Home / Heritage Digital Microscopy / Materials and partnerships

Materials and partnerships

We have conducted research on artefacts and materials in a plethora of museum collections across the UK and the world, including museum collections in the Americas, Australia, and Europe.

The materials we study include but are not limited to:

  • animal materials like feathers and featherwork, tortoise shell, deer antlers, leathers and skins, animal-based adhesives;
  • plant materials like historic botanical specimens, moss, seeds, soils, resins and adhesives;
  • body-related materials such as hair, wigs, and hair embroidery;
  • artworks, including drawings, engravings, etchings, paintings;
  • metals and metal craft products like gold smithery or jewellery;
  • ceramics;
  • parchments, papers, and manuscripts, from late antiquity to modernity;
  • pigments, especially of historic inks;
  • textiles, including linen, wools, silks, and velvets, as well as embroidery, lacework, bobbin work, thread analysis including composite metal threads, and the analysis of dye techniques.

Composite metal thread of a clerical vestment from Renaissance Spain seen under the digital microscope. 37.68 m of metal wire had to be twisted around a silk fibre core to produce one metre of composite metal thread. The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, T.8043.1. © Stefan Hanß.

Optical effects of iridescent colours in Guyanese featherwork, seen under the digital microscope. Detail of Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge, MAA E 1902.219. © Stefan Hanß.

Plied gold metal threads with floss silk cores applied at the brims of liturgical fabrics (franjas), seen under the digital microscope. The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, T.8037.2. © Stefan Hanß.

Ink analysis of a Visigothic manuscript. The John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Latin MS 89. © Stefan Hanß.

Metal thread embroidery techniques, seen under the digital microscope. The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, T.8043. © Stefan Hanß.

Microscopic ink analysis of The John Rylands Library, University of Manchester, Icelandic MS 2. © Stefan Hanß.

Working with such a rich diversity of materials, we have also engaged in policy work to enhance professional heritage digital microscopy practices. In collaboration with the German Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM), we have established the UoM Special Collections’ first protocol for the microscopic analysis of historic inks, which served as the foundation for similar heritage digital microscopic research at other institutions such as The National and University Library of Iceland.

Photographs taken with our digital microscopes are available on online collection databases and/or stored object files at the following museums:

  • Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
  • Hispanic Society of America, New York
  • John Rylands Library, Manchester
  • Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart
  • Manchester Art Gallery
  • Manchester Museum
  • McGill University Library & Archives, Montreal
  • Museo de América, Madrid
  • Museo Nacional de Antropología, Madrid
  • Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas, Madrid
  • Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge
  • National and University Library of Iceland, Reykjavík (Landsbókasafn Íslands – Háskólabókasafn, Lbs-Hbs)
  • National Museums Liverpool
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  • The Whitworth, Manchester
  • Victoria & Albert Museum, London

The Bodies, Environments and Material Culture Collective’s heritage digital microscopy activities have brokered strong partnerships with museums and Special Collections in Manchester and across the world; artisans and artists in Central America, Europe, and the UK; as well as research institutes in Australia, Canada, Europe, the UK, and the US.

We have also conducted consultancy work, using our digital microscopes to analyse museum and special collections artefacts in Canada, Iceland, and the UK. Such work has also featured in exhibitions like:

  • Ancient Textiles from the Andes, The Whitworth, 03–09/2019
  • Albrecht Dürer’s Material World, The Whitworth 06/2023–03/2024
  • Executions, Museum of London 10/2022–04/2023

Albrecht Dürer’s Material World © The Whitworth, The University of Manchester. Photo David Oates Photography

Albrecht Dürer’s Material World © The Whitworth, The University of Manchester. Photo David Oates Photography

Albrecht Dürer’s Material World © The Whitworth, The University of Manchester. Photo David Oates Photography

Albrecht Dürer’s Material World © The Whitworth, The University of Manchester. Photo David Oates Photography

Ancient Textiles from the Andes, The Whitworth © Stefan Hanß

Albrecht Dürer’s Material World, The Whitworth, The University of Manchester. © Stefan Hanß.

The University of Manchester