A team of researchers and scientists at the University of Nottingham – brought together for their expertise in the field of heritage science, by £1.6m UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) grant funding – are to investigate the origins of one of Nottingham's much-loved exhibits.
'George' the Gorilla, a taxidermy specimen housed in the collections of Nottingham's Natural History Museum at Wollaton Hall since the late nineteenth century, is a familiar part of the city's cultural heritage, and a significant figure in the collection. But little is known about George.
Back in July, a team from Nottingham Materials and Environment Science and Heritage Laboratories (N-MESH) – a network of researchers, capabilities and facilities from across the University of Nottingham – led by Dr Holly Miller of the Department of Classics and Archaeology, visited the gorilla at Wollaton Hall.
N-MESH partner, Nottingham Museums and Gallery Service, asked the team if they could take samples, which led to the first stage in the collaboration that saw the experts shedding light on the origins and provenance of the taxidermy specimen.
This is just one of the projects that will be made possible thanks to funding from the AHRC through a 2023 CResCA (UK Research and Innovation Creative Research Capability) grant of £688k, and a 2024 RiCHES (Research Infrastructure for Conservation and Heritage Science) grant of £965k, which was announced on 1 October.
Curators at the museum had limited information on George's 'back story' other than he was one of the first gorillas to be brought to Western Europe and was purchased in 1878 at the Paris Exhibition by the then Nottingham Corporation – now known as Nottingham City Council. Questions have long-remained unanswered about George's geographical origin, with curators guessing him to be from West or Central Africa.
We had our ancient DNA team in to take some skin and hair samples from George. We've also had our proteomics team come in, who are looking at things like the proteins in his body which can tell us a little bit about his biological sex. We also have some questions about whether George is one individual or maybe a composite individual. It's very common in taxidermy - if the sample isn't perfect - to potentially use pieces from another animal. So, it's really exciting for us to be involved in this project using all the different techniques and capabilities to understand a bit more about him, because he's a bit of a legend in Nottingham."
N-MESH was launched a year ago to bring together a collaboration of experts in the field of Heritage Science, which bridges the gap between humanities and science. By linking different approaches and synergy, the researchers collectively give power to new insights into heritage science and humanities research.
Tom Hartman, a lecturer in the School of Life Sciences and an expert in biological imaging, was one of the N-MESH team to work on George. Using state-of-the-art facilities at the Nanoscale and Microscale Research Centre (nmRC) he recovered four hairs from the taxidermy gorilla at Wollaton Hall and prepared them for microscopy.
"There's not a lot published about gorilla hair, but I was able to locate a pretty good match using a scanning electron microscope. We also have several hairs from different taxidermy animals, kept in the School of Life Sciences in the zoology collection, and it does look like it's a hair from a primate from what we can see. We need the corroborations from the protein sequencing and the DNA analysis to give us a final answer, but just from the hair ultra structure it looks like we're dealing with a genuine gorilla."
The proteomics team led by Robert Layfield, Professor of Protein Biochemistry in the School of Life Sciences, looked at two types of samples for testing. Firstly, they took dental enamel extracts from George to look for evidence of X and Y chromosomes and find out whether the teeth that George has are from a male or a female individual. They then went on to look at the skin sample in the hope that by analysing ancient preserved proteins in the skin – called collagens – it may be possible to confirm that that skin sample taken is from a gorilla.
Finally, Dr Andrew Clarke, Assistant Professor in Archaeogenetics, also collected hair and skin samples from George. The skin samples are put through various purification steps to obtain a relatively pure DNA sample. From there Dr Clarke will focus on a set of mitochondrial genetic markers and use DNA sequencing, which should reveal something about George's ancestry. By focussing on mitochondrial DNA – which offers a higher success rate when working with ancient DNA – the experts can determine which population, or which sub-species of gorilla, George belongs to.
The fascinating project is part of the Nottingham Heritage Science Gateway, led by Dr Miller, which is one of 31 heritage science projects across the UK that will share £37m from the first tranche of funding through the AHRC programme, which launched on 1 October 2024.
The next stage of the project is to bring all the results together, and for the N-MESH team to present them to the Nottingham Museum and Gallery Service.
It would be very interesting to find out whether George is an Eastern or Western Gorilla, as both species occur in the area from where George may have originated. Both are today classed as Critically Endangered due to habitat loss, poaching and other factors. We would like to provide some information for our visitors on the work being done to conserve these gentle and intelligent primates - which are amongst our closest living relatives. It would be nice to illustrate this with photographs of the correct species of gorilla."
The collection of the samples and the initial round of tests sees the first stage of the collaboration underway to shed light on the provenance and origin of George and his mysterious past. The new discoveries will mean exhibition information can be shared about George at Wollaton Hall, offering visitors further insights into the famous exhibit along with learning about the fascinating heritage science techniques in action.
