British Naturalists’ Association Encaenia
Saturday 12th September 2026
The British Naturalists’ Association was founded in 1905 and promotes education, study and research in all branches of natural history through events, publications and field work, but has not had any interaction with the Quekett in recent years. This year, as part of their annual Encaenia in the Natural History Museum, BNA member Roy Stewart ran a microscope workshop in the Angela Marmont Centre. To expand on this, we were invited to put on a microscopy display in the Nature Activity Centre, where BNA members gathered for coffee and tea on arrival, and again for lunch.
Quekett members Stephen Durr, Pam Hamer, Robert Ratford and Alan Wood brought along microscopes, laptops, specimens and literature to interest BNA members.
We had some interesting conversations with BNA members and with the other exhibitors.
Robert Ratford, Stephen Durr and Pam Hamer
Alan Wood brought his trinocular Olympus SZ4045 stereo microscope, some prepared slides, and his laptop with a PowerPoint slide show of photographs that Quekett members have taken through their microscopes.
Slide show and stereo microscope
Microscope slides
Honeybee worker mouth
Foraminiferous sand from Dog’s Bay
Robert Ratford brought a small digital microscope with a built-in screen, and some butterfly wings. Alan took a couple of the wings home so that he could photograph them:
Underwing of Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)
Underwing of Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)
Pam Hamer brought a selection of the Club’s free leaflets and specimen copies of the Bulletin and the Journal. She also brought a laptop with a slide show about the Club, one of the Natural History Museum Pocket Microscopes, and some magnifying attachments for mobile phones.
Leaflets, Bulletins and Journals
The BNA borrowed two Adonstar digital microscopes with built-in screens from the Museum. These were an improvement over the common ones, with a larger screen (10.1″), a metal focusing arrangement, and moveable lights.
Adonstar digital microscope
We shared the Nature Activity Centre with the Linnean Society and the Society for the History of Natural History, and a BNA member had a display about hoverflies (Syrphidae)
Society for the History of Natural History
Report and photographs by Alan Wood