“Lucy” Up Close

2020 ◽  
pp. 128-165
Author(s):  
Kathleen C. Oberlin
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Human Origins ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
Field Museum ◽  
History Museums ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Creation

How did Answers in Genesis make particular decisions about what to display in its exhibits at the Creation Museum? This chapter hones in on the ‘Lucy’ exhibit, the Australopithecus used to depict human evolution and our common ancestor, to examine how Answers in Genesis constructs a plausible counterclaim and compellingly depicts this to visitors. Unpacking the materiality of objects in a contested exhibit affords a close up understanding of how a group attempts to make ideas and objects credible—what techniques do they use and how do they accomplish a plausible ‘look and feel.’ The Creation Museum is compared to three natural history museums across the US that feature Lucy in its human origins exhibits: the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Field Museum, and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC. Throughout this comparative work, this chapter underscores how mainstream institutions vary in their approach and anticipation of challengers like AiG.

Creating a Deep Past for a New Nation

2020 ◽  
pp. 210-245
Author(s):  
Michael D. Hattem
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
British Imperialism ◽  
American Antiquity ◽  
History Museums ◽  
The Creation ◽  
New Republic ◽  
New Nation

This chapter explores the ways in which Americans sought, created, and promoted a “deep national past,” or American antiquity, for the new republic. The first half of the chapter explores how the use of Columbian, biblical, and epic symbolism all contributed to Americans’ sense of a past deeper even than that of the colonial period. The second half of the chapter explores the nationalization of both natural history and the indigenous pasts of Native Americans and their expression in the nation’s first natural history museums. The creation of a deep past grounded both in myth and the land was—like the simultaneously reimagined colonial past—part of a broader attempt to establish cultural independence from Britain, in this case by fostering a sense of national origins that transcended British imperialism and the British past altogether.

On the Species of Philonthus Stephens (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae: Staphylinini: Philonthina) in the Collections of Romanian Natural History Museums

2012 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-276
Author(s):  
Melania Stan
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Alien Species ◽  
New Record ◽  
Palaearctic Region ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
History Museum ◽  
Distribution Maps ◽  
History Museums ◽  
History Of

Abstract 57 species of the genus Philonthus were identified in the collections of four museums of Romania: Brukenthal National Museum, “Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History, Museum of Natural History of Iaşi and Museum of Oltenia, Craiova. Philonthus wuesthoffi Bernhauer, an alien species from East Palaearctic Region, is a new record for the Romanian fauna. Except for Philonthus pyrenaeus Kiesenwetter, the species treated here are in the Romanian fauna and presented with their distribution maps. An identification key for Romanian Philonthus species found in the studied collections is also provided.

Establishing vertebrate paleontology at Chicago's Field Columbian Museum, 1893—1898

2000 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL D. BRINKMAN
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Natural History ◽  
Vertebrate Paleontology ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
American Museum ◽  
Carnegie Museum ◽  
History Museums ◽  
Extensive Body

By the late nineteenth century, as a consequence of the costly, far-flung, labor-intensive, and specimen-centered nature of the discipline, American vertebrate paleontology had become centralized at large collections maintained by a few universities and major natural history museums. Foremost among the latter group were the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; the American Museum of Natural History, New York; the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC; the Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh; and the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago. There is an extensive body of popular and historical literature reviewing the establishment and early development of the vertebrate paleontology programs at most of these institutions, especially the American Museum. The Field Columbian Museum, however, has received relatively little attention in this literature. The present paper begins to redress this imbalance by reviewing the establishment of vertebrate paleontology at the Field Columbian Museum from the museum's foundation in 1893, through the end of 1898, when the museum added a vertebrate paleontologist to its curatorial staff. An account of the Field Columbian Museum's first expedition for fossil vertebrates in the summer of 1898 is included.

“Tibet, High Land of Monk and Nomad”: Field Museum Opens New Exhibition

1968 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-608
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
The Public ◽  
Field Museum ◽  
History Museums ◽  
World's Columbian Exposition ◽  
Columbian Exposition

One of the world's four most celebrated natural history museums, Field Museum in Chicago, has only recently completed and opened to the public a new permanent exhibition called “Tibet, High Land of Monk and Nomad.”Founded in 1893, Field Museum grew from a nest egg of materials from the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago the same year. Almost immediately, founder Marshall Field began sending out expeditions to enrich the Museum's nucleus of display materials. As early as 1908, Dr. Berthold Laufer led the Mrs. T. B. Blackstone Expedition to the remote Himalayan theocracy of Tibet. During the expedition, which went to both China and Tibet between 1908 and 1910, Dr. Laufer collected some 10,000 specimens for Field Museum, principally ethnological in nature. A large number of the Chinese materials were brought together in a special Civilization of China exhibition which opened four years ago.

Foole’s Gold

Pyrite ◽  
2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Rickard
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Human Evolution ◽  
Early Life ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Natural History Museums ◽  
Time Limits ◽  
History Museums ◽  
The World ◽  
Academic Courses ◽  
The Subject

This classic opening gambit at the stereotypical drinks party always throws me. I have been a professor at a university for most of my life, so the easiest answer is that I teach. This is true, but it disguises the reality that much of my waking time has been concerned with research. If I admit this, then it becomes necessary to explain what I actually research. One of my pet subjects is pyrite. But if I let on that I research pyrite, my interlocutors look at me as though I am one of those wonderful beings who haunt the bowels of natural history museums as world experts on a rare species of toad. As with toads, most people in the world have heard of pyrite. They know it is a mineral or stone, and most know that it is also called fool’s gold, a familiar theme of moral tales and nursery stories. So the idea of someone studying pyrite is not altogether the stuff of IgNobel prizes. Within the time limits imposed by decent conversation I cannot explain that pyrite is the mineral that made the modern world. I cannot refer them to a book about it since there has not been one published about pyrite since 1725. This book is an attempt to rectify the situation. In it I contend that pyrite has had a disproportionate and hitherto unrecognized influence on developing the world as we know it today. This influence extends from human evolution and culture, through science and industry, to ancient, modern, and future Earth environments and the origins and evolution of early life on the planet. The book is aimed at making the subject accessible to the general reader. It is not a scientific monograph, since these handle only the science and are really directed at the converted: the high priests of the cathedral of science and technology and their aspirant novices. It is also not aimed at being a textbook in the conventional sense: textbooks are generally aimed at specific academic courses and ultimately pave the way for the students to understand the monographs.

The Controversial History of the Goose Lake, California, Meteorite

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Plotkin ◽  
Roy Clarke
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Forest ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
National Museum ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Federal Lands ◽  
The Us ◽  
History Of

The Goose Lake meteorite, a 2,573 lb (1,167 kg) iron, was found by three deer hunters on lava beds in the Modoc National Forest in northeast California in October, 1938. Although several California persons wanted possession of the meteorite for various California institutions, under the powers of the 1906 Antiquities Act meteorites found on US federal lands were typically transferred to the US National Museum at the Smithsonian Institution and accessioned into the National Collection of Meteorites. With authorization from the US Department of Agriculture, the Smithsonian began a correspondence with one of the meteorite's finders to arrange for its retrieval. But the situation became complicated and controversial when meteorite collector/dealer Harvey H. Nininger (1887-1986), who harboured hopes that the meteorite might be on a parcel of private land in the National Forest, falsely presented himself to the finder as a Smithsonian agent, and was taken to the site of the meteorite. A survey showed the meteorite was on federal land, however, and the Smithsonian reluctantly allowed Nininger to oversee its recovery. During the time that the meteorite was on loan from the Smithsonian and on exhibit at the San Francisco World's Fair, considerable pressure from various California individuals and institutions was put on the Smithsonian to keep the meteorite in California, but it was accessioned into the Smithsonian's National Collection of Meteorites and shipped to Washington, DC. The controversial history of the Goose Lake meteorite affirmed the applicability of the Antiquities Act with regard to the disposition of meteorites found on US federal lands, and set the stage for the later court rulings involving the Old Woman meteorite, a large (2,753 kg) iron found on government land in California in 1976. Problematic ownership issues like those involving the Goose Lake meteorite exist in other countries besides the United States, and in other branches of natural history, especially paleontology. The Goose Lake meteorite is famous for its numerous and enigmatic large holes and cavities, and is a popular attraction at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

scholarly journals Checklist das aves do Estado do Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil

2017 ◽  
Vol 107 (suppl) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandro Pacheco Nunes ◽  
Fernando Costa Straube ◽  
Rudi Ricardo Laps ◽  
Sérgio Roberto Posso
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Minas Gerais ◽  
Washington Dc ◽  
National Museum ◽  
American Museum ◽  
Mato Grosso ◽  
Field Museum ◽  
Comparative Zoology ◽  
Mato Grosso Do Sul

RESUMO Em contraste com vários outros estados brasileiros, apenas recentemente o Mato Grosso do Sul iniciou o inventário organizado de sua avifauna. Relacionamos 630 espécies de aves para o Mato Grosso do Sul, pertencentes a 26 ordens e 74 famílias, que corresponde a 34% da avifauna ocorrente no Brasil. Cerca de 90% dessas espécies apresentam registros comprobatórios de ocorrência no estado conforme as normas propostas pelo CBRO. As demais ainda aguardam documentação comprobatória adequada. Quarenta e cinco espécies foram incluídas na lista terciária por apresentarem problemas de documentação comprobatória devido à ausência de circunstanciação e distribuição incompatível. A grande diversidade de fitofisionomias e paisagens sob influência dos biomas Cerrado, Pantanal, Chaco, Bosques Chiquitanos e Mata Atlântica são responsáveis em parte, pela diversidade de espécies ocorrentes no Mato Grosso do Sul. No entanto, várias dessas fitofisionomias e paisagens já foram suprimidas e/ou alteradas pela pecuária e principalmente monoculturas ( Pinus, Eucalyptus e cana-de-açúcar). Trinta e sete espécies de aves ocorrentes no estado encontram-se presentes em listas de espécies ameaçadas de extinção em âmbito global e/ou nacional. Ainda existem grandes lacunas de conhecimento sobre a avifauna sul-matogrossense, notadamente no Pantanal do Paiaguás e em regiões limítrofes com o estado de Goiás e países como Paraguai (Chaco) e a Bolívia (Bosques Chiquitanos). Instituições como Embrapa Pantanal e Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, bem como o trabalho de consultores ambientais e observadores de aves foram relevantes no avanço do conhecimento sobre a avifauna no estado. Grande parte dos museus institucionais no exterior abriga exemplares coletados no Mato Grosso do Sul, dentre os quais se destacam o Museum of Comparative Zoology (Cambridge, EUA), o American Museum of Natural History (Nova York, EUA), o The Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago, EUA) e o National Museum of Natural History (Washington, DC, EUA). No Brasil as principais coleções que guardam material ornitológico sul-matogrossense são o Museu de Zoologia (USP, São Paulo), o Museu Nacional (UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro) e o Departamento de Zoologia da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (DZUFMG, Minas Gerais).

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