Natural world
As part of World Museum Liverpool’s regeneration programme, a new herbarium was created in 2002 to house our extensive and internationally important botany collections.
The collection of over 350,000 specimens had for many decades been held in the Upper Horseshoe Galleries of the museum. These had once been used as public galleries. During Second World War the museum was badly damaged. Although the galleries were rebuilt, from then on they were used for collection storage and offices.
The Horseshoe Galleries before the war
As part of the National Museums Liverpool Into the Future project, the Upper Horseshoe Galleries have been returned to their intended use as public display spaces. They now house the World Cultures gallery, which opened in 2005. Creating this gallery meant a new home had to be found for the herbarium
In autumn 1999 the entire botany collection was packed and moved off-site whilst work took place. The specimens were removed from their cabinets and packed into over 2,000 cardboard boxes. These were then stored in a warehouse.
To remove any risk of bringing infested collections into an environmentally controlled area, the collection was sterilized by deep freezing. Each pallet of boxes was sealed in polythene before being placed into a 12m freezer trailer. They were then frozen for a week at a time at -25ºC. The freezing took 3 months to complete. The collections remained sealed until the new facilities were ready.
New draw storage
The collections returned to the museum in February 2002. The new facilities, based in the Sir Richard Foster Wing, now include:
Improved storage in the new herbarium
For more information about the new herbarium, or to make an appointment to use the facilities, please telephone (0151) 478 4216