Te Papa contains about 1.5 million natural history specimens. Many of these have been gifted by donors with some 16 000 people collecting specimens for Te Papa. Research Associate Peter Beveridge has donated over 6000 specimens to Te Papa, with his first donation more than 70 years ago. Science Researcher Lara Shepherd, Collections Data Manager Gareth Watkins, and Curator Invertebrates Phil Sirvid discuss Peter Beveridge’s contribution.
Research Associate Peter Beveridge (91) has donated many thousands of plant specimens to Te Papa’s collections over the last couple of decades, mainly mosses and liverworts. However, his first donation was in 1948, as a 16 year old! Peter donated a false scorpion (Austrochthonius mordax), which he collected from the Tararua Ranges, to Te Papa (then known as the Dominion Museum). This false scorpion remains in our spirit collection and Peter was recently reunited with it before his imminent move to Christchurch to be closer to family.
Cultivating an early interest in nature
Growing up in Eastbourne with Butterfly Creek nearby, Peter developed an early interest in the bush and its wildlife. He joined the East Harbour Junior Naturalist Club as a schoolboy and started pressed plant and invertebrate collections. He even constructed his own lamp heat system, which along with a sieve, he used for separating invertebrates from the leaf litter.
Peter turned his interest in biology into a career, initially working as a biology teacher, followed by working in the Education Department, and then as an education consultant. Following his retirement, he began volunteering at Te Papa’s herbarium, our collection of dried plant specimens. He first focused on mosses before shifting his to liverworts. This led to him describing several new liverwort species whilst in his 80s.
An impressive specimen tally
In total, Peter has collected 6413 specimens for Te Papa and, apart from the false scorpion, all are plants. This impressive total ranks him as the sixth most productive collector for Te Papa’s herbarium. Peter’s collecting span is particularly impressive (71 years: 1948–2019) and surpasses such scientific heavyweights as Sir Charles Fleming (62 years: 1922–1984) and former museum director John Yaldwyn (62 years: 1936-1998).
Checking our collection records
To confirm the timespan Peter had been collecting, Collections Data Manager Gareth Watkins used a small Python script to loop through the 330,000+ collection event records associated with our specimen records held in EMu, our collection management system.
Each collection event record contains the year the specimen was collected, the name of the collector(s), plus other important information. For each collector, the script captured all of their collection years. It then identified the earliest and latest dates and calculated the timespan.
Not only did this confirm Peter’s extraordinary collecting journey, but it also helped identify some data issues with a small number of collectors. For example, one collector had apparently started collecting in the year 197 and ended collecting in 1985 – a massive 1,788-year commitment!
These type of data requests and querying our collections data from a variety of angles help us find and correct issues. As Gareth notes, our collections data is never static and is continually being updated and improved upon.
Bon voyage Peter!
Peter’s thousands of specimens are important records for understanding where our native species occur and will be useful for future researchers. We wish Peter well for his move to Christchurch and are grateful for his contributions to Te Papa’s natural history collection. We are hoping for at least one more specimen this year from Peter to increase his collecting span to a whopping 76 years!
More information about Peter’s achievements at Te Papa
- How a retirement hobby has led to an expert eye for liverworts | Te Papa’s Blog
- A new liverwort species for Wellington | Te Papa’s Blog
