"Antarctic Smells” Removed

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31760, 17 August 1968, Page 20

"Antarctic Smells” Removed

“Antarctic smells” had been removed from an interesting collection of clothing and equipment now on display in the Canterbury Museum, the Director (Dr R. S. Duff) assured the Museum Trust Board

The relics of seven out of 10 men, who survived for 20 months and two Antarctic winters at Cape Evans when Shackleton’s ship Aurora was

blown out to sea on May 7, 1915, were recovered from Scott’s Discovery expedition hut, where the men sheltered, in 1963-04 and presented to the museum recently by Mr R. B. Thomson, Director of the Antarctic Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

Dr Duff's allusion to Antarctic smells arose from the saturation of some of the clothing with seal oil. When this was delivered to the museum, staff found the stench unbearable.

The honorary curator of Antarctic relics (Mr B. Norris) took the gear to his home at Sumner, Dr Duff said. When he hung it on the line to air, neighbours also “wondered." The material is now in the special display at the museum entrance where new accessions are often shown.

.Exotic Plants.—A temporary display of 46 water-colour paintings of unusual botanical specimens, done by Mr G. M. Gee of the Christchurch Botanic Gardens staff, has been mounted in the museum. American Mammals.—Better specimens of North American mammals, acquired by Mr R. J. Jacobs during his visit to the United States, have been placed in the hall of biology. They include an adult female mountain lion (puma), two puma kittens, and a grey squirrel, from the Milwaukee Museum, and a beaver from the Denver Natural History Museum. From Hyderabad.—Mr Mandalupu Basava Rao, acquisitions officer for the Salar Jung Art Museum of Hyderabad, India, is spending three weeks at the Canterbury Museum on a Colombo Plan visit He is a specialist on Chinese porcelain, Indian applied arts, and illustrated manuscripts. His museum is named after a former Prime Minister of Hyderabad, whose extensive collection came under public control in 1951.

Mrs Deans’s Machine. A small hand-operated sewing machine, dated 1853, which was used by Mrs Jane Deans at Riccarton, has been presented to the early colonists’ collection. School Cases.—Two new miniature displays, completed for dispatch to schools, are

“Maori Weapons” and “Spotted Shags and Their Habitat.” Another on a Maori meeting house is being made while staff await better weather for collecting insects of the bush. Obituary. Tributes were paid to the late Mr J. C. Holliss, a board member for 13 years, first as a local body representative and then as a university representative, and to the late Dr H. Turner Jennings, a founder and committee member of the Friends of the Museum and supporter of philatelic collections.