Mummy’s micro morsel discovered in museum’s tiny treasure trove

Stored in small, wooden trays, the collection is thousands strong and is being painstakingly reviewed as part of a volunteer project.

And remarkably, the piece of bread is not the only astonishing miniature marvel found during the work.

Another slide contains a mote of dust from the infamous Krakatoa volcanic eruption of 1883, one of the most destructive events of its kind in recorded history, which was so loud it was heard more than 1,900 miles away.

The miniscule speck itself landed on the deck of a ship called the Arabella, which was sailing 1,000 miles to the west of the Indonesian island.

Specimens of microscopic sea creatures found during one of history’s most renowned and influential scientific voyages are also among the amazing array of slides.

The HMS Challenger left Sheerness on the north Kent coast in 1872, embarking on an unprecedented mission to circumnavigate the globe and comprehensively explore the deep seas for the first time.

Returning three and a half years and 68,890 nautical miles later, the crew had gathered marine plants and animals, sea-floor deposits and rocks from the depths which completely changed scientific understanding of the oceans.

Examples found in the Leeds collection today include small disc-like fossils called orbitolites, which were gathered 18 fathoms down off the coast of Fiji.

Also part of the collection is a fully miniaturised late Victorian copy of The Times, with all 12,500 words shrunk down to a size where they can only be read with the aid of extreme magnification.

The slides are now in the process of being carefully catalogued by volunteer Stephen Crabtree, who initially began working with the museum to study fossilised plants.

His studies soon revealed a hoard of historical treasures, with slides created by noted Victorian microscopists including James Lomax, Walter Hemingway and James Spencer.

Clare Brown, Leeds Museums and Galleries’ curator of natural sciences, who has supervised the slides project, said: “What began as a fairly routine cataloguing exercise has slowly uncovered a remarkable archive that includes of some of the most important moments in scientific history.

“Discovering a morsel of ancient Egyptian bread was particularly surprising, and the fact we can connect the Leeds collection to bread baked thousands of years ago on a different continent is fascinating.

“We don’t know exactly how or where many of these slides were collected, but we do know that each one of them was meticulously preserved for study and posterity by a diligent microscopist more than a century ago.

“That in itself is evidence of how important they thought these specimens were and how much they wanted future generations to see and be inspired by them. We’re extremely grateful to them, and to Stephen for following in their footsteps and rediscovering their work all these years later.”

Once the collection has been documented and photographed, the aim will be to add it to a national database so it can be viewed and accessed by academics, experts and the public.

Councillor Salma Arif, Leeds City Council’s executive member for adult social care, active lifestyles and culture, said: “Leeds has a truly world class museum collection and it speaks volumes about its quality and scale that we’re still making such amazing discoveries today.

“Our museums play such an important part in preserving history and heritage so that visitors have the chance to learn, and engage with it for many years to come.”

The Leeds Discovery Centre is open to the public for free, pre-booked visits. For more information, please visit:  https://museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk/leeds-discovery-centre

ENDS