[Nhcoll-l] The Dangerous Museum

[Steve Sullivan]

Commuting to work with my wife one snowy morning she yelled, "Stop!" When I
did, she jumped out of the car and crawled under a nearby truck only to
emerge with a huge, snow white possum in perfect condition.  Since I was
currently in need of such a specimen, and considering the preservative
effects of the cold, we decided this was good luck and continued on our way
to work.  By the time I arrived at the museum, I realized that the possum
was more fresh than I had assumed since it's parasite population had
transferred from the back seat to my body.  After a good scrub, I skinned
the specimen and found that it had been killed by a single BB to the ear.
This was ironic since just up the block from where the specimen was found, a
sign proudly proclaimed that this community was a "Nuclear Weapons Free
Zone."

---Steve

Steven M. Sullivan  |  Senior Curator of Urban Ecology
The Chicago Academy of Sciences and its Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Museum|2430 North Cannon Drive|Chicago Illinois 60614|naturemuseum.org
Collections|4001 North Ravenswood Ave.|Chicago Illinois
60613|projectsquirrel.org
P 708-937-6253 | F 773-755-5199 | ssullivan at naturemuseum.org

A century of memories and lessons from the Passenger Pigeon at
passengerpigeon.org





-----Original Message-----
From: nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu
[mailto:nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu] On Behalf Of dinoceras at juno.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2013 9:19 AM
To: nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] The Dangerous Museum

Hi all,
 
I'm working on a talk for visitors to our museum that's all about the types
of dangers (dangerous objects, substances, activities, etc.) we sometimes
encounter in our work behind-the-scenes in collections. It's meant to be
informative, not to mention---entertaining. I'm starting with how we get
objects to the museum, preparing & conserving them, handling them, etc. If
any of you have any stories or images you are willing to share along these
lines, please contact me. I'd love to hear about what you've had to deal
with from disease-carrying rodents to nasty stuff on clothing & herbarium
sheets, and everything in between. 
 
Thanks in advance,
 
Chris Chandler

Curator of Natural Science
Putnam Museum
Davenport, IA 

dinoceras at juno.com
563-324-1054 x226
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