What Lies Beneath (The Museum That Is)

The argument could be made that natural history museum collections are the most diverse of all kinds of museums in terms of the variety of objects and materials. Kingman Museum, for example, has small mineral samples, large and heavy fossil bones, fragile ceramics, dried plants, and mounted animals just to name a few. The museum is currently completing a two-year Institute of Museum and Library Services cataloging collection grant. Volunteers and staff have been sifting through the storage rooms, writing descriptions, and taking pictures of all the collection objects. While cataloging and inventorying these rooms, a variety of items have “popped up” in the collection that we did not know existed.

Two weeks ago a volunteer informed me that there was a wooden crate on top of some of the cabinets in the sub basement storage room. She was unable to move it by herself so the next day I “volunteered” two helpers to assist me in taking the crate down so we could catalog its contents. After a very complicated and technical process of taking the crate down, we opened it up with a crow bar [this is where The Christmas Story “fragilé” comment is inserted]. The mystery item in the crate was…a Mastodon tusk! The tusk is one of two that was excavated by Kingman Staff in the 1940’s on Fort Custer grounds. The staff and board hope to repair this tusk and place it on display for public viewing in the near future. Please let us know if you are interested in donating to this project.

To prove my dedication to this blog I am literally typing this entry while in the back of a car that is returning to Battle Creek from a workshop in Ann Arbor. Nothing like multi-tasking!