[Nhcoll-l] FW: making the case for natural history collections and their wider benefit to society and the environment

[Schindel, David]

Thanks for sharing this, Susan.  Well done.  Our messages crossed on fiber-optic cables.  People will see the parallels between the collections stories you refer to and the stories told on Shelf Life videos.

The Curiosity Cabinet certainly has great appeal because there is some deeply strange and beautiful stuff in Nature.  Putting it on display can be very dramatic but not everything with an important story to tell is eye-catching.  Exhibits that provide the visitor with bigger messages can be tough but display specimens can help (e.g., "We know about Greenhouse gases from gas bubbles in ice cores like this one.  They go back 100s of thousands of years.")  This leads us to the critical message:

"We know about this because of tremendous collections made and preserved around the world and the sharing of information by museums like this." Variations on this message have greater impact than saying "What you see on display is only a tiny fraction of our collections."  Visitors (and funders) could easily ask "Why do you keep all that stuff if you don't need it for exhibits?"

David

-----Original Message-----
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu [mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Susan Gallagher
Sent: Friday, January 22, 2016 9:49 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: Re: [Nhcoll-l] FW: making the case for natural history collections and their wider benefit to society and the environment


Not sure if this helps, but thought I would share.

I wrote the attached article for our nature center's newsletter - from 
the perspective of someone who applauds what you all do, and who tries 
to help the public understand the importance of natural history collections.

Sue




-- 
*******************************************
Susan Gallagher, Chief Naturalist
Carbon County Environmental Education Center
151 East White Bear Drive
Summit Hill, Pennsylvania  18250
(570) 645-8597

sugal at ptd.net
www.carboneec.org