National Museum of Natural History Unearthed

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).

 

 

Behind those Doors: Internships and Fellowships at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History

As a child, I was fascinated by places like the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) but found it difficult to imagine as a real place where people could participate in and contribute to its activities and operations.  And then there are those doors - the ones that lead beyond the public exhibitions.  What’s behind them?

I got the chance to find out when I became a summer intern, which was also when I discovered my passion for facilitating this kind of experience for others.  As the Head of the Office of Academic Services and a former NMNH intern, I can assure you the place is real, the staff are amazing, and through our academic opportunities, people like you can contributing their time and talents toward our endeavors. 

Still a bit curious about what internships and fellowships are like at NMNH and wondering how you can apply? Through our series "Behind Those Doors," you'll take peeks behind-the-scenes with stories about our academic opportunities, the people participating in them, and links to more information about how to apply.

Winter and Spring Break Internships

So what did you do over winter break?  Hang out with family?  Eat  too many holiday cookies?  Did you know we have a special internship program specially designed to place interested and motivated undergraduate and graduate students, in short-term internships during their winter and spring breaks? During these short internships, you can gain practical experience by working in a museum setting, develop new skills learned from our staff, provide a service to the organization by contributing your time and talents, create professional partnerships, and pursue your fields of interest.

This year we had 36 students participate in our 2012 Winter Break Internship Program.  They came from 16 different states, joined 18 different projects, and engaged with us for a combined total of nearly 5,000 hours.

Why offer such short internships?  In the words of intern Jeremy Azurin, from Virginia Tech, “It's a fantastic time to explore different areas of science and possible career options, meet other interns and professional staff, and most importantly, gain valuable experience within the Museum.” 

About her Winter Break Internship ShuMing Huang, a freshman from Smith College, commented “As the introduction says, '…because at Smithsonian, the possibility is endless!' My experience at Smithsonian really proved this statement.  I have not only explored the endless possibilities, but also inspired by the people I met, the exhibitions I visited, and the projects I worked on. Every day is a new adventure.” 

Can you really make a contribution during such a short internships?  You bet!  Arthi Aravind, from the College of William and Mary, working in our Division of Birds, puts it in perspective for us all.  “Someday, a hundred years in the future, a researcher might pick up one of the birds I worked on and count it as a data point, and it will have done its part to help further the mission of the Smithsonian Institution, which is to 'increase and diffuse knowledge.' In its lifetime, it’s difficult to predict just how many projects this one specimen will be involved in, but when you consider how many specimens the Smithsonian Institution has as a whole—that’s 137 million—it’s mind-boggling to imagine the importance of the collections to the cause of advancing human scientific knowledge. What’s important is that museum visitors are aware of this, so they can truly understand the mission of museums and all that they do."

Spring is just around the corner.  What are you doing over spring break?  We’re now placing students in our week-long Spring Break Internship Program. 

Mary Sangrey, Head, Office of Academic Services

Image captions and credits (top to bottom): In addition to contributing to a project, winter break program participants have the opportunity to join special tours of NMNH's research facilities and collections areas; Arthi Aravind with the study skin of a Yellow-Headed blackbird that she prepared during her winter break internship. Images courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Dispatches from Olorgesailie

(Note: This post originally appeared on the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program website as an introduction to their 2011 field season. Thank you to Dr. Rick Potts for allowing it to be reposted here!)

The study of human evolution is full of exploration, digging, and discovery. This blog tells of our Smithsonian team’s field experiences over the next several weeks as we explore, dig, and discover ancient tools and fossil bones.

This summer we’ll pick up from previous years to tell you about our research and discoveries at the field site in southern Kenya where we’ve worked for many years. Olorgesailie is the name of the site. Pronounced ‘Oh-LORG-eh-SIGH-lee, it’s a Maasai name for an ancient and inactive volcanic mountain on the floor of the East African Rift Valley in southern Kenya. It’s also the name of the surrounding countryside, much of which is a beautiful land of sharp cliffs, eroded hills, and dusty gullies.

Over many, many thousands of years, erosion by wind and rain has cut the ancient layers of sediment that piled up over hundreds of thousands of years. Those layers of dirt preserve lots of stone tools and fossilized remains, which were buried and became embedded in those layers, or strata (as geologists refer to them). From these hardened clues of stones and fossils buried in dirt, our team seeks to piece together an understanding of the lives of early human species and how their lives changed over time. You can think of the clues as an echo of an ancient time. They’re the only things left in the present about who these earlier precursors of our species were, how they lived, and what their surroundings were like.

During the course of this blog, I hope you’ll listen in about how we do this work, and why we think the stone tools and fossils we find are part of a growing understanding of the origin of our species. In fact, I’ll try my best to introduce you to a wide range of topics about our team’s study of human evolution.

As I write this diary from the field, you’ll get a picture of our digs and the people who are part of our research. For now, let me mention Dr. Briana Pobiner, who works with me in the Human Origins Program at the Smithsonian. While Briana has her own research in Kenya, she also works with our team back home as our expert in public outreach and education. Briana kindly came over a few weeks ago, before I was able to leave the U.S., to help prepare for the Olorgesailie field season. That involved organizing the Kenya crew and making sure our field vehicles were getting serviced and repaired.

Life outdoors in the dust and sun of the Rift Valley is fun – and also very challenging. It takes us away from our lives back home in the office and classroom, into a world of early ancestors and relatives of our species. It’s no exaggeration to say, I can’t think of anything more rewarding or exciting to do. I hope you enjoy this adventure.  

Click here to read about day one.

- Rick Potts, Director of the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program

Image caption and credit: Dr. Rick Potts, image courtesy of the Smithsonian's Human Origins Program.

Fossil Hunting under the Watchful Eyes of Lions

The Museum’s fossil preparation facility, FossiLab, recently received a shipment of dinosaur fossils from northern Zimbabwe.  They were collected last year by an international team of scientists, including NMNH Dinosaur Curator Matt Carrano.

The fossils, still largely encased in rock, are of two types of dinosaur.  One, a small, primitive meat eater closely related to Coelophysis, was a member of the dinosaur group that eventually gave rise to huge predators like T. rex.  These fossils were found in a “bone bed,” a place where the fossil remains of many individuals are mixed together.  Coelophysis fossils have been found in other bone beds, most famously at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, and the new discovery may help scientists answer questions such as whether Coelophysis and related species lived in groups, and what events led to the death and burial of so many animals at once.  The other Zimbabwean dinosaur is a prosauropod, a medium-sized plant eater that had a large claw on its thumb, a long neck, and leaf-shaped teeth for chopping plant matter.  They seem to have been quite common at a time when the local environment was desert, and researchers wonder why.

The scientists discovered the fossils in a river canyon.  During the rainy season, water courses through the canyon eroding its rock walls and uncovering fossils.  Then, when the rains stop, the riverbed dries up and becomes a convenient path for scientists prospecting for newly exposed fossils – and for lions and elephants traveling through the bush.

Paleontologists are friendly, as a rule, but prospecting can be solitary work.  Team members often spread out to cover as much territory as possible, and as they walk slowly along searching for fossils, they sometimes become oblivious to everything around them.  Obviously, this is not the smartest behavior when large, possibly dangerous animals are nearby, so the team hired a local wildlife guide to keep them out of trouble.  He coached them on what not to do when charged by lions (run), or elephants (stand still) and kept them bunched together in the relative safety of a “herd” as they prospected in the canyon.

The scientists found the tracks of several big cats as they worked in the riverbed, but, to their relief, they came face to face with only one group of predators -- dinosaurs, all safely fossilized.

 Abby Telfer, FossiLab Manager, Paleobiology Department

Image captions and credits (top to bottom): At the Museum, a plaster and burlap field jacket holds a jumble of dinosaur fossils from the bone bed, including a jaw fragment with teeth (center). Photo by A. Telfer; Removing fossils from the canyon wall in Zimbabwe.  Photo by M. Carrano;  Leopard tracks in the dry riverbed. Photo by M. Carrano.

Happy Birthday David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins!

The David H. Koch Hall of Human Origins celebrated its first birthday yesterday! Even our bronze sculptures joined in the celebration, like the picture of the Neanderthal mother and child at right. In honor of the exhibit’s first birthday, we ran a human-evolution-themed haiku and limerick contest on our Human Origins facebook and twitter accounts. Below are all the contest entries, including our four winners (listed at the top) who will each get a copy of the exhibit companion book “What Does It Mean To Be Human?" signed by exhibit curator, Dr. Rick Potts!
 
Winners

First place:
extant hands digging
reveal bits of extinct bone
cradle an ancestor
 
Second place:
There once was a man from Neander
Who often liked to meander
He had flatter feet,
and couldn't compete,
with Homo sapiens' delusions of grandeur.
 
Third Place:
Dark skull-eyes haunt me
did you hear the eagle strike
Taung Child so long dead?
 
Fourth Place:
There once was a man named Svante
whose sequencing was muy elegante.
When he examined the code
For the saucy story it told--
a Neanderthal is more than my Aunty.
 
Honorable Mentions:

Evolution Spring
Her breath takes flight
Deep unearthed sigh
 
There once was a boy from Turkana
who wasn’t as swift as the fauna.
But because he could sweat,
he kept the antelopes upset
and became a marathon runner.
 
A toothy young biped from Old’vai
Is now Paranthropus boisei.
Tho’ his body seems small,
His mandible’s tall
The crested, broad-faced OH 5.
 
Matthew Berger a young man spawned from an amoeba
Thought he would be like his dad and not Justin Bieber
He found some old bones
While clearing some stones.
Holy Cow! Australopithecus sediba!
 
There once was a planet called Earth...
and intelligence, O what a dearth.
But wildly variable seasons
provided plenty of reasons
for a habile hominid's birth.
 
Humanity is hominids
walking around in
designer suits
 
He’s muscular, thick-browed, and hairy
His demeanor is savage and scary
A Neanderthal, or
Is it just Jersey Shore?
Sure, we’re different, but really, not very.
 
The Neanderthal’s cranial ridge
Was a Cainial sign of orig
Inal sin, and the Ark
Kept him off for this mark.
(If you think that, I’ll sell you a bridge.)
 
A Neanderthal asked me to tea
To discuss our tall family tree.
He asked, "This srectus --
Does anything connect us?"
"You're both Homos," I said, "just like me!"
 
A young Mitochondrial Eve
Was the mother to all, we believe;
Her mtDNA
Is still with us today
A remarkable feat to achieve!
 
There once was a critter named “Hobbit”.
But Eckhardt told Tocheri to stop it.
It’s pathological you see,
your colored bones won’t fool me.
But for most, a new species they posit.
 
Bipedalism
consider the opening:
foramen magnum.
 
As we look at our similar shape
A conclusion that few can escape
(Save a few who still try
To believe in a lie):
It is clear, now, that man is an ape
 
A tiny young lady named Lucy
Wanted to eat something juicy
----
----
Her descendants include Gary Busey
 
lumbar lordosis
gut reduces, brain expands
take a walk with me
 
Fire with us tonight:
Tasty food and we sleep warm -
How do we keep it?
 
Other Entries:

Drowsy toolmaker
Glimmering lights above are
Yet to be noticed
 
Who was first meat eater?
Early Humans/Carnivores?
Yay! Big Brains for all.
 
Questions Need Answers.
What Makes You and I Human?
Just Go Ask Lucy!
 
It's Not About Size.
Chants Homo floresiensis
Kimono Dragon!
 
There once was a hominin name Lucy,
who walked across savanna bipedally.
In East Africa she did roam,
maybe a cousin or so to Homo.
From 3 million years past,
to Don Johanson’s hands fast,
her fossil informs evolutionary history.
 
There once was an amoeba called ken.
Who grew and then grew again.
All at once he began to walk like a man
Ken winked as he vowed the Higgs Boson would never be found and smiled as he teleported away away
 
Lucy stood upright,
Then human learned to use tools.
Now we tweet poems.
 
Homo habilis:
Lived in the Olduvai Gorge,
Handy with stone tools.
 
Our brains are shrinking
Possibly just efficient
Always evolving
 
There once was a chap named Potts
Looking for Hominids in all the different plots
He works with Dr. Pobiner
And they search here and there but moreover,
We like them as much as a ten year old likes tater tots.
 
A red-headed German named William
lived to tell his people he's Liam
he evolved bi-pedal
loves to strum his fiddle
but only the Irish can see him.
 
Darwin, said he, from apes
But what of in-between states?
Unique are we? One since bipedality?
We seek to know; We hope to show
And now impact our fate
 
Proud and bipedal
Tools - my source of power
Grateful for my thumbs
 
opposable thumb
The walking upright stomach
And a big brain too
 
small pearly teeth
maiden waist
a spark of fire
 
'Bout the time of Neanderthal Man,
Our progress in science began--
We took off right from there
And soon flew in the air--
Now the Right wants us back on the land.
 
there once was a girl,
named suzanna, who had zee,
not a banana
 
Oozing from a primordial swamp
Slithering across dry land
Walking in the shadow of giants
 
As Nelda grows older, she firmly maintains:
"Erectus was first to leave Africa's plains!"
No, she won't back down easy
When you mention Dmanisi
Oh, and don't get her started on Hobbit brains!
 
There's a family called Hominidae
Whose tree grows in some crazy way
Archaeologists fight
Over details all night
But we know we're all kin anyway

Image courtesy of Donald Hurlbert, Smithsonian Institution

19th Annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation's Capital

The 19th Annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital runs from March 15–27, 2011. The National Museum of Natural History has been a Festival partner since 1993 when the Festival was founded. We are pleased to present the following films and programs at the Museum as part of the Festival:

Thursday, March 17
7:00pm in Baird Auditorium
Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie
Discussion with David Suzuki and director Sturla Gunnarsson follows the film. Book signing by David Suzuki concludes the evening.
 
Friday, March 18
7:00pm in Baird Auditorium
Lecture by E.O. Wilson focusing on his two recently published books, The Leafcutter Ants: Civilization by Instinct and Kingdom of the Ants: José Celestino Mutis and the Dawn of American Natural History
Question and answer session and book signing by E.O. Wilson follows the lecture.
 
Saturday, March 19
12:15-4:45pm in Baird Auditorium
The Changing Sea
Mysteries of the Deep
America’s Lost Landscape: The Tallgrass Prairie
Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time

7:00pm in the Johnson IMAX Theater (tickets required – visit www.residentassociates.org to purchase)
Arabia 3D

Sunday, March 20
1:00-4:45pm in Baird Auditorium
Sky Island 
Ribbon of Sand
Islands in the Wind
Creating Synthetic Life
 
Saturday, March 26
12:00-5:00pm in Baird Auditorium
Winners from the 2010 Wildscreen Film Festival:
The Pack: Episode 5
Monkey Thieves: Searching for Sanctuary
The Coral Gardener
Green
How Earth Made Us: Deep Earth
The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos

Sunday, March 27
12:15-4:30pm in Baird Auditorium
America’s Wildest Refuge
Cuba: The Accidental Eden
Plan B: Mobilizing to Save Civilization
 
All programs are free and open to the public, except where noted. For specific screening times, descriptions, and panelists, visit www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org or www.mnh.si.edu/calendar.asp.

Be Part of the Future of Your Museum

Staring into the brilliance of the Hope Diamond.

Gazing up at an African bush elephant.

Discovering exhibits and browsing collections online.

Getting up close to a Coelacanth fossil.

Participating in a free, interactive educational program.

These are just a few of the memories experienced every day at NMNH. There are many more memories that you, the Museum’s community, shared with us this past year. Whether you visited the Museum as a child, or brought your own children to explore the wonders of science today; if you browse our blogs or stay up to date on our scientific research and discoveries—however you are involved—you are an important part of this Museum’s past. As we begin our next 100 years, we hope you will continue to be a part of our future. And one way you can start is by showing your support and giving back to your Museum. Your gift today will help us fulfill our mission tomorrow. You can contribute to one of our newest exhibitions, like Human Origins, donate to the Ocean Portal, or select a field of scientific study. Wherever you choose to give, your tax-deductible gift will help ensure this Museum continues to provide dynamic educational programs, important scientific research, interactive websites, and amazing exhibits for you and generations to come.

Thank you for being a part of the future of your Museum.

Text and imagery courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.

Insect Collecting - Bowls, Fogging, and More!

Back in June, Dr. Matt Buffington told you how to photograph parasitic wasps. How have these nearly four million wasps gotten and continue to get into our collections? Dr. Michael Gates has the story.

Itching to Experience Real Museum Objects and Specimens?

Have you ever wanted to examine one of the thousands of objects on display at the National Museum of Natural History just a little more closely?  Maybe touch it, turn it over, feel its weight, or smell it?  The hands-on learning spaces in the museum give you a chance to try your hand at the work that our scientists and researchers do by getting a feel – literally – for what it’s like to be behind the scenes at the Museum.

Through the Office of Education and Outreach, the Museum offers many opportunities for you to get your hands on objects and specimens from Museum collections.  Is Phoenix the North Atlantic Right Whale’s lofty perch in the Sant Ocean Hall just a little too high to see her physical details?  You can catch one of our Ocean Hall Navigators walking around with baleen similar to what Phoenix would have in her mouth and you can touch and examine it up close.  Programs such as The Scientist is In and Forensic Friday allow you to talk one-on-one with museum scientists and specialists about their research while allowing you to try your hand studying objects with the equipment they use for their work.  Discovery Carts pepper several exhibitions such as Geology, Gems and Minerals, the Korea Gallery, and the Hall of Human Origins with activities and objects that let you to delve further into the exhibitions’ themes and topics.  Almost daily, the Insect Zoo brings out live insects such as grasshoppers, stick insects and hissing cockroaches that you can handle and let crawl over you as you wish.  The Naturalist Center, in Leesburg, VA, provides you with a space to use Museum collections to identify unknown specimens that you have collected yourself.

One of the main goals of the museum’s public programming is to provide activities and experiences that immerse you in the science that happens behind-the-scenes and get you actively using the collections that our Museum houses to do real and authentic science.  The Discovery Room, which was one of the first of its kind when it opened its doors in 1974, is a dedicated space for the exploration of natural history specimens and the research being conducted at the museum through hands-on activities.  Drawers fashioned to represent how collections are used in our science divisions feature specimens that you can use to answer research questions similar to the ones our research and collections staff encounter.  Cubbies filled with rocks, skull casts, ocean fossils and anthropological objects invite you to use your scientific skills to compare, contrast and classify objects.  You can use microscopes to look more closely at a butterfly’s scaly wings or the different layers that a rock is composed of.  The Discovery Room uses collections shared by our research divisions. Each experience is designed on the work of our scientists.  Educators and scientists work together to provide the most realistic and authentic experience possible.

The Forensic Anthropology Lab is another hands-on space that delves into the popular topic of physical and forensic anthropology and offers you a unique chance to study real human skeletal remains and work to solve a realistic forensic case.  You can engage in the work of a forensic anthropologist by learning and applying techniques to determine things like whether a person is male or female from a real hip bone or how old someone is from studying their teeth.  One of our most popular objects is a femur that had broken during someone’s lifetime but healed crooked and displaced.  We’ve found that visitors are drawn to those things that they can relate to in their everyday lives.  Have they ever broken a bone before?  Has anyone in their family ever suffered from back problems or osteoporosis?  The Forensic Anthropology Lab allows you to make personal connections and experience authentic specimens that show the effects of these types of trauma and disease on bones. 

So, if during your next visit to the museum you get an itching to touch, feel and experience real museum objects and specimens, come get your fix in one of our learning spaces.  Also stay tuned for new programs and spaces designed to invite and engage the world in the work of the National Museum of Natural History! 

Gale Robertson, Education Specialist, Office of Education and Outreach

 

Image captions and credits (top to bottom): Measuring a femur to determine the height of an individual in the Forensic Anthropology Lab.  Credit James Di Loreto and Leah L. Jones; Studying teeth to determine the age of an individual in the Forensic Anthropology Lab.  Credit:  James Di Loreto and Leah L. Jones.

Crafting for a Cause: The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Comes to the Smithsonian

This past summer, I was lucky enough to intern at the National Museum of Natural History as they prepared for an exhibit that is coming to the museum this weekend: The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef.  This project is a collaboration of Margaret and Christine Wertheim, two sisters from California who combine art, science, conservation, and mathematics to create a unique coral reef-like structure constructed out of crochet.  Unbeknownst to my supervisors, this project was right up my alley.  An avid craft enthusiast since childhood, I have always wanted to explore the medium of crochet, and the fact that this exhibit involves so many different disciplines made it even more fascinating to me.  What better way to raise awareness about coral reefs than creating one in our own community made out of beautiful and delicate needlework? (Plus: Who doesn’t like crafting for a cause?)

As part of my internship, I created a video podcast documenting the construction of the Smithsonian Community Coral Reef, which will be the largest part of the display in The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef.  In this podcast, I interviewed participants and shot footage of them crocheting individual pieces – called polyps - that put together will make up the reef.  Making this podcast was such great experience not only because of the unique nature of this project, but also because of the wonderful people I got to meet at events held at several D.C. area yarn shops as well as the Smithsonian itself.  Before I would film anything, I always sat down with the participants, a great majority of whom were women.  I was fascinated by hearing their stories of how they came to be involved in this project, from the woman who was crocheting in memory of her deceased, former-diver husband to a teacher involving her pre-teen students in the projects.  There was no shortage of stories.

Most of the participants came from the artistic perspective of the exhibit, avid crocheters who are always looking for a new project.  But along the way, they became interested in the science, mathematics, and conservation of aspects as well.  One specific image comes to mind of one of the workshops held at the Smithsonian.  As I came in, one woman was taking out a small stack of books she had brought with her from her local library to help educate her fellow crocheters on making their coral pieces naturally accurate.  Another woman had checked out books from the kids’ section of the library that included vibrant illustrations and pictures, inspiring her to branch out in crocheting different types of coral then the ones that had been initially suggested.

The sheer enthusiasm for being accurate in their designs was impressive enough, but the creativity of the participants was truly stunning.  As part of the Toxic Coral Reef section of the exhibit, one woman had the brilliant idea of using old videotape reels as yarn, resulting in a shiny and diseased looking piece of coral.  Along with her design, I witnessed many others crocheting with makeshift yarn made from plastic bags as additions to the reef, creating a stiff, captivating coral that must be seen to be believed.

All in all, I couldn’t have asked for a better internship experience, and I’m so excited to make the drive down from Boston to see the exhibit.

Natalie Zarowny, Intern, Exhibits

 

Image captions and credits (top to bottom): Natalie Zarowny, courtesy of Natalie Zarowny; Polyps created for the Smithsonian Reef, courtesy of Natalie Zarowny; The Fiber Space Reef, courtesy of Jennifer Lindsay