Guest Blog
Monthly Archive: December Gues
A Spotlight on Illegal Pelt Trading, and What the ROM Has to Do With It
![A look into the ROM mammalogy collections. Photo by Matt Jenkins Tags on confiscated furs within the ROM Collections. Photo by Matt Jenkins](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/matt_jenkins_rom_blog-1_title_shot.jpg?itok=Wq9o5SH0)
Guest blog post by Environmental Visual Communication alumnus Matt Jenkins.
Celebrating its centennial birthday this year, the ROM has always stood as a place of education, family enjoyment and research. That is why I found it surprising that the ROM identifies nearly one quarter of its roughly one thousand pelts as ‘seized’ or illegal. Fear not though, as I learned, they are at the museum with the proper permits and have actually played integral roles in assisting the prevention of illegal pelt trading.
Unfrozen in Time: From the Erebus and Terror to the ROM
![Watercolor of the grave of G.S. Malcolm A.B., who died of frostbite during the search for Franklin. Photo by Dorea Reeser Watercolor of the grave of G.S. Malcolm A.B., who died of frostbite during the search for Franklin. Photo by Dorea Reeser](https://www.rom.on.ca/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/blog_post/thumbnail/dorea_reeser_botany_adam_white_scrapbook_15.jpg?itok=jASmIHuI)
Today’s blog post is a glimpse of a tale that is largely untold. It is the story of the exploration of the Canadian Arctic, as seen by Adam White in his botanical scrapbooks. These scrapbooks were donated to the University of Toronto, and came to the ROM together with what is now the ROM’s Green Plant Herbarium. What do these scrapbooks have to do with Franklin, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror? It’s a fantastic story!