Field/Online Collection(s):

-Botany, Entomology, Ichthyology, Non-Insect Invertebrate, Ornithology

 The Albany Museum is an affiliated research institute of Rhodes University. The Museum today consists of a family of six buildings as follows:

• the Natural Sciences Museum with these departments -
  • Botany
    • Selmar Schonland Herbarium (plants) - the herbarium houses just under 200 000 plant specimens, making it the 4th largest herbarium in South Africa and the 9th largest on the whole African continent. Taxonomic coverage is broad, and although the majority of specimens are Angiosperms, the herbarium has a very large collection of algae. A computer database of botanical data and specimen records is being developed, and is available online to any computer registered user through the Rhodes University computer network system but is not yet available to outside on-line users.
    • Range and Forage Institute (Agricultural Research Council)
  • Earth Sciences (palaeontology, geology)
    • The Palaeontology Collection consists of c.5000 fossil specimens and is perhaps the oldest in South Africa (started in the mid 19th century). The material is largely South African with good coverage of vertebrates, invertebrates, plants and trace fossils of varying age. Of particular interest is the recent addition of Devonian fishes, plants and invertebrates collected from a local Witteberg Group fossil site on the outskirts of town. These fossils have provided a better understanding of the biodiversity and geological setting of a Devonian estuary which was situated in the vicinity of Grahamstown 360 million years ago. The collection also comprises mammal-like reptiles, fishes and plant fossils collected from the Permian and Triassic beds of the Karoo. Research on Early Cretaceous dinosaur fossils is currently being undertaken on material excavated from the Kirkwood Formation of the Uitenhage Group (Algoa Basin) exposed in the Bushmans and Sundays River valleys in the vicinity of Port Elizabeth.
  • Entomology (insects) - The collections number c 250 000 specimens, the majority of which are pinned. Some 14 000 specimens of Thysanoptera are slide-mounted. The largest collection is that of aculeate wasps and bees, numbering c 160 000. The provenance of the specimens is in the main southern African. Some exotic material is included, most notably aculeates from Arizona and Australia. The established field of research of the department is the study of aculeate wasps and bees.
  • Freshwater Ichthyology (fishes) - The collection comprises 14 200 accessions which total some 250 000 specimens, mostly stored in alcohol. Type specimens are housed separately. There is a growing collection of early life history stages of fishes which includes eggs, embryos and larval fish. These are all well documented with drawings and photographs, an essential prerequisite, in view of the dynamic nature of development. To supplement the wet collections there are skeletal, x-ray and colour slide collections. Copies of original collection sheets are also maintained and the entire collection database is computerised.
  • Freshwater Invertebrates (insects, crustacea, snails, worms) - The collection holds in excess of 1.5 million specimens including over 1000 primary and secondary types. It comprises ethanol preserved specimens in small glass-vials, stored in more than 4500 sealed glass jars; pinned specimens of selected adult insects in unit trays stored in 160 drawers; microscope slide mounted specimens and a photographic record of selected specimens and sites sampled. The collection provides historical records of species with some material dating back to the 1930's. Information on more than 120 000 accessions is recorded in hand written catalogues and on a computer database for ease of access. Several card index systems allow access to publications and specimens, and rapid identification of species from diagnostic drawings.
  • Higher Vertebrates (birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibia)
    • Birds - The Museum houses a comprehensive collection of southern African birds dating back to the 1880's. The study skin collection comprises c. 3845 skins representing 619 different species with raptors well represented. In addition there is a growing number of wet specimens, skeletons, nests and a good audio and visual (photographic slide) collection. A small collection of exotic birds, mainly in the form of mounts, is also maintained and is used for display, education and comparitive purposes.
  • Archaeology
  • Genealogy
  • History
  • Historical Anthropology
    
    
• the History Museum,
• the Observatory Museum,
• Fort Selwyn,
• the Old Provost military prison and
• the Drostdy Arch.
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SOUTH AFRICA: