A Fortean encounter with a Merman

This Thursday (31st May), Ross MacFarlane (Research Engagement Officer, Wellcome Library) and Paolo Viscardi (Curator, Horniman Museum) will again sink beneath the waters to explore the murky worlds of mermen and mermaids.

They'll be speaking at the monthly meeting of the London Fortean Society (from 8pm, The Bell, 50 Middlesex Street, London, E1). Their talk will be structured around specimens collected by Henry Wellcome, with details of recent research into their construction and provenance carried out at the Horniman and Buxton Museums. They'll discuss the origins and evolution of mermaids and the fakery, misidentification and publicity that has shaped our understanding of these fascinating, if fishy, fabrications.

More information is available from the London Fortean Society website.

Merman resurfaces in Regent's Park

After a recent sighting in Bromley, a merman once owned by Henry Wellcome, and now in the collection of the Horniman Museum, is making an appearance north of the Thames at the headquarters of the Royal College of Physicians, beside Regent's Park in London.

As part of this loan, next Tuesday 20th December sees a free lunchtime event at the Royal College of Physicians, Fakes, Forgeries and Quacks. The event will consist of two talks: Ross MacFarlane, Wellcome Library, will place the merman in the context of Henry Wellcome's wider collections and Paolo Vascardi, Horniman Museum, will trace the history of mermaids and reveal a tale of fraud, bankruptcy and shipwrecks.

The event starts at 12.30pm and will last just over an hour. No booking is required and directions to the Royal College of Physicians are available from their website.

Image: A grotesque mermaid, amidst luxurious cushions and drapes, and framed by two shells. Coloured lithograph by E. Purcell, 1822 (Wellcome Libary no. 3332i).

A Merman comes ashore in Bromley

This Saturday (5th November), Wellcome Library Research Officer Ross MacFarlane will join Paolo Viscardi, one of the Horniman Museum's Natural History Curators, at the Bromley Musuem, Orpington, Kent, on "a voyage of discovery across oceans, through time and into the realm of the merman".

The free event, which begins at 11.30am, ties in with the temporary loan of the merman to the Bromley Museum from the Horniman. Before entering the Horniman's collections, the Merman was previously owned by the Wellcome, being purchased for Henry Wellcome in 1912.

For those wishing to join Paolo and Ross on their journey into the cultures and contexts of mermen and mermaids, more details on the event are available from the website of the Horniman Museum.

Image: Merman, Horniman Museum. Photograph by Heini Scneebelli.