[Nhcoll-l] EXT : The Dangerous Museum

[Bryant, James]

Poorly secured load story: The exhibits designer were using a museum cargo van to return a large Alaskan mammoth tusk to a nearby institution. Our anthropology curator cautioned us on securing the load, lest we become the first humans crushed by a  mammoth in Southern California in roughly 20,000 years.

Back in 1980, I attended a Washington Entomological Society lecture at SI-NMNH entitled "Insects of Medical Importance". The presentation's content intentionally excluded all vector species as well as species with bites or stings. One of the more remarkable stories involved a curator at the institution who developed symptoms of a bad sinus infection. After some suffering, he sneezed one day and found an adult insect in his handkerchief. It was a species that he had apparently inhaled during a less cautious moment using an aspirator in the field. Needless to say, the adult insect went into the collection...and was on view at the lecture.

James M. Bryant
Curator of Natural History
Museum Depart., City of Riverside
3580 Mission Inn Avenue
Riverside, CA 92501
TEL: 951-826-5273
FAX: 951-369-4970
jbryant at riversideca.gov<mailto:jbryant at riversideca.gov>
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