Natural Heroes

Number of items in the collection: 36 items
Venues where material can be listened to: Record Office, EMOHA
Media available on: CD.

This collection was created in 2007/8 as part of Leicestershire County Council's Community Heritage Initiative. Natural Historians were interviewed with the idea of collecting information about the county's natural history collectors; when an archive holds specimens, manuscripts, notebooks, photographs etc. it is important to know something about the people who collected these things.

The 36 interviewees vary from photographers and sound recorders through experts on animals and plants, to farmers trying to conserve natural history on their farms, to people who have been instrumental in organising societies and associations. Subjects covered were family, education, career, associates, natural history, achievements, and archives. One of the recordings is of celebrated local naturalist Jack Otter (d. 2003), and was donated to the collection by friends.