Wednesday. August 21. 1974
5
Museum Has Five Million Animals
Natural History Collection Dates Back to 186
The Museum of Natural History is thought of as the museum of the history museum of Kew. It is a fine place to rest.
history museums in the country, Joseph T. Collins, vertebrate preparator at the museum
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Joseph T. Collins (left), vertebrate preparator of the Natural History Museum, and Alan H. Sawitz Sr. (right), curatorial assistant at the museum, check the teeth of
a hellbender, the largest salamander found in Kansas. Both Collins and Savitzky are in the division of herpetology at the museum.
Humphrey said the 1864 state legislative enactment authorizing the establishment of a state university in Kansas also provided funds to be allotted for a museum of natural history, referred to in the enactment as "a cabinet of natural history."
According to Philip S. Humphrey, director of the museum, the tradition of the study of natural history at the University of Kansas is as old as the University itself.
Francis Huntington Snow, an original member of the faculty and later the fifth chancellor of the University, started research on insecticides in the fall of 1886. Humphrey said
The museum is located in ivy-covered Dyche Hall, named after the late Lewis Lindsay Dyche, professor of systematic zoology and curator of the collection of mammals, birds, and fishes. The museum has about four and one-half million specimens.
The museum is divided into five major divisions: fish, birds, mammals, fossils and amphibians and reptiles. Collins said. He said research and exhibits are spread throughout the building, much of which is open to the public. Office and office areas are closed to the public.
The building, constructed in Venetian Romanesque style, was completed in 1901. During 1933 to 1941, the interior of the building was built. An addition was finished in 1963.
Entering the building on the main or fourth floor, the Panorama of North American Mammals, which displays animal life from the Arctic to Central America, is located. The panorama was originally planned by Dyne for display of large specimens.
Also on the main floor is the museum gift shop, specializing in gifts relating to natural history. Collins said that many staff members and students placed merchandise on consignment in the shop but that the sales didn't support research or field work.
In all instances, Collins said, the museum avoids the use of any part of an animal for display purposes.
Humphrey said a new label was made recently for the horse to better explain its role in American history by presenting both the Indian and white man's point of view. He said future development in the Indian exhibit would follow this trend.
The third floor contains anthropology and archaeology exhibits and a research area for anthropology. An American Indian display is being developed on the fifth floor, according to Humphrey. This exhibit includes the famous horse Comanche, who was the only survivor from the Seventh Cavalry in the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Administrative offices and a public education are also on the sixth floor,
A varied collection of exhibits is on the floor. Collins says. The newer an exhibit is "very different."
clude displays of stuffed birds and live honeybees.
A research area for ornithology and mammalia is on seventh floor, Humphrey said. Prepared specimens, skeletons of animals, and a student research area are three. Tours of the floor and other research areas are given if requested, he said.
Humphrey said the building was rich in nature, not only inside, but outside, too. He said there were night owls, opuscles, bats, bees, squirrels and a great horned owl that "inhabit the exterior of this marvelous old building."
Furs are kept in cold storage on seventh floor, Collins said. The fur collection, dating back to Dyce, is large and in excellent condition, he said, but furs of endangered species are no longer accepted for the collection.
Tours of various parts of the museum, including the fur collection and the research areas, are given on request, Humphrey said. Staff members, graduate students and interested high school students give tours and lectures to incoming groups.
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