[Nhcoll-l] The Dangerous Museum

[Steve Halford]

Shortly after I slashed through the scent glands of my first skunk specimen
(having spent the previous half-hour cautiously castrating him) my boss
rushed into my preproom claiming "You're poisoning all of us!" and threw
the specimen into the courtyard -- where it happened to land on the main
air intake of the *entire* Science wing of the University...

Steve Halford (halford at sfu.ca)
Museum Technician (Retired)
Department of Biological Sciences
Simon Fraser University



On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 3:54 PM, Steve Sullivan
<ssullivan at naturemuseum.org>wrote:

> 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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