on collections experience and experience using collections management software.

This role would be suitable for someone:

• Interested in natural history, butterflies and historical collections. 
• Who has good computer skills and has an interest in digitisation and photography

How to get involved?

• Sign up or Log in
• You will need to complete an application form and provide references.
• There will be an informal interview