[Nhcoll-l] Mammal Bone Prep Survey 2023

[Crawford, Audrey Rose]

Hello all,



My name is Audrey Crawford;  I am a graduate student in the Museum Studies Master’s program at the University of Kansas. For my final project, I am surveying the mammal bone preparation community to investigate the wide variety of ways that people clean mammal bones today.



If you work in the United States, are over 18, are not incarcerated, and prepare mammal bones for long-term storage or use I would like to invite you to participate in this study<https://forms.gle/hYgHEFczRnUDoKpn6>. If you already have a protocol or “how-to” written, participating may take as little as 5 minutes.



The purpose of this survey is to observe and record the wide variety of mammal bone preparation techniques used across the United States. We would like to look at as many methods as possible, so please do share this survey/link with anyone you feel would be interested. Although this is a museum studies project, we are particularly interested in reaching groups who haven't previously received academic attention, such as indigenous groups, for-profit taxidermists, and private organizations. We are also interested in groups who feel their methods are outdated or inefficient to see the range of techniques in use today. We recognize that to some, these practices are closed or proprietary, so we encourage you to only share what you feel comfortable sharing publicly; there are also options to submit anonymously. The survey includes a permissions section where you may outline in detail the ways you would and would not like this information to be used.



What exactly is mammal bone preparation? Here, this is the process of removing the tissue from deceased animals so that their bones may be saved indefinitely as skeletons or be used for any variety of purposes, including making art, tools, etc. This should be distinguished from taxidermy, which is the art of mounting skins to forms, although sometimes prepared bones are used in that process. There are a variety of ways to prepare bones, including picking away tissue by hand or with the help of dermestid beetles, by water rotting (maceration), burying, ocean submersion, and many others. We want to know how you do this at your group or institution.



It is my hope that by sharing our techniques they can be better documented for the future, and that we can learn more about the bones in our care, share alternative protocols, and improve the reliability of our research.



To participate, follow this link: https://forms.gle/hYgHEFczRnUDoKpn6

and fill out the full survey. Note that you do need to provide a Gmail address to participate.



Please send any questions, feedback, or concerns to boneprepsurvey at gmail.com<mailto:boneprepsurvey at gmail.com>



Thank you,

Audrey Crawford

Museum Studies Graduate Student
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