Joanne Kaar’s portable museum about the Magellan Daisy and the whalers is now completed, see below some more information from Joanne about this work.
The stunning white flower, Senecio smithii (AKA Magellan Daisy) , a native of South America, is said to have been introduced to Caithness by whalers. It grows in abundance in Orkney and Shetland. It’s still a mystery.
Here us a link to Joanne’s Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joannebkaar/sets/72157624527770125/
This is a link to the sound which plays inside the box: https://soundcloud.com/joannebkaar/whalers-and-the-magellan-daisy
No sooner finished than it’s out and about………. the box will make it’s maiden voyage at next weeks conference in the Environmental Research Institute at UHI. Joanne delivers it to them in a few days. http://www.nhconline.net/nhconline/flow/
A handling exhibition, there’s lots of drawers to pull and flaps to lift each with nuggets info it’s more than just a box – includes info about Darwin and Fitzroy’s voyage on the Beagle (collecting Magellan Daisy and also the return of 3 Fuegians – the failed ‘Captains Experiment’), whalers, earliest pressed herbarium sheets of the Magellan Daisy collected in Caithness and now in the Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh, reference to the flower in Shetland, Orkney and much more.
Joanne is interested keen to have this work on display outside of Caithness. Do get in touch for more info and loan forms if it’s of interest.