[Nhcoll-l] The Dangerous Museum

Wed Dec 11 12:28:27 EST 2013

A few years ago while at the in-laws for Christmas I got a call from the regional office of Conservation Officers here in town. He had heard I was in town and reminded me their freezer was full of confiscated carcasses he was able to release to the museum. Luckily I had a large Thule box on the roof of our white minivan full of ski gear we had already used on the trip. So I transferred all the gear into the inside of the van and stuffed the Thule with a bunch of raptors, a selection of medium-sized mammals including 2 beavers, and a badger. I explained to my wife and kids that I had to deliver the frozen specimens back to the museum. I suppose expectedly they were afraid that some would start thawing out and perhaps cause trails of blood to course down the sides and back of the van. This would make approval to drive onto the ferry home difficult…not to mention fraught with some serious splaynin to do. Naturally the drive down to the coast was all in weather below freezing and it was only on the coast where the temp was above freezing. So all were relieved, the delivery was made…and there was no blood.

Kelly
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Kelly Sendall      Head of Collections Care & Conservation  |  Archives, Collections & Knowledge

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From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Anderson, Gretchen
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2013 8:51 AM
To: cjschmidt at fhsu.edu; dinoceras at juno.com
Cc: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu; nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] The Dangerous Museum

Along the same line – some years ago (early 2000’s) the we were called to pick up a dead goat from a local farm- for the comparative osteology collection.  Staff went to get it – it had been dead long enough to be bloated.  The biologist/preparator began working on her – and nicked the wrong bit of the gut – all the gas hissed out and even the biologist (who was known not to have much of a sense of smell) had to evacuate!  The entire corridor was ripe for days – in a brand new building!

Another story: gunpowder: At my former institution we had to call in the bomb squad a number of times.  When I was first involved as an intern, we found a batch of ammunition from the 1880’s- through WWI.  Bomb squad came in and disposed of the powder.  So…. Some years later, we called the squad again.  We had recently collected cultural material from the Hmong peoples of from the hills of Laos.  These people continued to use flint locks through the Vietnam War, reasoning that they could actually fix the guns themselves – unlike the more automated rifles.  So the guns came with powder horns.  Imagine my surprise when examining them, only to discover that there was still black powder – lots of powder- in the containers.  (I have never figured out how this was missed by the inspectors prior to shipment.) The only thing was that the bomb squad laughed at our concern – they swore that the powder could not be exploded – refused to believe that it was actually viable!  We made them dispose of it anyway.

Gretchen Anderson
Conservator
Carnegie Museum of Natural History
5800 Baum Blvd
Pittsburgh, PA 15202
Phone (412)665-2607
Andersong at CarnegieMNH.org<mailto:Andersong at CarnegieMNH.org>
http://www.carnegiemnh.org

From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of cjschmidt at fhsu.edu<mailto:cjschmidt at fhsu.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 10:35 AM
To: dinoceras at juno.com<mailto:dinoceras at juno.com>
Cc: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>; nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu<mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] The Dangerous Museum

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Here's a funny story,

Found a dead, bloated 100 lb Alligator Snapping Turtle in a lake in Florida. Strapped it to the top of my Jeep and drove all the way back to Kansas. Upon arrival (3 days later), I made one of my undergraduate student assistants clean the carcass and prepare it for being skeletonized. GROSS is an understatement!!

Curtis Schmidt
______________________________

Curtis J. Schmidt
Zoological Collections Manager
Sternberg Museum of Natural History
Fort Hays State University
3000 Sternberg Drive
Hays, KS  67601
(785) 628-5504 (collections)
(785) 650-2447 (cell)
______________________________

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