Sir John Murray's H.M.S. Challenger Sedimentary Deposits Collection at the Natural History Museum, London

Abstract

The Natural History Museum holds 4,718 bottles, tubes, boxes, and slides containing sediment and derived preparations from 80% of the 504 listed marine collecting localities of H.M.S. Challenger (1873-1876). The sediment collections include manganese nodules, pumice, and various marine vertebrates and invertebrates, predominantly the Foraminifera from all the major oceans of the world. A complete online database of the collection is presented for the first time to include all of the associated collecting and preparation data from the oceanic dredges, trawls, soundings and anchor mud collections alongside a set of previously undocumented shallower water collections that were not included in the Challenger Deep Sea Deposits Report of Murray and Renard (1891). The dataset allows assessment of various other Challenger sediment derived collections dispersed worldwide in museums and private collections. A historical account of the collection follows; collecting and studying onboard, studying in Edinburgh post cruise, donation by Sir John Murrays family to the British Museum (Natural History) and accounts of the collections historical housing at the museum. The historical context and presented dataset are intended to aid future users of the collection to select suitable materials for study or display. A review of previous scientific and exhibition uses of the collection is followed by suggestions for the future in terms of storage and potential for illuminating the debate on anthropologically driven climate, biodiversity and atmospheric changes.