Archival history
Our Country Lives blog [8 February 2016] - 'Written by Adam Koszary, Project Officer. // If you’ve been on the internet for the past few days then you may have heard about the mouse which died in our Victorian mousetrap. // We are very pleased and a little surprised to have gone viral, and since our original blog post have some updates on our rodent friend. For one thing, we think that the mouse is a she. Our conservator believes that she was trying to build a nest and while nibbling the label on the trap, the string attaching it to the object fell inside. Chasing the string, the mouse found itself trapped. // The trap itself operates by a see-saw mechanism in its middle, which allows a mouse to enter the trap but then finds the door has swung shut on it. The owner of the humane trap would then release the mouse afterward. As we don’t expect these traps to be working as mousetraps we don’t tend to check them regularly, hence the fact that the mouse sadly perished in this instance. // Its inventor Colin Pullinger operated what he called the ‘Inventive Factory’, which is where he designed the Perpetual Mouse Trap, his first commercial success. During his most productive period in the 1880s his staff of around 40 men and boys churned out 960 traps a week. // Pullinger’s presence in his hometown of Selsey is denoted by a blue plaque, but now his reputation has experienced a new boost, with many people online praising the effectiveness of his trap in the modern age. // In our previous post we were undecided on what to do with the mouse, but we have now decided to preserve it. The mouse was giving off quite a stink, which suggests that her death was fairly recent, and so was fumigated by our Conservator. // For now, her body rests in a small, tissue-paper tray surrounded by silica gel in a sealed plastic box. The silica gel will dry out the mouse and make it safe for display in our new galleries. The Museum is about to begin constructing our new displays, and it’s safe to say that this mouse will be front and centre. // And for those who have smelled a rat, we can categorically deny that we planted the mouse in the trap in order to gain this publicity. Not only does it go against every rule in Conservation and museum ethics, we don’t think any of our staff are Machiavellian enough to have pulled it off. // For an insight into why this mouse trap went viral, see our other blog post.' [http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/merl/2016/02/08/how-a-mouse-died-in-our-victorian-mouse-trap/], Letter, Oliver Douglas to Dennis Carpenter, 8 February 2016 - 'Dear Mr Carpenter, // As I’m sure you know, the Museum where I work has recently featured heavily on social media, prominent web-media outlets, Canadian radio, local radio, South Today, and BBC Breakfast with the news that I found a dead mouse in a trap in our reserve collection. As a result of this, your daughter Christine kindly contacted us to let us know about your family connection to maker of the trap. // Christine suggested that the trap may have been displayed at the Great Exhibition. It now seems likely that this must have been an earlier device as this particular design was registered a decade later in 1861. It was nevertheless exhibited extensively and seems to have been extremely successful. Given how effective it has proven after all these years, the trap clearly deserved to succeed. // If you are a web user you can see more about how this story emerged on our blog. Christine already has a copy of a mousetraps book by David Drummond. He was the collector whose traps we hold here at the University. His book features details of the success of your ancestor’s ‘Perpetual’ mousetrap. Christine thought that you might like a copy so I enclose one with our compliments and as a way of saying thanks to you both for bringing a modern voice to this unusual story. // I think we have decided that the trap should be placed on permanent display, quite possibly with the preserved mouse inside it. I hope you’ll agree that this is a fitting legacy for such a fine design. // With all best wishes, // Dr Ollie Douglas', Email, Christine Considine to MERL, 4 February 2016 - 'Subject: Colin Pullinger's mousetrap // I saw article by Hayley Campbell on the dead mouse in old mouse trap and thought you might like to see this. It is one of his business cards. He was my great, great grandfather & exhibited at the Crystal Palace in 1851. Sold 1.5 million around the world! I have all his legal papers too. My Dad will be thrilled to hear about this! // Best regards // Christine Considine.' [n.b. It is thought that other devices may have been exhibited at the Great Exhibition but this particular trap design was registered a decade later], Our Country Lives blog [3 February 2016] - 'After logging onto their computers today, staff here at the MERL were greeted by an unusual email from the Assistant Curator: ‘There appears to be a dead mouse in this mousetrap…’ it began ‘…which is not described as being there on the database.’ // So, this retired rodent had managed to sneak past University of Reading security, exterior doors and Museum staff, and clambered its way up into our Store. Upon finding itself there it would have found the promised land; a mouse paradise laid before it full of straw, wood and textiles. Then, out of thousands of objects, it chose for its home the very thing designed to kill it some 150 years ago: a mouse trap. // The trap itself was not baited, but this did not stop our mouse from wriggling inside and, finding itself trapped, meet its demise. The trap was manufactured by Colin Pullinger & Sons of Silsey, West Sussex in 1861. It is a multi-catch trap with a see-saw mechanism, and you can see its object record here. It is known as a ‘Perpetual Mouse Trap’ and proudly declares that it ‘will last a lifetime’. How apt. // Pests are, of course, a perpetual menace in any museum. Curators and conservators are always alert for the tell-tale signs of moths, beetles and rodents which feast on the organic materials we hold in store. Hygiene and regular cleaning are a first line of defence, as are glazed cases. Objects are also treated before storage or display to ensure anything lurking within is killed. And while our most vulnerable objects have always been cased – such as clothing and leather – the rest of our stored collection made of sturdier wood and metal was only fully glazed over last year. This mouse may have snuck into the trap before this glazing, or otherwise managed to get in while construction work has been carried out for the Museum’s redevelopment. // We have traps set for pests, but we can never catch everything all of the time. This mouse managed to sign its own death warrant before it could do any more damage, the extent of which was only a nibbled label. We will also have to determine whether this mouse was a scout or part of a larger family. Luckily, because the collection is heavily used it is often only a matter of time before any kind of infestation is noticed and nipped in the bud. This mouse was found when our Assistant Curator was in the Stores selecting objects for use in an interdisciplinary research session on the subject of 'Animals at Reading'. Our current MERL Fellow, Professor Karen Sayer, is also particularly interested in traps as part of her ongoing research into rats and pest control and regularly views our collection. // For the moment, however, the mouse remains in the trap while we decide what to do with it. One option is a dignified burial, another is to desiccate it or have it prepared to remain as a permanent feature of the mouse trap for our new displays. We’ll let you know what we decide.' [http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/merl/2016/02/03/155-year-old-mouse-trap-claims-its-latest-victim/], MERL miscellanous note - A dead mouse was found in this trap on 2 February 2016 by Dr Oliver Douglas, Assistant Curator of the Museum of English Rural Life. On 3 February 2016 this unexpected find became the subject of a post on the Museum's blog written by Our Country Lives Project Officer Adam Koszary. The story subsequently featured in numerous media outlets. See more recent Object History Notes above for further details., MERL miscellanous note - See Figure 7b, p.17, in David Drummond, 'British Mouse Traps and their Makers' (Dorking: Mouse Trap Books, 2008)., MERL miscellanous note - The 83 mouse traps and 2 mole traps in this collection were acquired by David Drummond during the course of his research into the history of mouse traps. David Drummond is a zoologist who spent much of his professional life in advice and research on the control of rodents. Since retiring as the Ministry of Agriculture’s Chief Scientific Officer in charge of the Central Science Laboratories concerned with Plant Pests and Diseases in 1988, he published many articles and books about mouse traps, their inventors and manufacturers, including ‘British Mouse Traps and their Makers’ (Dorking: Mouse Trap Books, 2008) [http://www.mousetrapbooks.com]
