Several years ago I visited the natural history museum on the mall near the
nation's capitol. (Probably everyone knows the name of it but me - it is
part of the Smithsonian complex.) I was appalled by the condition of the
mounted bird exhibits. Some species were still referred to by their
accepted names from the 1930s. In the case of Wilson's Snipe they were
slightly ahead of their time in being so far behind. (Is Yogi Berra a
bird?) Even the Passenger Pigeons were in a bad state of neglect. I think
it is strange that when the national interest in birds has reached its
greatest level that some museums have neglected their mounted collections.

Jeff Gilligan
Portland


on 12/13/05 12:36 PM, Dennis Paulson at dennispaulson at comcast.net wrote:

Phil Hotten wrote:

As a social isolate, I might just as well be living on the moon. But, it
seems to me that Whatcom County should be endeavoring to expand its natural
history exhibiits, instead of getting rid of that irreplaceable mounted bird
collection. This county is becoming paved over, and the younger generations
should be aware of what they are losing and what they have lost, natural
history-wise. The great natural history? museums of western europe are
constantly visited by school children, including displays showing how the
USA, Mexico, et al. have squandered their natural world.
------
Phil, you're absolutely right. I consider it a tragedy that so many museums
are abandoning exhibits and collections such as these to make way for
exhibits to go along with our modern fast-paced world (in other words, those
that kids can relate to, more like video games). When I worked at the Burke
Museum in the early 70s, they had a fine exhibit of mounted local birds, and
the administrative staff (which were all cultural rather than natural
historians) took down the exhibit to make way for remodeling and then
conveniently never put it back up. It was apparently one of the more popular
exhibits at the time, but one wonders if museum personnel pay as much
attention to that as they do to the latest trends in exhibitry. Don't get me
wrong, I'm entirely pro-museum, but I've seen these changes and regret the
trend toward fancier and fancier exhibits with fewer actual specimens.

We're losing not only nature but the ability to relate to it, the latter
just because almost all of us live away from it. Those mounted birds are
real, more real in a way than a TV program about bird behavior, and yet it's
getting harder and harder for any of us to have access to such educational
resources.



Dennis Paulson

1724 NE 98 St.

Seattle, WA 98115

206-528-1382


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