Authenticity in natural history collections

In most natural history museums, the total number of specimens in the collections significantly outnumbers those on display, making them valuable as behind-the-scenes research resources for scientific scholars. In contrast to museum exhibitions, where authenticity is a major element of visitor attraction, authenticity in collections is perceived differently: first and foremost, preserved specimens act as evidence of natural variation in time and space. Their non-interchangeability as biological individuals (identity) explains why they may serve a twofold function, a concrete one as individual voucher specimens and an ideographic one as representatives of abstract biological conceptions (e. g. type specimens). However, the authenticity and identity of a biological specimen are often largely congruent and only partly exclusive.