水運儀象臺

Water-powered armillary and celestial tower
(completed in 1993)

As Han Pao-Teh planned the Chinese Science and Technology exhibition in the museum’s third phase, he hoped to have a representative object symbolizing Chinese scientific and technological development. He decided to have the museum staff research and build a replica of a water-powered armillary and celestial tower. Based on Su Song’s treatise Xinyi Xiangfayao, written during the Northern Song dynasty, museum staff researched how to recreate this hydro-mechanical astronomical observation device. They then commissioned companies to produce the wooden frame, sculptures, armillary sphere, and celestial globe to complete the world’s first full-scale wooden working model of this device, which is of great significance to the history of science.
Process for producing a water-powered armillary and celestial tower replica:https://youtu.be/dXWgarb2Gs4

月球石(月岩)

Moon rock fragment
(entered the Museum's collection in 1994)

In 1969, Apollo 11 successfully landed on the moon and brought back 21.5 kilograms of moon rocks. Then US President Richard Nixon gave away fragments of these moon rocks as souvenirs of the first human landing on the moon. These fragments were presented to 135 countries and all 50 US states. One such fragment is in this museum’s collections. Gifted to the Republic of China in 1969, it was originally sent to Academia Sinica’s Institute of Physics. In 1994, it was given to this museum to be placed in its collections. Han Pao-Teh participated in the handover ceremony.

蓮華池桑寄生

Lianhuachi mistletoe
(entered the Museum's collection in 1994)

Han Pao-Teh had planned for an herbarium in the early days of the museum. Herbarium specimens make up the second largest category of items in this museum’s collection. After the herbarium’s establishment, thousands of specimens have been added every year since 1991, including that of Lianhuachi mistletoe collected from the oil camellia (bitter tea) plantation of the Lianhuachi Research Center in Nantou County in 1994. In 1996, Shau-Ting Chiu published a new species. It was the first holotype specimen collected by the museum staff. Chiu discovered this new species while studying the interactions between mistletoes and flowerpeckers and attempting to clear up the confusion among the genera Loranthus, Scurrula, and Taxillus.
This new species, named Taxillus tsaii S.T.Chiu, was published in the international journal Taiwania 41:164 (1996). The scientific illustration of the type specimen is a realistic representation of its morphology and size.

臺灣雲杉圓盤木

Taiwan spruce wood disc
(entered the Museum's collection in 2000)

Han Pao-Teh was committed to creating a national-class museum collection based on the goal to achieve international-class collection. In 1993, botanists from this museum began to establish a diverse collection, including liquid-preserved samples, tissue slides, and wood specimens, which were registered as TNMx in Index Xylariorum, a listing of institutional wood collections of the world. The wood collection database TNMx is the only one in Taiwan with herbarium voucher specimens. Among Taiwan’s forest products, Taiwan spruce wood is important for research and collection and this wood disc enhances the representativeness of this museum’s wood collection.
This Taiwan spruce wood disc, with a diameter of more than 150 centimeters, is the largest wood specimen in this museum’s collection. It is from the remnants of a tree that fell during Typhoon Herb in 1996. It came from the mountains of Tataka in Yushan National Park at an altitude of 2,600 meters above sea level, which marks the warmest boundary of the world’s spruce forest distribution. It is the best-documented and largest Taiwan spruce natural specimen in Taiwan and can be used for climate-related research based on growth rings. The physical specimen can be viewed in the Nature’s Wonderland exhibition gallery.

大村鯨

Omura’s whale
(entered the Museum's collection in 1992)

This adult whale was caught in the waters off southern Taiwan in October 1990. It was transported by local fishermen to Houbihu Port where it was cut up and prepared to be sold at auction. However, before that could happen, the pieces were confiscated by police in accordance with the Act on Wildlife Conservation and donated to this museum. Upon initial inspection, it was thought to be a humpback whale. As it was in a state of decay and covered in maggots, it was decided to bury it in an unused area of the museum construction site. The following year, in September, it was excavated to produce a skeletal specimen. In addition to the skull, the skeleton included the lower jaw, the vertebrae, and front fin bones, with preparation work completed in 1992 and the skeleton placed in the collection storage area. In 2003, Japanese cetologists, including Yamada, Wada and Oishi came to this museum to conduct research and identified this as Omura’s whale based on the morphological characteristics of its skull. The preservation of this specimen is an important milestone in cetacean research. It is not only a reference specimen for identification of and research on Omura’s whale, but also the first specimen of Omura’s whale from Taiwan.

臺灣寬尾鳳蝶

Broad-tailed swallowtail butterfly
(entered the Museum's collection in 1993)

The broad-tailed swallowtail butterfly (Papilio maraho) is endemic to Taiwan and listed as a category I endangered species by the Ministry of Agriculture. This butterfly species has a wingspan of 9-12 centimeters and particularly broad hindwing tail extensions, with two veins extending to the tips of the tail extensions. These are the main characteristics of this species and from where it gets its common name. Males and females appear similar in terms of coloring and markings. The main host for the larvae is the Taiwan sassafras (Sassafras randaiense), a rare and endemic plant in Taiwan. The occurrence period of adults is April to August. Their distribution is mainly in the mountains of central and northern Taiwan at elevations of 1,000-2,000 meters, from Taiping Mountain and Wumao Mountain in Yilan County and Sanxia in New Taipei City in the north, eastward to Yuli and Fuyuan in Hualien County, and southward to Tengzhi in Kaohsiung City, the southernmost point.

漢氏草蜥

Takydromus hani (Green grass lizard)
(entered the Museum's collection in 1998)

This species was discovered in central Vietnam during a collaborative collection trip between this museum and the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources of Vietnam in 1998. On this expedition, led by then-deputy director Wen-Hao Chou, the team came across a beautiful green grass lizard that had not yet been described. Their findings were published in the journal Herpetologica in 2001, making it the 17th species of the genus Takydromus. Takydromus hani is emerald-green. Its snout–vent length is 5-8 centimeters and its tail can exceed 20 centimeters in length, which is more than three times its body length. It has 6-8 pairs of femoral pores, far more than the 1-3 pairs of other known grass lizards. Chou named this newly discovered species of grass lizard after the Museum’s founder and first director, Han Pao-Teh, to commemorate Han’s contributions to NMNS.

自然金標本

Native gold specimen
(entered the Museum's collection in 1992)

Under the encouragement and strong support of Han Pao-Teh, the Geology Department has been sending representatives annually to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in the United States since 1990, to select mineral and fossil specimens. These acquisitions have significantly enriched the museum’s collection with numerous exquisite and geologically significant pieces. This dendritic native gold specimen, acquired at the 1992 Tucson Show, is now one of the treasured items in the museum. The specimen is very pure with a bright golden-yellow color, weighing 470 grams. It originated from the quartz vein of the Eagle’s Nest Mine in California, USA.

武梁祠石刻拓片

Wu Liang Shrine stone rubbing
(entered the Museum's collection in 2014)

In 2014, Han Pao-Teh donated 79 rubbings of carved stone surfaces from Wu Liang Shrine, a Han dynasty tomb and an important archaeological site in China’s Shandong Province, to this museum. The carved stone images depict mythological stories and historical events, as well as provide insight into the lives of the nobility. Shown here is one of these stone rubbings. The upper section depicts Guan Zhong shooting the son of a duke named Bai. The middle section tells the story of Jing Ke’s assassination attempt on the king of the Qin state. The lower section shows Nuwa and Fuxi holding a compass and a ruler, which together symbolize harmony between power and order.

賽夏族肩旗

Saisiyat tribe clan banner
(entered the Museum's collection in 1992)

In the indigenous Saisiyat language, a clan banner is known as kirakil.Kirakil are seen during ceremonies known as paSta’ay. Males of each clan carry a clan banner as they enter the ceremonial grounds, jumping and parading around, symbolizing that the spirits of the ta’ay have arrived and are enjoying a good time with the members of each clan. During the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945), dance caps were worn on the head. Over time, they became too large and heavy and were replaced with banners carried on the shoulder. Following the ceremony, decorations, such as mirrors and beads, can be kept for making clan banners for the next ceremony. However, the frame, paper strips, and other materials must be discarded in a remote place, where they cannot be found and used for another purpose. This clan banner is from Wufeng Township in Hsinchu County. It was specially made but not for ceremonial use.

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