Dominika Pluta

The aim of the study was to analyse the content of museum labels from various periods in terms of their usefulness in creating new labels for exhibits included in museum collections. Nearly 5,000 museum labels from the years 1811 to 2017 were reviewed, for exhibits at the Museum of Zoology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, Herbarium of the University of Wroclaw, and the Museum of Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Wroclaw. On the basis of the collected information, an attempt was made to develop a ‘universal label’template, including a range of necessary information from the point of view of managing and maintaining the accessibility of the relevant collection.

opportunity to study major specimens from the past, bringing us closer to understanding these fundamental issues. Until the 1980s, studying objects from museums’ collections, concerning human, plant or animal evolutionary development, were conducted using methods based on anatomical or morphological findings. However, the results were often inaccurate and of solely theoretical value. The use of genetic methods including DNA analysis of museum objects has brought new perspectives for historians, archaeologist, anthropologists, and zoologists.  

The history of medicine presented in the source literature is not particularly interesting for today’s young adolescents. Showing it in a more practical and tangible way brings an excellent opportunity to spread historical knowledge. Medical museum studies – a specialist and still developing domain – serves this purpose very well. The results of scientific research performed before World War II – which do not meet ethical standards from today’s point of view – explored the nature of different pathologies of human body, and were preserved as formaldehyde preparations and stored in medical museums. The scientific progress in molecular biology which allows scientists to conduct genetic research of old and decayed exhibits, gives them a chance to explore mysteries of diseases and evolution of pathogens, essential to verify historical data.

People have always been interested in discovering their past and seeking answers to their existential questions. Therefore institutions like museums, which collect exhibits related to the history and development of humans, have been known since antiquity. However, museology today has changed and is no longer confined to establishments related to popular fields like painting, sculpture and archaeology. Nowadays, there are also museums dedicated to medical sciences, which present the history of humanity in the sphere of its biological development. The Medical University in Wrocław can boast of several such establishments, although so far they have been treated as separate institutions. For this reason, the idea was created to combine them all into a single museum route, and to make it available to a broader visitor base. Thanks to this, people can view items from old and modern medicine practice located in many different sites, allowing them to deepen their knowledge and expand their interests. To make it easier for visitors to navigate through such a diverse complex, a special museum path has been created, along with a description of each location.

Due to the uniqueness of wet museum exhibits, there is often a shortage of adequately trained people to carry out conservation work in museum units. Unfortunately, in many cases, the museum exhibits require immediate work. There is usually a visible loss of preservative fluid, or no fluid at all if it has evaporated. Moreover, chipped lids and damaged jars frequently occur. Some exhibit labels are damaged or torn off. Some items have been exhibited incorrectly, but when they are transferred to a new vessel or the fluid is replaced, they gain added value. Although there is a great need for conservation work, many museologists fail to carry it out. A significant problem is the absence of unified conservation procedures or guidelines which could be applied for these types of cases. This paper includes conservation formulas and recipes used at the Molecular Techniques Unit. The authors of this paper hope that it will be helpful to all those who deal with preserving wet museum exhibits.