Lorraine Cornish recently retired as Head of Conservation.
This blog looks back at her museum career, highlighting some of the amazing specimens she has worked on and the changes she has seen over time.
Lorraine helped to dismantle and prepare Dippy for a UK tour.
The Early Years
I joined the Museum in 1980 as an Assistant Scientific Officer. I was very relieved to have passed the interview process some months previously, as some of the questions seemed to focus on the limitations of me being a woman rather than my scientific qualifications. When they asked about what my fiancée thought about me working and any plans in the future around having children, I was not sure how to answer, so I evaded the question.
Lorraine started her career at the Museum in 1980.
One early memory from 1981 is of the celebrations for the centenary of the Museum being established at South Kensington. In an unusual step, the Scientific departments opened their doors to the public so they could go behind the scenes and learn more about the collections and the people who care for them. It was an exciting time with a Royal visit by Queen Elizabeth II and a staff party. Each staff member was given a limited-edition coin to commemorate the centenary, which I still have and treasure.
An emerging profession and unusual request
Lorraine in the conservation lab during the 1980s.
Natural history conservation was still developing as a profession in the 1980s, so back then, my work was of a more general nature, ranging from cleaning and preparing fossils for display to making moulds and casts of specimens. Over time, this changed, and there is now much more emphasis on understanding why natural history specimens deteriorate. Learning how to protect and preserve specimens for the future became increasingly important.
Sometimes, you were asked to do things that were slightly more unusual. One example of this is from 1984, when I was asked if I could help create content for one of the galleries about mammals in the water. This involved travelling to Rottingdean beach on the south coast one cold February morning with a museum photographer. Once there, I was asked to change out of my warm clothing and put on a fur coat over a swimming costume. Then I had to get into the water and look cold. As it was only just above freezing, it was easy to do as requested. That image was used in the Mammals Gallery and is still there today.
Lorraine in 2025 standing next to an image of her in the Mammals Gallery from 1984.
Favourite specimens and magical moments
I have worked on thousands of specimens over the years, each with a unique story, but I have four favourites that hold a special meaning for me.
Archaeopteryx lithographica is a small bird-like dinosaur and one of the Museum’s most famous fossils. However, back in 1985, an amateur group including astronomer Fred Hoyle and physicist Lee Spetner, published a series of papers claiming that the feathers on this specimen were forged and this claim made headlines around the world.
I worked with science colleagues to disprove this by making silicone rubber peels of the feather impressions and looking at them under a Scanning Electron Microscope. This contributed towards a paper published in the journal Science, which provided evidence that the fossil was real.
In 2009, I was asked to revisit this specimen to find a way to reduce the thickness of the heavy limestone block it was preserved in and rehouse the specimen in a new container, all without damaging the fragile specimen. This took a lot of care and attention to detail. The specimen was then placed on semi-permanent display in the Cadogan Gallery, which highlights some of the Museum’s treasures.
Lorraine has worked on the Museum's Archaeopteryx lithographic specimen multiple times throughout her career.
Dippy, the Museum’s iconic replica of a Diplodocus skeleton, first arrived in London in 1905 and was on display in various parts of the Museum until 2017.
As part of the Hintze Hall transformation, Dippy was dismantled and prepared for a UK tour. I had been involved in Dippy’s care since 1980 and led the team that dismantled and rebuilt Dippy at each of the eight venues, which included a library and cathedral. Dippy became an amazing ambassador for nature and was seen by over 2 million visitors, encouraging people to explore and cherish the biodiversity around them.
Dippy is still on display today in Coventry at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum.
One of the biggest and most enjoyable challenges of my career was moving the 25-metre-long blue whale skeleton from the Mammals Gallery and suspended her from the ceiling to create the new star specimen of the reimagined Hintze Hall. The project involved many teams over several years, and the work was featured in a BBC documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough, Dippy and the Whale. This move gave the Museum an opportunity to name her Hope, as a symbol of humanity’s power to shape a sustainable future.
Looking to the future
The conservation team are dedicated to protecting the Museum’s 80 million specimens, which form one of the world’s most important natural history collections. My advice to current and future conservators would be to keep on applying their skills and scientific knowledge to ensure the collections are preserved and accessible for future generations and not to give up.
Looking back over the past 45 years it is gratifying to see how conservation of the collections has become so necessary and relevant to the work of the Museum. Women in science are being fully recognised, and natural history conservators are now acknowledged specialists, which is something to be celebrated.
And finally, I have a small secret to share. If the skeleton of Hope were ever dismantled, those conservators of the future would find a tiny time capsule. It was gently place inside Hope’s skull when we installed her in 2017. Of course, only the original team knows the contents, and that shall remain a secret.
