Back in May you might remember us telling you about the Museum of the Year Photography Competition. Today, we are proud to announce that one of the ten finalist photographs is going on display in the Museum.

Visitors were encouraged to enter their photographs inspired by each of the ten Museum of the Year 2013 finalists. This photograph, by Oliver Hine, shows one of the jellyfish from our Aquarium. The judges selected this image to celebrate the Horniman's place as a finalist, as they felt it most creatively captured the spirit of the museum.

Unfortunately, Oliver's photograph didn't win the competition, but it's definitely a winner in our eyes and today it goes on display in the main museum building.

We interviewed Oliver to find out more about his photograph and how it felt to be exhibiting at the Horniman.

How does it feel for your photograph to be selected to represent the Horniman in the final of the competition?
It was fantastic to receive the news that my photo had been selected. The reaction from my friends and family was wonderful and since then I have found new confidence and enjoyment in my photography which I’m really pleased to be able to share with the Horniman, its visitors and supporters.

Your finalist photograph is going to be exhibited in the Horniman Museum. Have you ever had your work exhibited before?
Very recently one of my favourite photos, which won a competition with the photography society at my workplace, has been requested by some friends to display in their homes, but nothing like an exhibition at the Horniman!

How long have you been a photographer?
I’ve always had a camera but I took it up seriously with the purchase of my first DSLR 5 years ago.

What do you get up to when not photographing jellyfish?
This year will feature a lot of wedding planning as I am getting married to my beautiful fiancée Hanna next year! I am a software developer by trade and I have a few pet projects that I work on in my spare time. In terms of other photographic subject matter anything is game!

Are you a regular visitor to the Horniman?
We visited for the first time in April 2013 when I took this photograph.

What made you decide to photograph the Horniman?
I take my camera with me almost everywhere I go so I had it with me when I visited the Horniman. My fiancée Hanna pointed out the competition to me so I spent longer than normal hanging back taking photos whilst we were walking around!

The jellyfish are popular subject for photographers at the Horniman. What made you choose them?
The aesthetic simplicity and beautiful lighting of the jellyfish in their tank immediately drew my eye. I find jellyfish interesting from a scientific respect in that they function without a brain, heart or many other major organs we cannot imagine doing without but I imagine this allows them to have a very peaceful and serene life!

Were they particularly tricky to photograph?
The lighting in the jellyfish tank is particularly good, and the glass was nice and clean so the shot was relatively easy to take.

Did you have any specialist kit to help you get the shot?
Just my DSLR and 50mm prime lens!

How many shot did it take for you to get your finalist photograph?
I took about 8 shots of the jellyfish and chose based on the clean lines and razor sharp focus of the one I eventually entered.

Do you think you’ll be back to shoot more scenes at the Horniman in the future?
There are plenty of interesting exhibits we didn’t even have time to see on our visit, including the music section, so I’m sure I will be back in the future with my camera!

We look forward to welcoming back Oliver and his camera. View more of Oliver's photography on Flickr.

Don't forget you are free to take photographs to non-commerical use anywhere in the museum, so get snapping and don't forget to share the results with us in our Flickr group!

Back in April we held an intergenerational event exploring one of our Collections People Stories themes, Food and Feasting, in partnership with The Children’s Society Greenwich Intergenerational and Community Cohesion Project.

We have been working in partnership with this excellent project for a number of years, and wanted to host an event to raise its profile, while doing some intergenerational work on the theme of food and feasting.

Before the event we had a fun session at the museum to explore the theme. We looked at food-related objects and had some good discussions. We then sat down together to eat a hot lunch and carry on food-based conversations.

The event day was on 3 April and went down really well! Visitors enjoyed being encouraged by participants and artist Caitlin Howell to add to a huge rangoli made from spices, lentil and vegetables. It was great to see Steph, Nasra and Leoni chatting with members of the public.

Watch the time-lapse film Caitlin made of the Rangoli:

Other members of the project cooked food for visitors to try.

Monturayo made pap, fried yam, tamarind and delicious bean fritters. Georgina and Dorreen ran an object handling table (and persuaded people to try some bitter kola nut!). Muriel, Elle and Laura taught families how to make non-cook sweets.

A huge thanks to everyone from the Intergenerational Project for all their hard work.

Having reviewed most of the biological collections already during the Bioblitz, we have now started on the Geoblitz section of the project. Before we get to the very large palaeontology material, first the rocks and minerals have to be reviewed. Monica Price is our expert reviewer.

Monica has built up over 30 years of experience at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, managing the University’s internationally important collections of minerals, gemstones and meteorites.

Monica is interested in all aspects of mineralogy and mineral curation, publishing on a number of topics. Her particular area of expertise is in the identification of historic decorative stone. Her website for the historic Corsi collection, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, was launched in 2012 as a tool to aid identification of heritage polished stone.

Kathie and Jon visited us to review our mollusc collection a couple of weeks ago. They spent three days looking through our collection of shells and fluid specimens searching for Star material. The collection was found to have good data but further research is required before identifying specimens as such.

From finding a golden cowrie in our collection to sharing some fascinating history, Kathie and Jon did a great job. One such anecdote was about the Precious Wentletrap (Epitonium scalare): it used to be so sought after and rare in the 1600s that Chinese artisans would craft delicate fakes using rice paste. By the time the value of the shells plummeted in the 1900s, the fakes had become much more valuable since hardly any survived due to their fragility.

The rest of the invertebrates were also reviewed, this time by Roger. He looked through our collection of sponges, corals, starfish and crustaceans and although dried museum specimens don’t necessarily capture the dynamic nature of these creatures, some of them are still beautiful.

From finding a sponge illustrated for a scientific publication (known as a “figured specimen”) to gaining an overview of the collection as a whole, Roger’s three-day review went really well.

All the rest of the images from these Bioblitz reviews can be seen on Flickr.

Continuing the charms and amulets theme after our last blog post, Assistant Curator Tom talks about the work the Collections People Stories project is doing with our amulet collection, and the workshop we hope will help us learn more.

We have a collection of over 300 amulets from around the world. There is an enormous variety in our collection: we have objects ranging from an Anatolian nomad’s tent covered in amulets through to a single tiger’s tooth amulet from Bengal.

Some of our amulets tell very specific stories: we have several from the First World War. Combatants from Britain, France, Italy and Germany are all represented. What constitutes one of our war amulets varies a great deal, from a horse brass, to a dried bean, to a fragment of shell, but all communicate with unnerving intensity the fear under which their owners were labouring.

The immediacy of our amulets from the First World War contrasts with our collection from Ancient Egypt. These amulets were made by a society so temporally removed from our own that it is hard to imagine the lives of their bearers.

Other amulets are relevant in the present-day. Some of our Palestinian amulets, although well over a hundred years old, resonate with those who rely on amulets for protection in contemporary Palestine.

We are organising a workshop to try and gain better understanding of our remarkable amulet collection, drawing together amulet specialists from a variety of different backgrounds. The workshop will form part of our Health and Healing theme and we hope that we will discover new ways of communicating the different world views expressed by amulets.

The Lewisham Young Carers service is based just down the road from the museum in Forest Hill. They support young people who live in a family where someone is affected by a long-term illness or disability.

Over Easter holiday we had the 8-11 year olds and 12-16 year olds groups visit for workshops at the Museum.

As an introduction to the museum, members of the group selected an object from the Handling Collection that they felt represented themselves and then wrote a label for it. This activity is always a lovely way to find out things about each other and for individuals to think about what the things they are important to them.

On the final two days, we looked at some charms from the Lovett Collection.  The Horniman has hundred of Lovett charms from all around the world, and they are a great way of exploring our upcoming Collections People Stories theme, Health and Healing.

Using magnifying glasses we looked closely at the charms and tried to figure out what was on them and helped each other figure out what some things might mean.

This Greek silver amulet case doesn’t have much information about it but as a group we decided the figure must be St George. If you open it up, there is a dried plant – perhaps a herb or a remedy?

Scott selected one to look at that was a small horse-shoe charm with 1917 written on the back, and the word LOOS on the front. Victor got into looking at a blue glass ‘evil-eye’ charm and the small bubbles formed inside the glass when it was made. Chantelle selected a tiny charm with the number 13 on it – which she considers lucky.

We had some brilliant conversations about the charms – can you make your own luck? Do wishes come true? Should you be scared to break a lucky ritual that you have always done? What does religion have to do with luck? How can something become lucky? Which way up should you put a horse-shoe and why?

As a group we also discussed our own lucky charms that we carry around. Click on the images below to see some up close.

Thanks to all the young carers for making this a fantastic and fascinating event!

Last week, our sheep experienced an important moment in their lives: they were shorn for the first time. We popped down to the Animal Walk to capture the big day on camera, although we're not quite sure the sheep appreciated the audience.

Here's a reminder of what Ted, our Oxford Down sheep, looked like pre-shearing.

Animal Keeper Cat introduces Ted to Tom, assuring him our sheep are well-handled and promise to behave.

At first, Ted wasn't quite sure what to make of it.

But he soon settled down and let Tom do the tricky bits.

Oxford Down sheep are traditionally left with a 'top knot' of fleece. This distinguishes them from other breeds which might look quite similar once shorn.

These guys are next.

All done! Ted seems quite proud of his new look.

George inspects what he's sure used to be Ted. Maybe a little nervous that it's his turn next?

Tom also showed us how to roll up a whole fleece, using a twist to fasten it in one bundle.

The fleece will be washed, picked, carded, spun and finally knitted. We'll share the final product with you once all the hard work is done.

It wasn't long before we had three (slightly smaller) very sharp-looking sheep.

Thanks, Tom!

The Horniman Gardens Animal Walk will open this Summer. Before it does, you can still visit the sheep in their paddock next to the Pavilion building.

The Kakapo, a nocturnal and flightless parrot from New Zealand, has recently been voted the world’s favourite species on ARKive! This means a few people will be happy that we’ve just added one specimen to our Object in Focus loans scheme, making this species more accessible to other museums.

The Kakapo is the world’s heaviest parrot, a good climber, long lived and very rare. They’re also important from an anthropological point of view, as its skins and feathers have been used by Maori to make dress-capes and cloaks.

Kakapos are very popular with us at the Horniman, and we have a number in our collections. During the current Bioblitz review, one of our Kakapo skins was identified as a star specimen, showing its importance within our collection.

We now have a Kakapo available for loan as part of our Arts Council funded Objects in Focus project, which aims to increase access to our stored collections and strengthen partnerships with other museums.

This Kakapo is currently on loan to the Gloucester City Museum and Art Gallery, which is also hosting an accompanying talk about this loan on 6 June.

If you are interested in borrowing the Kakapo or any of the other objects from Objects in Focus, please contact Sarah Mahood.

This week we are joined by Roger Bamber who is reviewing our remaining invertebrate collections. We’ve already covered the insects and molluscs, but there are still many other groups of animals without backbones, including sponges, crustaceans and echinoderms.

Follow us on Twitter to see how it goes.

The Horniman Walrus has made his way to Margate to feature in the Hayward Touring exhibition Curiosity: Art & The Pleasures of Knowing at Turner Contemporary.

While many of you have been following his progress with our liveblog and on Twitter, Acapmedia have been filming the whole event. They've produced this fantastic timelapse film documenting the Walrus leaving the Natural History Gallery for the first time since 1901. 

The Walrus will be away until September, but until then you can visit the Natural History Gallery and leave a message for him on the Walrus Wall.