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".
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