Wednesday, July 1, 1998
The University Daily Kansan
Section A·Page 7
Dyche Hall's animal display brings a panorama of life
A sleeping arctic fox is on display at the Natural History Museum. The museum has been the home of several varieties of stuffed animals since 1902. Photo by Joseph Griffin/KANSAN.
By Elissa Harris Kansan staff writer
A kingdom of animals makes the Natural History Museum its home, and the animals are the reason for Dyche Hall's existence.
If you turn right upon entering the panorama, you will begin an adventure that starts at the North Pole and moves south to the Equator. The more than 100 animals and plants, which stand under a painted partly cloudy sky, are from across North America.
The exhibit was created by Lewis Lindsay Dyche, former professor of zoology, to represent Kansas at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.
The state legislature was so impressed by the exhibit that they allotted about $55,000 to construct Dyche Hall to house the exhibit at the University of Kansas, said Brad Kemp, the museum's assistant director of public affairs. The building opened in 1902.
The exhibit is educational, said Ruth Gennrich, museum director of public education, because the animals are life size, portrayed in their natural
habitat and are right before your eyes.
"KU students usually come only when it is assigned, mostly biology students and art students, but once we get them in off the street, they realize what a great place it is," Gennrich said.
A professor at the University from 1882 to 1914, Dyche was
considered one of the best taxidermists in his field.
An article in the July 15, 1893 edition of Scientific American, referred to Dyche's work as one of the most remarkable exhibits to be seen at the Fair.
In his own 1893 article about taxidermy in Scientific American, Dyche wrote that the taxidermist should know his animal
so well that he could produce a good sketch or small clay model of it from memory.
Dyche's animals are still the most popular exhibit among the museum's visitors, Kemp said.
Because the building's age doesn't allow for airtight enclosure, the staff faces the challenging task of keeping the animals in decent shape, as well as preventing the occasional live animal from taking stage among the exhibited animals. The most recent visitor flew.
"We were having a dinner party in the Panorama and I saw a bat flying around in there," Kemp said.
Kemp sees the museum's recent acquisitions of dinosaur fossils, which are in need of housing, as analogous to the situation in 1893 that built Dyche Hall.
"The growth of the museum has been punctuated by this sort of opportunity," Kemp said.
The museum is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. The panorama is located on the main level.
U.S. jet fires on Iraqi missile site
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - An American F-16 fired on an Iraqi missile site that had threatened British warplanes, jolting relations between the two nations after several months of relative calm.
The incident occurred about 12:30 a.m.yesterday, daylight hours in Iraq.
"The message is very simple: Our forces are going to protect themselves," Defense Secretary William Cohen said in a Pentagon briefing. "This is an act of self-defense."
Cohen said he hoped that the incident was an isolated one and
did not signal a renewal of tensions. He also said that threats to America's or its allies' aircraft would be met with a very vigorous response.
In Baghdad, an Iraqi official said the incident proved the United States' aggressiveness.
"This is an unjustified, aggressive act. No radar was opened," an official at the Ministry of Culture and Information said on condition of anonymity.
It was the first time U.S. jets fired on an Iraqi radar site since November 1996.
The aircrafts were participating in Operation Southern Watch, the
mission established after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. The mission's purpose is to deny Iraq the use of large portions of its air space.
The U.S. Air Force F-16CJ fighter was one of four protecting four British Tornadoes flying a monitoring mission over Iraq's southern no-fly zone. Two U.S. Navy EA6B electronic warfare planes were also nearby, officials said.
An Iraqi radar located near the southern city of Al-Basra illuminated the British jets, a move that is seen as an intention to fire, said Col. Richard Bridges, Pentagon representative.
One F-16 shot at the radar site
with a HARM missile. No fire was returned, and all aircraft returned safely to their bases.
It was not clear whether the Iraqi missile site had been hit, Cohen said. British officials said they believed it was destroyed.
Vice President Al Gore, speaking to reporters at the White House, said there should be no rush to assume the incident was a deliberate provocation.
"But just so the message is clear, we are going to continue to patrol, and anytime there is any kind of threatening act we will take decisive action to respond immediately," Gore said.
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