Researching our collections

In 2007 six researchers spent a summer of love at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, uncovering the love stories in our collections.

Their findings - presented as films, music and in writing - were used to create On the Pull.

On the Pull takes a look at love and attraction from coming of age to the thrill of the chase, when love goes wrong and the happy-ever-after in the main galleries at Brighton Museum from 14th February to 31st August 2008.

Researchers thoughts: Scandal and intrigue in suburbia

Researcher Gayle Dower looked at the scandalous world of blue tit courtship in her work on the Natural Science Collection.

Blue tits are cute little monogamous birds, right? Every spring males establish territories, agreeing real estate by squaring up in song, and if they're lucky attracting a lovely female each, whereupon they live happily ever after, right? Wrong, very very wrong.

For a start, they're all having affairs as soon as their partner's backs are turned. For any given clutch of eggs, chances are there's at least two fathers.

You can still call blue tits socially monogamous, that is, they live in pairs while breeding, and cooperate to bring up the young in their nest. But they certainly are not genetically monogamous.

Which means the choices blue tits make when finding a partner are a lot more complicated than previously thought, for both females and males.