On the 13th of August 2013, Dr Osamu Kamei Head, CTR of the History of Japanese Industrial Technology National Museum of Nature and Science (formerly, The National Science Museum) gave a talk Natural History Museum Materials as Cultural Assets as part of the Annual General Meeting of ICOM NATHIST in Rio de Janeiro.
The talk provided considerable personal insight into the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, as well as an opportunity to think about the place of natural history museums in responding to issues in the wake of a natural disaster.
In the presentation, Dr Kamei made the point that natural history museum materials should be on a par with fabricated objects in the consideration of protecting cultural assets. This resonates well with the Code of Ethics for Natural History Museums that was ratified at the same conference.
Download a copy of the presentation at the following link: Osamu KAMEI_ICOM2013_NATHIST