Good things come in small packages: how to curate a micromount collection

In 2015, the Natural History Museum in London (NHM) received a donation of 2424 mineral specimens from the late Trevor Bridges (1935–2015) who was a chemist, mineral collector and prominent member of the Russell Society and the British Micromount Society. The bulk of this donation consists of micromounts, which are small mineral specimens that require a microscope for proper examination and are mounted inside a box. The small size of micromounts has many benefits: a large collection does not occupy much storage space, the minute crystals tend to be better formed compared to larger ones, and they can reveal a wealth of mineralogical information. Alongside the descriptive micromount box labels, Trevor’s personal spreadsheet database provides a wealth of mineral species and locality information, making this diverse British collection particularly scientifically significant and valuable. It is the first specific micromount collection curated at the NHM. Curation of this collection involved writing mineral descriptions, cleaning up specimen data for import into the collection management system (Axiell EMu), and devising creative methods to store almost 2000 micromount boxes of varying sizes in Bisley cabinets while balancing both specimen safety and browsability. This paper will explore how curation methods and approaches were continually tested and refined, and provide a statistical summary of this collection and its history.