8 Days - December 14, 2017

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8 DAYS

what they never taught you in school

You’re not just looking at rocks, fossils and bones when you

visit the Treasures of the Natural World exhibition, where over

200 specimens from the Natural History Museum (NHM)

in London are on display. NHM’s lead interpretor SUSAN

HOLMES spills the secrets behind the ancient specimens.

museum

WHO IS SHE: Susan Holmes, 38, lead interpretation

developer at the Natural History Museum. She’s

responsible for selecting over 200 items from the

London establishment’s 80mil (!) specimens for the

ongoing Treasures of the Natural World exhibition at

the ArtScience Museum. Little wonder the selection

process took about a year. “It was about making sure

each object really tells an important story. So [each

item] may have a cultural relevance, changed our

understanding of the natural world, or is of continuing

scientific value. Lots of objects have more than one

story attached to them,” Susan quips. Here are some

fascinating stories to know so you can sound smart as

you schlep around the exhibition.

A night at the

This lion sculpture

has a socio-historical

significance. This magnificent

ornamental structure (left)

was displayed on the parapet of

the museum’s garden in South

Kensington until the 1980s. “The

design of the museum in London

is a bit like a cathedral, but a

cathedral to nature. It’s covered

with a terracotta of animals — one

side is of living creatures, and

another side is of things that are

extinct,” Susan explains.

PHOTOS MARINA BAY SANDS

This 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummified

cat holds a secret of the museum. “The

Natural History Museum used to be part of

the British Museum. To represent the fact

that we split into separate institutions [in

1881], all the animal mummies went to the

Natural History Museum, while all the human mummies

stayed at the British Museum.”

This

‘rock’,

which is

really the

pelvic bones of

an iguanadon,

changed

the English

language.

“[Famed 19th

century English paleontologist and naturalist] Sir

Richard Owen was the one who [first] gave dinosaurs

their names. The first dinosaur discovered was