Former name | University of Iowa Cabinet of Natural History |
---|---|
Established | 1858 |
Location | 17 N Clinton St. University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa, US |
Type | Natural history museum |
Accreditation | American Alliance of Museums |
Collections | |
Collection size | 140,000 objects |
Director | Liz Crooks |
Website | https://mnh.uiowa.edu/ |
The University of Iowa Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum on the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City, Iowa. The museum was founded in 1858 by instruction of the Iowa General Assembly as the Cabinet of Natural History. [1] It is housed within Macbride Hall, located in the Pentacrest area of the university campus. [2] The museum's collections contain around 140,000 objects, including approximately 31,000 birds, eggs, and nests, 5,000 mammal specimens, 41,000 insects, 44,000 other invertebrates, 6,000 archaeological specimens, and historical documents and images from the museum's history. [3] The museum includes several galleries on Iowa's geological and cultural history, biological diversity, and environmental science, spanning four floors. [4] Major research collections include the Kallam Collection of prehistoric stone tools, the Talbot and Jones Bird Collections, the Frank Russell Collection of Inuit and Native Arctic artifacts, and the Philippine Collection of ethnographic materials from the 1904 World's Fair. [3]
The museum was originally founded by order of the Iowa General Assembly as a "cabinet" in which to house specimens from the State Natural History and Geological Surveys. This Cabinet of Natural History was housed in the Old Capitol, the university's only building at the time. [5] Paleontologist James Hall was appointed as the cabinet's curator, though he abandoned this responsibility due to an earlier instance of bankruptcy at the university during his tenure as State Geologist. [6]
Historian and lawyer Theodore S. Parvin was appointed as the Cabinet of Natural History's second curator in 1859. During this period, much of the cabinet's efforts were focused on building geological collections. After its fourth curator, geologist Samuel Calvin, successfully requested more funding for its fossil, bird, and mammal collections, the Cabinet of Natural History was moved to the Science Hall—now Calvin Hall—in 1885. [7] Two years later, it was renamed the Museum of Natural History. [8]
Under zoologist Charles Cleveland Nutting, who had been appointed curator in 1876, systematic glass displays of specimens were installed as popular attractions on the university's campus. Nutting also organized several significant expeditions to Dry Tortugas, The Bahamas, and Laysan Island, among other localities. [8] By 1895, an influx of specimens prompted Nutting to request a larger building in which to house the museum. [7] In response, a new Natural Sciences Building—now Macbride Hall—was completed in 1908 by the architectural firm Proudfoot & Bird. [9]
After zoologist Homer R. Dill succeeded Nutting as curator in 1926, the Museum of Natural History's level of collecting fell. [10] In 1965, in response to higher enrollment, a proposal was made by university president Howard R. Bowen to eliminate the museum. However, due to protests from student, faculty, and alumni, this proposal was unsuccessful. As part of an effort to revitalize support to the museum, university alumnus George D. Schrimper was appointed as curator in 1972. Schrimper emphasized the redesign of the museum's exhibits for a more modern audience; these plans included the creation of a new gallery, Iowa Hall, in 1985. By 1992, the Museum of Natural History received approximately 60,000 visitors per year. [11]
From 2002 until 2010, the museum coordinated excavations of at least three Megalonyx jeffersonii individuals along the West Tarkio Creek near Shenandoah, Iowa. [18] Most recently, a fourth ground sloth of a different species, Paramylodon harlani , has been identified from the excavation site. This is the first confirmed specimen of the genus to be discovered in Iowa. [19]
Taxidermy is the art of preserving an animal's body by mounting or stuffing, for the purpose of display or study. Animals are often, but not always, portrayed in a lifelike state. The word taxidermy describes the process of preserving the animal, but the word is also used to describe the end product, which are called taxidermy mounts or referred to simply as "taxidermy".
The Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), also known as The Field Museum, is a natural history museum in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the largest such museums in the world. The museum is popular for the size and quality of its educational and scientific programs, and its extensive scientific specimen and artifact collections. The permanent exhibitions, which attract up to 2 million visitors annually, include fossils, current cultures from around the world, and interactive programming demonstrating today's urgent conservation needs. The museum is named in honor of its first major benefactor, Marshall Field, the department-store magnate. The museum and its collections originated from the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and the artifacts displayed at the fair.
World Museum is a large museum in Liverpool, England which has extensive collections covering archaeology, ethnology and the natural and physical sciences. Special attractions include the Natural History Centre and a planetarium. Entry to the museum is free. The museum is part of National Museums Liverpool.
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in University Circle, a district of educational, cultural and medical institutions approximately five miles (8 km) east of Downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The museum was established in 1920 by Cyrus S. Eaton to perform research, education and development of collections in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, botany, geology, paleontology, wildlife biology, and zoology. The museum traces its roots to the Ark, formed in 1836 on Cleveland's Public Square by William Case, the Academy of Natural Science formed by William Case and Jared Potter Kirtland, and the Kirtland Society of Natural History, founded in 1869 and reinvigorated in 1922 by the trustees of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture is a natural history museum on the campus of the University of Washington, in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is administered by the UW College of Arts and Sciences. Established in 1899 as the Washington State Museum, the museum traces its origins to a high school naturalist club formed in 1879. The museum is the oldest in Washington state and boasts a collection of more than 16 million artifacts, including the world's largest collection of spread bird wings. The Burke Museum is the official state museum of Washington.
Carl Ethan Akeley was a pioneering American taxidermist, sculptor, biologist, conservationist, inventor, and nature photographer, noted for his contributions to American museums, most notably to the Milwaukee Public Museum, Field Museum of Natural History and the American Museum of Natural History. He is considered the father of modern taxidermy. He was the founder of the AMNH Exhibitions Lab, the interdisciplinary department that fuses scientific research with immersive design.
The Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH) is Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural history museum. Its main facilities are located at 3215 Hull Road on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville.
The Pentacrest is the Old Capitol and a collection of four buildings on the campus of the University of Iowa that surround the Old Capitol — Jessup Hall, Macbride Hall, MacLean Hall, and Schaeffer Hall — on a four-block-sized parcel of land in Iowa City, Iowa. The Old Capital exhibits the Greek Revival style while the four buildings that surround it display Beaux-Arts architecture.
George Kruck Cherrie was an American naturalist and explorer. He collected numerous specimens on nearly forty expeditions that he joined for museums and several species have been named after him.
The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland is a museum of Scottish history and culture.
The Georgia Museum of Natural History is the U.S. state of Georgia's museum of natural history located in Athens, Georgia. The museum has eleven different collections in Anthropology, Arthropods, Botany, Geology, Herpetology, Ichthyology, Invertebrate, Mammalogy, Mycology, Ornithology, and Zooarchaeology. In addition, there are exhibitions, archives, and entertainment for children. The Exhibit Gallery is free and open to the public during scheduled hours. People can schedule a tour to visit the collections by appointment.
Martha Ann Maxwell was an American naturalist, artist and taxidermist. She helped found modern taxidermy. Maxwell's pioneering diorama displays are said to have influenced major figures in taxidermy history who entered the field later, such as William Temple Hornaday and Carl Akeley. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1831. Among her many accomplishments, she is credited with being the first woman field naturalist to obtain and prepare her own specimens. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1985.
Booth Museum of Natural History is a charitable trust-managed, municipally-owned museum of natural history in the city of Brighton and Hove in the South East of England. Its focus is on Victorian taxidermy, especially of British birds, as well as collections focusing on entomology, chalk fossils, skeletons and botany. It is part of "Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust". Admission to the museum is free.
The Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe is located in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, on Leopold Takawira Avenue.
The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History (UMMNH) is a natural history museum of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States.
Alfred Marshall Bailey was an American ornithologist who was associated with the Denver Museum of Natural History in Colorado for most of his working life.
A zoological specimen is an animal or part of an animal preserved for scientific use. Various uses are: to verify the identity of a (species), to allow study, increase public knowledge of zoology. Zoological specimens are extremely diverse. Examples are bird and mammal study skins, mounted specimens, skeletal material, casts, pinned insects, dried material, animals preserved in liquid preservatives, and microscope slides. Natural history museums are repositories of zoological specimens
James Francis Macbride was an American botanist who devoted most of his professional life to the study of the flora of Peru.
The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University is one of the oldest, largest, and most prolific university natural history museums in the world. It was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh, an early paleontologist. The museum is best known for the Great Hall of Dinosaurs, which includes a mounted juvenile Brontosaurus and the 110-foot-long (34 m) mural The Age of Reptiles. The museum also has permanent exhibits dedicated to human and mammal evolution; wildlife dioramas; Egyptian artifacts; local birds and minerals; and Native Americans of Connecticut.
The conservation of taxidermy is the ongoing maintenance and preservation of zoological specimens that have been mounted or stuffed for display and study. Taxidermy specimens contain a variety of organic materials, such as fur, bone, feathers, skin, and wood, as well as inorganic materials, such as burlap, glass, and foam. Due to their composite nature, taxidermy specimens require special care and conservation treatments for the different materials.