The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) is dedicated to exploring the English countryside, its history, its people – and now bats. Their Twitter account, known for its dark, dry humor, tweeted out last fall that they had made a discovery in their rare book store that didn’t quite fall under the usual artifact categories. Hovering in the corner above the fire exit was an adorable, black bat that had wandered in accidentally – probably not to do some light reading. Fortunately for the small creature, the staff of the MERL was better equipped to deal with the animal than Dwight was on The Office. The staff phoned up Rose-Ann Movsovic, a retired librarian, MERL volunteer, and licensed bat worker. To the delight of the internet, the entire bat mission was live-tweeted in typical, entertaining MERL style.
Image credits: TheMERL
The rare book store is home to the MERLs Ladybird Books Archive, medieval manuscripts, our children’s book collection, and the WH Smith archive – all the topics that might interest a bat.
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
Image credits: TheMERL
