Guest editorial : the hidden collection

In the course of interactions with professional and amateur collections and collectors alike, I have become increasingly conscious of the fact that collections hold much more than collectors recognize. In institutional collections, the discovery of new species or the detection of new properties such as compositional or structural variations makes this obvious. Museums frequently give material to bona fide researchers for more detailed studies. The ‘hidden collection’ of the private collector, on the other hand, in many cases remains concealed from the view of even its owner. However, a few simple guidelines will serve to reveal the hidden collection and to enhance the specimens in it.