Keeping Up with Education & Museums

I have been told several times by varying museum professional that it is the Education Coordinators who work the hardest and are stretched out the most in the museum world. At our Museum of Natural History, I have learned this rings true here also. Just sitting in the education dept's office, you can hear the phone ring and many people pop in and out working on varying projects or adding to the list of duties. The amazing piece of this is, however, that when I have seen and met with Sarah Horgen, the education coordinator, and Ashlee Gloede, the assistant education coordinator, they seem to love what they do. Sarah spoke with our Intro to Museum Studies class about her job and I could tell that she is enthusiastic about her job, even in trying to describe all that she does and in speaking of her 45+ hours work week. This semester, I've been able to speak with and work alongside Ashlee a few times and she always seems to have a smile on her face. As you recall, last month, I attended and assisted with a "Night at the Museum" event. That event was themed after archaeology and I'll never forget the magical excitement of the kids as they learned and experienced atlatls for the first time and explored the museum after hours. An event like this does not come about magically, though. This week I was able to see and assist behind the scenes in preparing for a NATM event to take place on November 18, themed on dinosaurs. Remember, all NATM events must be pre-registered and you're about to learn why.

When I arrived to help Ashlee, she had a list on a clipboard. Parents had been calling to sign-up for NATM all month. They call and Ashlee has to answer questions and remember to ask the parents for their names, child's names, requested hat color and give them all the pertinent information and payment information for the $25 entry fee. Then, a list is compiled, this time there are 22 attendees. Now, with this list, Ashlee brought me a few boxes of items. All the children receive a fun bag of goodies and a miner helmet just for attending this event. So, these bags must be compiled. I was handed bags that already had a few items in it like education information, museum event schedules and more. Then, we added one of the coolest dinosaur rings I've ever seen, a MNH pencil, postcard and a necklace. These were little take home bags to remember the fun they had that night. After all the bags were full, it was time to make the children's name tags and prepare the miner helmets. The miner helmets can normally be purchased in the museum, but each child who attends a NATM will receive one to bring back with them again and again. The miner helmets come in varying colors and the kids get to choose their color when they register. To prepare them, we had to use a tiny screwdriver and get into the light to put in batteries. Once you get the hang of it, popping open the light, putting in batteries and putting it back together isn't a hard task, but it is very time consuming. After getting them to light, the children's names get put on the back so everyone knows who gets which ones. All in all, these tasks took about an hour and a half to complete for the event. However, I was happy I took the time to help, because Ashlee was so busy that she was in and out working and meeting with other people. Had she been taking all the time out to do this project herself, who knows what else could have backed up for her. When I was finished, I brought the large box back to the Education Dept.'s office. When I asked Ashlee where to put it, she almost laughed. The office is about half the size of a classroom and has 2-3 desks. To the left sat several varying wooden dinosaur models. These, I can assume, were in preparation for Friday also. There are shelves of books, educational materials and other objects throughout their space. Clearly, you have got to be a very organized and focused, yet flexible individual to work in the education dept in a museum! Although the work is long, sometimes difficult and exhausting, I can see how rewarding this can be. A museum is an institution on the basis of educating the public. An education coordinator must make that education entertaining and unique to enhance the experiences of each patron who attends. From what I've expierienced all semester, this is well worth the time and effort and creates a fantastic time for those who attend. I hope you all attend an event put on by this dept at our museum, you will not be upset that you did! To attend any NATM event, or for questions about any event like it (including adult events) please contact them at #319-335-0606.

Visit the MNH website to learn more.

Here's information from the website about the next Night at the Museum Event about Birds taking place on December 9 from 6pm-9pm; Call to preregister your kids before all the openings are filled!:

This month:

Soar through the Museum of Natural History after dark to learn about birds from Iowa and around the world.  The group will have a fun evening of pizza, behind the scenes tours, games, and more!

Miner Helmet

Bags and trinkets

Cool Dinosaur Rings!

Frank Russell - An Iowa City Gem

In 1892, Frank Russell was a 23 year old graduate student at the University of Iowa. On his own, he went on an epic trek through northern Canada with the task of returning with musk oxen and ethnographic materials. In 1894, he returned to Iowa City to a welcoming parade of excited patrons. He met several tribes along the way such as the Dog Rib and Cree. If you'd like to read a more detailed story of his expedition, the museum's website has it here. He also wrote a book called, "Explorations in the Far North" that can be found in the University library among other book store locations.
So why am I telling you all his? Well, I was lucky enough to visit the Russell collection that is stored away in "The Vault". From my last post, I told you all about my first visit to "The Vault". On Monday, I went back in and this time, I was able to see inside the two state of the art newest cabinets. The collection within these cabinets includes some of the Frank Russell collection, some of the Philippines collection and varying other fragile artifacts. Cindy Opitz, the collections manager, led me through the drawers one by one. Ms. Opitz has been with MNH for several years now, beginning as a part-time position and eventually helped create her full time position as collections manager. Her training has mainly arisen through experience, which is essential in the collections world. She's currently finishing her formal training and attends several conferences which she says is very beneficial in learning new methods. As she puts it, her job allows her to act like a kindergartener every day as she molds new ways to protect artifacts in the collection. She loves her job and it shows in her enthusiasm with the collections.
The funnest part of the Russell collection is how eclectic it is. There are so many varying objects from varying groups. These artifacts are varying, but still somehow connect together. I almost felt like I was seeing the journey and not just a grouping of random artifacts. There were Cree trousers and Dog Rib children's rattles among the varying items. Ms. Opitz explained to me some of the items that had to be wrapped in extra tissue for protection. Some of the items were in makeshift boxes. This opened my eyes to a whole other issue in museum collections. Although these items were housed in state of the art cabinet drawers, they still needed special attention. When you open drawers, some items like bowls, arrows and other artifacts tend to rock or roll around and might touch each other. So, collections managers like Ms. Opitz, have to always be prepared to get creative and protect their items while still being able to see, examine and study them. She explained to me that these issues tend to just come up randomly as she opens a drawer to check on something for a researcher or other purpose. As with everyone else I've had a chance to speak with in the museum world, she always seems stretched thin. Ms. Optiz has one full-time collections assistant and a part-time assistant for her various work, but she still is overwhelmed with work. Currently in a three phase inventory plan, the team is overloaded with inventory work and all the regular collections duties. In the past few years, they conducted the first phase which was a quick count of every item in the collection. According to their old register book, they believed they had about 40,000 items. Once they conducted the count, they realized they actually had 115,000 items in the MNH collections! This was quite a shock to the entire MNH team and they have now moved onto furthering the inventory with updating records and eventually will be digitizing the collection into databases. An inventory plan of this magnitude takes several years to conduct, but when complete will create a very beneficial result.
After viewing The Vault's collection, we traveled up to a storage closet off Mammal Hall that houses several Philippine items and a bit more of the Russell collection. This large storage closet has several shelves on the walls, two more state of the art cabinets and high rolled textiles wrapped in tissue. This little room is a hidden treasure off of Mammal Hall that is easily passed by patrons. This tour was very interesting both because I got to visit pieces of a collection protected in the back rooms and also because I got to learn what another museum professional gets to do on a regular basis. Below are some of my favorite pieces from the collection!

Varying Arrows in a constructed box so they won't roll around.

Beautiful beaded belts from the Cree

My favorite piece: A child's rain parka made of seal bladder. Cindy Opitz said that they would wear these while going out in the ocean in kayaks to harpoon fish!

Shelves and Shelves of woven baskets actually from the Philippine collections; This was in the third floor closet.

An afternoon with the Curator ,Trina Roberts, and The Vault

     On Thursday, I had the opportunity to meet and sit down with one of MNH's newest administrators. Trina Roberts, the newly appointed curator, shared with me her past, present and hopes for the future of our beloved museum. I loved sitting down and speaking with such an interesting woman new to Iowa. She started with the museum on August 15th of this year and has seemingly faced a few challenges, but also seems to be embracing them very well. Many of you may not know this, but the Pentacrest Museums on campus reorganized their administration recently. Dr. Roberts position is actually brand new, which can pose its own issues. From what I could gather, there are still kinks in figuring out who does what and when, but luckily, she told me that they all get along very well so they've been able to sort through the delegation pretty easily.
     As for Dr. Roberts, she has a very strong academic background. She is a biologist and has worked with the Field Museum and University of Alaska museum throughout her training. Speaking very strongly about her experiences as a museum scientist, she seems to bring a new life to the museum and its connection with the University. She has done a significant amount of research within museum collections, that many people may not realize exist. One of her goals and mandates is to reconnect various university departments, such as biology, geology, anthropology and more, to the museum collection and to encourage them to utilize the specimens. As many museum-goers know, the collection on display is only a portion of the specimens owned by a museum. What may not be as easily known, however, is that these hidden collections pose a very real possibility for student research. As Dr. Roberts is able to reconnect with various departments, I believe we will see an even stronger research ability and result in the university. Hopefully soon we will be able to see more and more internships and research projects revolving around the museum collection. Some of Dr. Roberts' other goals include bulking up the museum studies program alongside Dr. Russell Ciochon, assisting in renovations to current galleries and assist in creating new exhibits in the temporary space in the Old Capitol Museum.
     To further understand what was being talked about, Dr. Roberts took me somewhere I never knew existed. "The Vault" is a room hidden down a small hall in Macbride Hall. Being a student for two years in the Anthropology department housed in Macbride Hall, I never noticed this room. The nickname "The Vault" comes from the door that encases this room. The door is an old metal door that is supposed to be blast proof, but due to its age has become an artifact of its own. On the other side of the door are cabinets of various size, shape and material. I was drawn to the biography of the cabinets themselves. One row to the immediate left of the entrance are a brown metal that resemble old file cabinets and house many mammals. A little further are rows of wooden cabinets, the oldest of the collection, that house mainly birds which stand next to the reptiles and insects that lay in jars of alcohol on shelves. Off in the right corner are two brand new metal cabinets of the newest style that house some of the most treasured pieces in the collection. Finally, there are very large custom built wooden cabinets that are home to large, mounted specimens that cannot fit into drawers.
    Dr. Roberts, as a mammalogist, was seemingly very drawn to the mammal drawers. She showed me rodent skins and rabbits in varying drawers. The interesting difference between research skins and display specimens are the way they are preserved. You've all seen the display specimens. Taxidermists post them in ways that they may be presented in the wild and will appear lifelike. Research specimens, however, tend to just be flattened skins labeled with pertinent information such as: measurements, areas that it lived, death locations, gender. These specimens are the ones laid out in flat drawers and can provide helpful research to anyone around the world. A new movement across the museum world is driven towards digitizing the collections into a database. This database would provide the ability to search collections anywhere for useful specimens for a project being conducted. Perhaps a graduate student in Pennsylvania would never think to ask the University of Iowa if they have Red-tailed hawk specimens, but by using this database, they'd be able to find out immediately who would have such specimens. To me, this is a huge opportunity to create stronger connections with the rest of the academic and museum world. A problem with this movement, of course, is the time it takes to organize. Museum staff everywhere are generally wearing multiple hats already, so organizing ways to digitize a collections of thousands of specimens is not only time consuming, but also stretches staff even thinner. Perhaps, as this movement continues, students can conduct internships to help complete these projects in the future.
      Now, do you recall that large custom case I described above?  Within those cases lies numerous hidden treasures that are seen in stock areas of museums around the world. Inside those cabinets are beautifully maintained specimens patiently waiting for display space to open up for them. There are a couple gorgeous birds of paradise, crows, owls, and various other creatures hidden inside its doors. On the side is an entire polar bear mount, which is also one of many large animals that are housed in the attic. Space becomes an issue with specimens with storing, but even more so with display. As anyone who's wandered the halls at MNH knows, there isn't much space left for more cases of exhibits. So, these specimens have to stay protected and hidden until future exhibits need their beauty and others are hidden away again. The result of seeing these spaces is realizing that our museum has such an extensive research and display collection for everyone to utilize and enjoy. Who knows, maybe with the new temporary exhibit space in the Old Capitol Museum, my fellow museum studies students and I will someday be able to fully experience planning an exhibit with currently housed collections! I would like to thank Trina Roberts again for meeting with me and giving me a behind the scenes scoop on what she does and taking me to the hidden treasure that is "The Vault".