National Museum of Natural History Unearthed

Your Museum Madness 2012 Champion is ...

... the Tasmanian Tiger!

In the Australia exhibit of the National Museum of Natural History's Kenneth E. Behring Family Hall of Mammals, look beyond the dingo, and behind the gossamer fabric screen at the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), a rare mounted specimen of an extinct species of carnivorous marsupial that once lived throughout Australian continent, including the island of Tasmania. Printed on the screen is the title “An Extinction Story” and the question “What happened when these two predators faced off?” The dingo—a wild dog that arrived in Australia with Asian seafarers 3,500 years ago—and the thylacine, are not related species. However, as Australia's top predators, they shared a similar diet. As the dingo spread throughout the Australian continent, the thylacine disappeared, apparently surviving only on the isolated southern island of Tasmania by the time that European settlers arrived in Australia just over 200 years ago ...

Read the complete story on your 2012 Museum Madness Champion here!

Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History

 

Image Caption and Credit: Two of the National Zoo’s thylacines, probably the surviving offspring of the original female, outside the Carnivora House, c. 1905. One of these animals (most likely the one in front) is USNM 125345, a specimen recently DNA-sequenced by a team of international scientists. Credit: Photo by E. J. Keller; National Zoological Park.

2011 Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards Exhibit

The 2011 Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards Exhibit opened at the Natural History Museum on March 30, 2012. We all know that photography is a strikingly compelling means of experiencing nature's majesty. This concept is the driving force behind the Nature's Best Photography competition, which operates under the mission to "celebrate the beauty and diversity of nature through the art of photography." The Museums's exhibit features the winners in each award category, as well as a collection of some of the highly honored photographs submitted to the competition this year.

Last month, we featured a post highlighting the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), a consortium digital library project (of which the Smithsonian is a founding member) providing free access to millions of pages of biodiversity literature. The online library features not only texts but also stunning illustrations of natural history from the past 500 years. Not surprisingly, the species featured in the award-winning photographs from the Nature's Best Exhibit can also be found in the historic books held in the BHL collection. To celebrate the exhibit, we're highlighting some of the featured photographs and sharing more about the species captured in each snapshot through illustrations and scientific descriptions found in the Biodiversity Heritage Library. You can also learn more about the species starring in the exhibit by visiting the Encyclopedia of Life.

Polar Bear (Ursus maritimus)

 

Winner: Wildlife. Polar Bear Cub, Barents Sea, Norway. Florian Schulz, NBP Awards 2011.

Constantine John Phipps, 2nd Baron Mulgrave, was the first to describe the polar bear, which he encountered during his 1773 expedition to the North Pole. He published the account in the 1774 publication A Voyage Towards the North Pole. Just four years later,  the first published illustration of the bear was released in Die Säugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur (below).

 

See the first description of the Polar Bear in BHL.
See the first published illustration of the Polar Bear in BHL.

Lion (Panthera leo)

 

Highly Honored: African Wildlife. African Lions, Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. Federico Veronesi, NBP Awards 2011.

The lion was first described by Carl Linnaeus, a famous Swedish botanist and zoologist who developed the schema of identifying organisms by genus and species names ñ a system known as binomial nomenclature. He is therefore referred to as the Father of Modern Taxonomy. The tenth edition of his revolutionary work, Systema Naturae, represents the birth of zoological nomenclature (using binomial nomenclature for animals). The Lion was scientifically described for the first time in this work.

In 1909, Frank Finn's work Wild Beasts of the World was published, containing 100 reproduced illustrations of nature drawings by Louis Sargent, Cuthbert E. Swan, and Winifred Austin. One of the drawings contained within the first volume was "Lion and Lioness," by Louis Sargent (above).

See the first description of the lion in BHL.
See Louis Sargent's drawing in BHL.

Stag Beetle (Lucanus cervus)

Highly Honored: Small World. Stag Beetles, , Irún, Spain.  Jose Grandío, NBP Awards 2011.

The Stag Beetle was also first described by Carl Linnaeus in his tenth edition of Systema Naturae. The beetle's common name comes from the resemblance of the speciesí large mandibles to a deer's antlers. Furthermore, male deer use their antlers when battling over territory and mates. The Stag Beetle uses its mandibles for the same purposes.

In 1792, Edward Donovan, an Anglo-Irish writer, illustrator and amateur zoologist, published the first volume of his sixteen volume work entitled The Natural History of British Insects. The series, published over a period of twenty-one years, contained 576 plates, 568 of which were colored. His depiction of the Stag Beetle, wings extended in flight, is particularly memorable (above).

See the first description of the Stag Beetle in BHL.
See Donovan's illustration of the Stag Beetle in BHL.

We hope you get the opportunity to visit the Nature's Best Photography Exhibit at the Natural History Museum, running March 30, 2012-January 6, 2013. You can find out more about the animals in the photographs by searching on the species name in the Biodiversity Heritage Library and visiting the Encyclopedia of Life Collection. See more illustrations of these species from BHL in our Flickr collection.

 

Grace Costantino, Biodiversity Heritage Library Program Manager

 

Photo Credits:

• Nature's Best Polar Bear: Winner: Wildlife. Polar Bear Cub, Barents Sea, Norway. Florian Schulz, NBP Awards 2011..
• BHL Polar Bear: Schreber, Johann Christian Daniel. (1774-1846). Die Säugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur. (pl. 141).
• Nature's Best Lion: Highly Honored: African Wildlife. African Lions, Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. Federico Veronesi, NBP Awards 2011.
• BHL Lion: Finn, Frank. (1909). The Wild Beasts of the World. (vol. 1, "Lion and Lioness").
• Nature's Best Stag Beetle: Highly Honored: Small World. Stag Beetles, Irún, Spain.  Jose Grandío, NBP Awards 2011.
• BHL Stag Beetle: Donovan, Edward. (1792). The Natural History of British Insects. (vol. 1, pl. 13).

 

 

Museum Madness 2012 @NMNH - Results of Battle of the Champions and the Championship!

After letting our competitors rest (even collections need a little break!), the time has finally arrived for the Museum Madness 2012 Championship!

 

Who are the contenders and how did they make it to the Championship?

 

 

Round 1: vs. Tarantula

Round 2: vs. Giant Squid

Round 3: vs. Bull Mummy

Round 4: vs. Deep-Sea Vent Worms

 

 

 

 

 

Round 1: vs. Turtle Skeleton

Round 2: vs. Neanderthal from Shanidar

Round 3: vs. Basilosaurus

Round 4: vs. Coelacanth

 

 

 

 

 

Who will be victorious? It's up to you!

Sarah Banks, Audience Engagement Specialist, Office of Education and Outreach

Museum Madness 2012 @NMNH - Results of the Division Finals!

From the thirty-two contenders that began on March 21st, you've narrowed the field down to four division champions. Thank you for your enthusiastic responses and support of the objects about which you want to learn more!

Highlights:

While it breezed past the Hope Diamond in Round 1 and the Monarch Butterfly in Round 2, the Bull Mummy just couldn't move past Titanoboa in Round 3. The Deep-Sea Vent Worms, meanwhile, continued their winning streak as your votes helped them to a victory over the Wood Collection.

 

Your Division Champs are ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who are you pulling for in Round 3? Voting will open later this afternoon, and we'll need your help to narrow the field from 4 to 2!

Sarah Banks, Audience Engagement Specialist, Office of Education and Outreach

Museum Madness 2012 @NMNH - Round 2 Results and Division Finals Coming Up!

After a fast and furious Museum Madness: Round 2, the results are here! Did your favorites make it to Round 3? Were you surprised by any of the new information you learned?

Highlights:

The Giant Squid and the Fenykovi Elephant exited the tournament in Round 2 with losses to Titanoboa and Phoenix. It was neck and neck with the Handaxe Made by Early Humans and the Wood Collection, until the Wood Collection pulled ahead by a single vote!

So who's still in the running after Round 2?

In the Backbones Division we have ...

1. Phoenix, the North Atlantic Right Whale
2. Coelacanth

In the Classics Division we have ...

1. Basilosaurus
2. Tasmanian Tiger

In the Exhibit All-Stars Division we have ...

1. Bull Mummy
2. Titanoboa

In the Wild Cards Division we have ...

1. Deep-Sea Vent Worms
2. Wood Collection

Who are you pulling for in Round 3? Voting will open soon, and we'll need your help to narrow the field from 8 to 4!

Sarah Banks, Audience Engagement Specialist, Office of Education and Outreach

Museum Madness 2012 @NMNH - Round 1 Results!

You, the fans of NMNH, have spoken and the results of Museum Madness: Round 1 are in! Read on for highlights and find out if your favorites made it to Round 2.

Highlights:

Round 1 got off to a great start with a landslide win by the Megalodon Jaws over the T-Rex. The perennial favorite Fenykovi Elephant then triumphed over the Roosevelt Rhinos, and Martha the Passenger Pigeon handily beat Snarge. The surprise of this round came at the end when the Hope Diamond suffered a narrow loss to the Bull Mummy.

So who's left standing after Round 1?

In the Backbones Division we have ...

1. Fenykovi Elephant
2. Martha the Passenger Pigeon
3. Phoenix, the North Atlantic Right Whale
4. Coelacanth

In the Classics Division we have ...

1. Basilosaurus
2. Tasmanian Tiger
3. Megalodon Jaws
4. Neanderthal from Shanidar

In the Exhibit All-Stars Division we have ...

1. Monarch Butterfly
2. Bull Mummy
3. Titanoboa
4. Giant Squid

In the Wild Cards Division we have ...

1. Allende Meteorite
2. Deep-Sea Vent Worms
3. Handaxe Made by Early Humans
4. Wood Collection

Did your favorites make it through? If not, who will you root for in Round 2? Let us know and get ready for more voting tomorrow, March 28th!

Sarah Banks, Audience Engagement Specialist, Office of Education and Outreach

 

Museum Madness 2012 @NMNH

Not a basketball fan? Feeling left out of the March Madness fun? Wishing there was a bracket that incorporated your interests in birds, mammals, insects, fishes, and more?

We have the solution for you! It’s called ...

Museum Madness is our version of the basketball tournament - with a twist. Instead of teams competing, we have objects vying for your interest. Would you like to learn more about our iconic elephant or a species of fish thought to have died out with the dinosaurs? Over the next two weeks, you decide what will advance through the rounds and reign victorious.

So who are the contenders?

In the Backbones Division we have ...

1. Fenykovi Elephant
2. Martha the Passenger Pigeon
3. Snarge
4. Roosevelt Rhinos
5. Phoenix, the North Atlantic Right Whale
6. X-ray of a Seahorse
7. Coelacanth
8. Great White Shark

In the Classics Division we have ...

1. Basilosaurus
2. Burgess Shale Fossils
3. Tasmanian Tiger
4. T-Rex
5. Megalodon Jaws
6. Neanderthal from Shanidar
7. Lucy, Our Early Human Ancestor (reconstruction)
8. Turtle Skeleton

In the Exhibit All-Stars Division we have ...

1. Hope Diamond
2. Easter Island Stone Figure
3. Monarch Butterfly
4. Bull Mummy
5. Tarantula
6. Titanoboa
7. Korean Bridal Gown
8. Giant Squid

In the Wild Cards Division we have ...

1. Allende Meteorite
2. Smithsonite
3. Deep-Sea Vent Worms
4. Handaxe Made by Early Humans
5. Wood Collection
6. Scarab Beetle
7. Invertebrates from the Gulf of Mexico
8. Modern Human Art and Music

How do you vote and follow the action?

Starting Tuesday, March 20th, keep an eye open where you follow us - Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest - for links to the voting pages.

Sarah Banks, Audience Engagement Specialist, Office of Education and Outreach

 

Volunteer Reflections on RACE: Are We So Different? (Part 2 of 2)

One of the most popular visitor destinations at Natural History in 2011 was RACE: Are We So Different? This temporary, traveling exhibition is a project of the American Anthropological Association, developed by the Science Museum of Minnesota. We spoke with some of our volunteers about their experience working with visitors in the exhibition.

Volunteers found that the wide range of topics covered in RACE: Are We So Different? made it easy to start conversations with visitors. Although much of the content focuses on the evolution of race in the history and society of the United States, the RACE: Are We So Different? exhibition is grounded in the science of human variation. For visitors and volunteers alike, this was a useful entry point. For example, Cassie Ghee met many who were very happy with the focus on science. “Most said that it was about time this information was made public to a wider audience,” because it rooted the discussion in a very profound way.

More broadly, Meg Wilder described the exhibition as “a new lens for viewing our common history and experiences,” one that moved many visitors. She noted that many conversations that she had with visitors were surprisingly intimate: “The exhibition led us beyond our unconscious biases and our initial assumptions.” David Marshall concurred, although he wasn’t surprised, for he believes that “there are many people of all backgrounds who want to discuss issues concerning race. While most of us discuss these issues in comfortable and safe environments, with friends and family, there are those who crave the opportunity to go beyond those conversations.” This opportunity crossed many lines, Lisa Walsh saw, and “every visitor took away a new piece of information or precious moment of learning.”

For many visitors, Natural History provided an ideal space for discussion. Jane Hammel was certain that the Smithsonian’s choice to host RACE spoke volumes to visitors. “Many wished it would remain here in some capacity, as do I,” she said. The two comments that Patricia McNally heard most frequently were “Why don’t we have more exhibits like this?” and “This exhibit is so important to starting a conversation about race.” She saw that people were excited by the richness and depth of the information in the exhibition, and many people spent more time in the exhibition than they anticipated. “The RACE exhibition has the potential of being the new ‘Galileo moment’ of our times,” thinks E. David Garcia, who wrote about his experiences for this blog in August. “It has the power to create a fundamental shift in our perception of how we see the world” and the people with whom we share it.

The potential for that fundamental shift lies in the exhibition’s capacity to enable and inform learning and discussion. Silas Otieno equates the exhibition with this outcome: “The RACE exhibition means conversation, the ability to bring people together in a neutral and conducive environment and just lay bare our thoughts and ideas on the issue of race.” To Enid J. LaGesse, “the RACE exhibition means we can more clearly understand and reframe our story as a united people, discuss openly our pain and healing, and dream of new solutions to age-old problems.”

If there was one feeling that all our volunteers shared, it was the sense that RACE: Are We So Different? tells a coherent and timely story in a way that opened a place for everyone to participate. “Everyone’s story is valid and worth being told,” said David Marshall. “If only we had the time and space to hear more of our stories, we might be able to better wrap our arms around the very complex notion of race.” Greg Jenkins found it “healthy, frustrating, bewildering, enlightening, learning, unbelievable, true, thought-provoking, heart-string pulling, angering, anxious, and necessary to our collective hearts and souls.” He paused for breath, and then continued: “It’s an American community story.” It is, finally, a story to which Natural History has been pleased to contribute.

We thank all our volunteers for their hard work and generosity in 2011. Over thirty of them plan to continue volunteering at Natural History and elsewhere in the Smithsonian. We’re very happy that they’ve decided to stay with us, and look forward to the many ways in which they will carry the energy and experience of RACE: Are We So Different? forward.

David D. LaCroix, Office of Education and Outreach

Image captions and credits (top to bottom): RACE Exhibition volunteers Samantha Ferm, Enid LaGesse, and Jane Hammel. Credit: David D. LaCroix, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History; Visitors study Kip Fulbeck’s “Hapa Project,” one of the most popular parts of RACE: Are We So Different? Credit: Charles Chen, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Volunteer Reflections on RACE: Are We So Different? (Part 1 of 2)

In 2011, RACE: Are We So Different? was one of the most popular visitor destinations at Natural History. This temporary traveling exhibition is a project of the American Anthropological Association, and was developed by the Science Museum of Minnesota. Several months before it opened, NMNH launched a campaign to recruit a new corps of volunteers to work in it.

When RACE opened on June 18, we had a diverse, motivated, and highly-trained group of seventy-five, ready to act as partners and sounding boards for visitors. Their role was to facilitate visitors’ experience of RACE, helping them to find entry points into the many conversations about science, history, and culture that the exhibition enabled.

For many of the seventy-five, this was their first experience volunteering in a museum. Over the nearly seven months that followed, the volunteers worked and talked with nearly 20,000 visitors––just a fraction, in fact, of the many from around the United States and the world who viewed the exhibition.

Now that RACE has left the Museum for its next destination (COSI in Columbus, Ohio), we asked our volunteers to reflect on their experience. What did it mean to them to serve as volunteers for this exhibition? How did it affect our visitors? And what is the larger meaning and significance of RACE: Are We So Different?

Many, like Ginger Morrison, felt that their experience had enhanced their ability to talk about race and other charged topics. “The exhibition,” Morrison said, “presented a new vocabulary that I use to talk about race. It also encouraged me to more openly initiate discussions about race outside of the exhibit itself.” Other volunteers found new understanding of the ways in which race, privilege, and difference were relevant to their lives. “I think more about the roots of our social and geographical divisions,” said Lina Khan, “and the psychological impact from events that happened in the past.” Still others, including Patricia McNally and Greg Jenkins, saw the exhibition as an opportunity to learn or learn more about the role played by perception in the creation and sustaining of stereotypes and assumptions about race.

The opportunity to speak with visitors from all walks of life was very meaningful to our volunteers. It was challenging, immediate, and fruitful: “It has allowed me to feel the impact of race on people, instead of just hearing or reading about it,” Darius Salimi explained. “Being able to interact with all kinds of people about the topic in a dedicated space was a needed release of thoughts, emotions and energy for me.” “The exhibit itself and the people I have met made me realize how great of an impact a single word can have on one’s life,” said Lizzie Ehrreich.

In the next part of this two-part posting, learn more about how our volunteers felt about the science in the exhibition, how many visitors reacted, and what volunteers feel the RACE exhibition means.

David D. LaCroix, Office of Education and Outreach

Image captions and credits (top to bottom):

Volunteer Lisa Walsh talks with a visitor about a popular interactive station. Credit: Charles Chen, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History;

Caption: Programming coordinator David D. LaCroix and volunteer David Marshall (rear, dark jackets) discuss the RACE exhibition with a group of visitors. Credit: Reginald Galloway, Princeton Club of Washington

 

The Beautiful Time: Photography by Sammy Baloji

The Beautiful Time opened on January 7^th, in the Focus Gallery of the permanent exhibit, African Voices.  It will be on view through 2012. This post is the first in series exploring the content and themes of The Beautiful Time.

I first saw the Baloji exhibition, which was organized by the Museum for African Art, when it opened in New York over a year ago.  I was immediately struck by the beauty and the visual power of the work and by the stories Baloji’s works tell of history and memory, home and landscape, and work and wealth in the Congo.  These are all important themes in Africa today and they are themes of so many of the stories from around the continent that are told in African Voices.  I was delighted that we were able to bring the exhibit here to NMNH.  

Baloji’s haunting photographs evoke the memory of the generations of Congolese whose labor built the vibrant copper mining industry—now lost—in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Throughout the first half of the twentieth century these mines were the second largest producers of copper in the world.   

Baloji’s photographic collages juxtapose black and white archival photographs of Congolese mine workers against the background of color photographs of panoramic landscapes of the contemporary ruins of factories and copper mines.  Although the early workers—who wear prison garb and in chains in some of these photographs—came to the mines as forced labor for the colonial state, they had within a few decades become highly skilled and valued mine workers.  Their labor created Congo’s modern industrial era and in his artwork, Baloji’s celebrates these mine workers’ essential role in Congo’s prosperity.  At the same time that they celebrate this history, these photographs convey the dramatic power of tragedy—the loss of the hard earned prosperity that has been squandered over the past decades through mismanagement and corruption.

Baloji is part of a generation of young Congolese who were born nearly two decades after the end of the colonial era in 1960.  His work aims to understand and reconnect for contemporary Congolese and for us two strikingly different time periods –the colonial and the post colonial era.  His photographs give voice to those forgotten African workers who built Congo’s mining industry in the early part of the 20^th century, and they cry out against the recent deindustrialization in the Congo and elsewhere in Africa.

Last year, I had the opportunity to meet Sammy and his colleague Patrick Mudekereza, in Brussels. Patrick is a writer and a long time artistic collaborator with Baloji in the Congo.  I asked Patrick to share his thoughts on these photographs and we have included his commentary in the exhibit.  Asked about the meaning of the phrase, The Beautiful Time, Patrick explained, “Sammy’s photographs are not nostalgic celebrations of The Beautiful Time, a phrase we often hear the older generation use when referring to the golden age of the colonial mining industry.  Rather, Sammy’s pictures speak to today and imply a failure by our leaders to provide our people with a means to create a more beautiful time than before.”

Mary Jo Arnoldi, Curator, African ethnology and arts, Department of Anthropology, NMNH

 

Image caption and credit: The archival photographs in this montage were probably taken in the early twentieth century. Porters, carrying loadsof firewood, are dressed in prioson uniforms and are attached to one another by rope. Baloji has placed the prisoners along the tracks of a now useless railway, signaling a loss of potential. Untitled, Sammy Baloji, 2006, Digital C print