One day, back in the 1970s, John J. Borg went on a visit to the National Museum of Natural History with his primary school mates and their teacher.

He still cherishes the group photo they took on the stairs of the museum. But, surely, as he smiled at the camera that day, it never crossed his mind that the future would see him going up and down that staircase thousands of times or that, one day, he would be at the helm of that museum which this year is celebrating an important anniversary.

It was exactly 50 years ago that the National Museum of Natural History open­ed its doors at Vilhena Palace, in Mdina, where it still is today. The decision to house the museum there had been announced in 1966, when the palace had been closed for 10 years as a precaution, since it had previously been used as a hospital for tuberculosis patients.

This was the first time that a museum dedicated specifically to natural history was opened – in the years preceding World War II, the natural history collection was housed along with other collections at the National Museum, in Valletta. Unfortunately, during the war and the following two decades, when the natural history collection was stored at Casa Leoni, in Santa Venera, it was severely damaged by insects.

One of the halls at the museum.

The years of preparation leading up to the opening of the museum at Vilhena Palace were marked by the death of the person chosen to be the museum’s first curator – professor Harry Micallef – and then by the death of the person appointed in his place, Carmelo De Lucca. When the museum was officially open­ed, its leadership was entrusted to Joseph Vella Gaffiero, with George Zammit Maempel as assistant curator of geology and paleontology.

“In the initial years after its inauguration, the museum attracted many visitors,” Borg says.

“But things went swiftly downhill due to lack of foresight and the fact that the museum isolated itself from non-governmental organisations and other entities.”

Senior curator John J. Borg

Borg’s career at the museum started in 1999 as a museum officer, developing along the years as he became curator, principal curator and now senior curator.

“I remember when, back in the early days, we started to inspect all the showcases, whitewash the halls, clean all the artefacts, prepare new information panels and initiate a digital inventory accompanying data labels to identify each specimen.

“Once I took charge, I carefully analysed the collection’s condition and drew up a report on what needed to be done. I worked together with my small team to create new displays – such as the ones about the Maltese islands, about mammals and about skeletons – and to make them more informative.

Unfortunately, the true value of the National Museum of Natural History has not yet been recognised

“We also opened the museum doors to various non-governmental organisations working in the field of natural history and they started holding their meetings at the museum at a time when they had no offices of their own,” says Borg, explaining that, thanks to this collaboration, these organisations made several donations that enriched the museum collection with hundreds of thousands of specimens and publications.

Part of the museum's butterfly collection.

Examples of fish in a window display.

A beetle collection

Suffice it to say that the bird collection, which, in 1999, comprised some 1,700 specimens, now stands at 10,000  and the snail collection has grown so much that it is now made up of thousands. This giant leap forward, said Borg, is due to three main reasons: a strong publicity campaign in the early 2000s; the donation of Guido Lanfranco’s insect collection and of De Lucca’s butterfly and moth collection, both of which encouraged others to entrust their collections to the museum; and the change that occurred when items related to natural history that are confiscated by the court started to be passed on to the museum instead of being destroyed as was previously done.

Borg adds that the museum responds to every call it receives, even if there is a great possibility that the call will lead to a wild goose chase.

“One day, for instance, someone called to say that he had found some dinosaur bones. We were almost certain that our trip would bear no fruit but we went to the indicated spot anyway. Often, nothing comes out of these calls  but sometimes they do lead to interesting finds. For example, we once found a plant that had not been recorded in Malta for almost a century.”

Among other happy memories over the years, Borg recalls the discovery of collections thought to have been lost during World War II. Such a collection was the one comprising elephant and hippo bones amassed by Andrew Leith Adams and Antonio Annetto Caruana. No one knew what had become of this collection until it was discovered in the very same building that houses the museum.

The skeleton of a monkey on display at the museum.

Despite the hard work that has been carried out over the past few decades, Borg stresses that there is still much to be done.

“Unfortunately, the true value of the National Museum of Natural History has not yet been recognised. The prevailing mentality is that natural history is a child’s subject and we do not rea­lise that, in reality, natural history is at the core of everything that goes on around us – earthquakes, prehistoric structures, world food shortages, climate change and a multitude of other topics. Natural history opens doors to research into various sectors and can even help in the forensic field.”

One of the museum’s drawbacks is the building in which it is located.

“Vilhena Palace – with its small halls and narrow corridors – is not the ideal place to house the natural history collection, even though it is in Mdina, which, in itself, attracts thousands of tourists and potential visitors to the museum. To make matters worse, part of the building was allocated to the Mdina local council. Ideally, the museum’s surroundings would offer visitors the opportunity to see the ecosystem they learned about inside the museum in its natural state,” Borg says.

Exhibits of animal species.

His vision for the future of the museum is very clear in his mind.

“I would like the museum to be given the attention it deserves and that every section within it is curated by an expert in the field. Another wish of mine is to have halls clearly displaying the bond bet­ween mankind and nature and their mutual impact on each other. And I would love to start issuing a regular scientific research bulletin on natural history, as done abroad.”

The years at the museum’s helm, however, have brought Borg great satisfaction. He speaks with pride of the fact that the first compact shelving system within Heritage Malta was installed in this museum; of his participation in fieldwork in South America and numerous Mediterranean islands, among other countries; of graduates who conducted their research at the museum; of the museum being the most popular site among Maltese families with young children; and of the exhibitions organised very successfully along the years.

“I get quite emotional at the thought that we’re celebrating the museum’s 50th anniversary – a milestone that we are commemorating with a photographic exhibition and a book about how the museum started off 50 years ago and the long way it has come since then,” Borg says, visibly moved.

“I feel so fortunate to be able to do a job that is also my passion and to which I have devoted my life. I may not be physi­cally at the museum round the clock but my mind is constantly there. I never say that I’m going to work. I say that I’m going to the museum.”

Daniela Attard Bezzina is principal officer, communications, at Heritage Malta.