Jan 24 Museums@Noon – How Specimens Change from Curiosities to Scientific Collections
How Specimens Change from Curiosities to Scientific Collections [and Other Stories from a 400-Year-Old Natural History Museum]
Hayley Crowell (MSP 22; PhD Candidate, Ecology & Evolutionary Biology)
January 24 from 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Hatcher Gallery Lab, Room 100H or online via Zoom
Natural history museums occupy a unique space in the world of museology, often facing challenges from both a humanities and scientific perspective. Much of their controversy stems from the very fact that the primary “items” stored and displayed in these museums were once living organisms. Because most natural history museums are associated with large research collections and universities, they often house thousands (if not millions) of specimens. Tasked with the burden of accurately representing biodiversity, history, climate, evolution, and humanity’s role in all of these, natural history collections are continuously undergoing physical and organizational changes to meet these ever-changing fields.
However, the wealth of knowledge and recent advances in museum-based scientific techniques (CT-scanning, museomics, etc.) provide a world of inspiring and innovative new ways to use these collections. These methods are especially important when examining historically-significant and rare museum specimens, as each organism in these collections represent a unique snapshot of a place and time that cannot be replicated.
In this talk, I will use the Natural History Museum of Denmark as a case study to discuss these issues from both a historic and modern perspective, starting from its early origins as one of Europe’s first Kunstkammer (“Cabinet of Curiosities”) to its current role as a leading research institute in Europe. Along the way, I will also share a series of anecdotes about the bizarre and surprising adventures that come with working in an early zoological collection.
Hayley is a 6th year PhD student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department. Her main dissertation focuses on the evolution of ultraviolet coloration in reptiles and the use of museum specimens in scientific research. Prior to coming to the University of Michigan, Hayley obtained a bachelor’s degree in biology from Shippensburg State University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s working on rattlesnake thermal ecology from California Polytechnic State University. She also worked as a biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey and National Park service for six years on invasive Burmese Pythons in Florida and sea turtles throughout the southeast and Caribbean.
