[Nhcoll-l] African Mammal Dilemma

[Pepijn Kamminga]

Dear Mackenzie,

Can I ask how you store the trophies? Here at Naturalis we have introduced
a very simple system since our last collection move. We installed fences
along several walls of our collection depot in order to hang all the
trophies. In this way we could store all these specimen over 60 m2 of
fence. I've included a picture just to give you an idea.

Met vriendelijke groet/Kind regards,

Pepijn Kamminga
Senior collection manager Birds & Mammals
Naturalis Biodiversity Center

Op do 27 jul. 2023 19:24 schreef Kirchner-Smith, Mackenzie <
Mackenzie.Kirchner-Smith at sbcm.sbcounty.gov>:

> Hello everyone,
>
>
>
> My museum is facing a bit of a storage dilemma that has come up very
> suddenly. Our offsite storage facility, which we rent, is going to be
> doubling in monthly price over the course of the next year, and only
> getting worse from there. Being a small museum with a limited budget, we
> can’t afford to stay in the facility so we will be working towards finding
> alternative solutions. Some of the objects currently being stored at our
> offsite facility are dozens of African mammal heads, mounted in the trophy
> style, including wildebeest, gemsbok , and rhinos just to name a few.
>
>
>
> In addition to looking for new ways to store these, we are also hoping we
> can downsize the number of items being stored offsite. Our mission has
> shifted from a global focus to a more local one, and being located in
> California, these African mammals are not likely to ever be put on display
> at our museum. As far as we know, all these animals were collected by the
> museum in the 1970’s on a collecting trip to Africa or were donated to us
> throughout the years. For any other museums out there that have large
> African mammals, especially the highly endangered ones, what have you done
> to store/downsize your collection? We would prefer anything we can to be
> transferred over to another institution but our attempts to find interested
> institutions have not been fruitful so far. And if they are in very bad
> condition, what is the ethical and legal process for potentially disposing
> of such specimens?
>
>
>
> Thank you for your insight, and if any institutions who see this email are
> interested in doing a transfer of any of these specimens, please reach out
> to me and I can provide a list of all that we have.
>
>
>
> *Mackenzie Kirchner-Smith*
>
> Museum Curator, Integrated Biology
> *San Bernardino County Museum*
> Phone: 909-798-8619
> 2024 Orange Tree Lane
> Redlands, CA, 92374
>
> <http://www.sbcounty.gov/>
>
>
>
> *Our job is to create a county in which those who reside and invest can
> prosper and achieve well-being.*
>
> *www.SBCounty.gov* <http://www.sbcounty.gov/>
>
>
>
> <https://twitter.com/SBCountyMuseum>  <https://www.facebook.com/SBCMuseum>
>   <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC22Zo-yENy0uF29M7s51vxw>
> <https://www.instagram.com/sanbernardinocountymuseum>
>
>
>
> San Bernardino County Museum acknowledges that the land on which our
> facilities are sited is the ancestral and unceded territory of the
> Maara’yam, commonly referred to as the Serrano people, which, in the
> contemporary era, are represented by two federally‐recognized tribes: the
> San Manuel Band of Mission Indians and Morongo Band of Mission Indians. We
> also acknowledge that in the historic era other tribal communities and
> European settlers intersected with Serrano peoples in these spaces.  Our
> histories and stories are intertwined in this space, and by sharing them in
> culturally‐appropriate ways and co-stewarding collections, we hope to
> honor and celebrate our indigenous neighbors and partners. We also seek to
> offer an accurate, clear and thorough picture of this region’s complicated
> past and create a shared vision for the future that is mutually‐beneficial
> and respectful to all.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nhcoll-l mailing list
> Nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu
> https://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nhcoll-l
>
> _______________________________________________
> NHCOLL-L is brought to you by the Society for the Preservation of
> Natural History Collections (SPNHC), an international society whose
> mission is to improve the preservation, conservation and management of
> natural history collections to ensure their continuing value to
> society. See http://www.spnhc.org for membership information.
> Advertising on NH-COLL-L is inappropriate.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20230728/fdc6850d/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: IMG_6386.JPG
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2292923 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.yale.edu/pipermail/nhcoll-l/attachments/20230728/fdc6850d/attachment-0001.jpe>