Feathering the Nest: Renovations in Bird Hall

There's a migration taking place on the third floor of Macbride Hall. The specimens that make up the largest public display of birds between Chicago and the West Coast are not where they should be.

Great-horned owl (above) and common loon (below) specimens in display cases featuring murals painted by Norman Neal Deaton

photos by Rex Bavousett

California condor and osprey specimens sit in the case marked, "Future home of the Wild Turkey habitat." The ruby-throated hummingbird's traditional spot is empty-a sign indicates that the bird has left the musuem for Old Capitol Mall. While visitors may not see a vee of geese winging overhead, it's apparent nevertheless that the residents of Bird Hall are on the move.

The migration is only temporary, however, and when the birds have landed back in their designated positions, visitors to Bird Hall will have an opportunity to learn more than was previously possible.

"We are working with the same irreplaceable collection," says George Schrimper, director of the Museum of Natural History and assistant professor of museum studies, "Until now, however, we have simply displayed the collection, but not told a lot about birds."

Norman Neal Deaton, a designer and painter for museums across the country, paints foliage on a mural depicting habitat for hawks, kites, and other raptors. His work is part of the revitalization of Bird Hall.

photo by Helen Spielbauer

That will change. When the Bird Hall project is completed, sometime in 1999, interactive exhibits will allow visitors to hear recorded bird songs and see how a wing moves in flight. Drawers will open to reveal extensive collections of bird eggs and nests.

"It will be modern and multisensory," says Schrimper. The renovations will be funded by contributions to the UI Foundation for the ongoing Campaign for Bird Hall. An ad hoc committee has been organized to develop exhibit concepts and write interpretive scripts. Joining Schrimper are UI faculty members James Fuller (Operative Dentistry); Jeff Schabilion, Jean Fitzgerald, Jeff Klahn, and Christopher Rogers (Biology); and David Brenzel and Bruce Scherting of the Museum's professional & scientific staff.

While technology will play a part in better informing visitors, the basis for the collection is more than 100 years old. According to Schrimper, the museum's origins date from 1858 when the Iowa General Assembly directed the University to house specimens from the State Natural History and Geological Surveys in a "cabinet" of natural history in the Old Capitol. It is the second oldest natural history museum west of the Mississippi, established five years after the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

"The 1859 publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species was a catalyst for naturalists," Schrimper says. "It pushed them to begin collecting specimens, to either corroborate or refute the theory of evolution."

At the same time, the public became increasingly interested in museum collections, which afforded them the opportunity to see things they otherwise couldn't.

The 1860s to 1930s became the Golden Age of museum expeditionary work, according to Schrimper. Curators and collectors traveled the world, looking for specimens for public display and study by scholars. The UI's Charles Nutting, curator of the museum from 1886 to 1927, led expeditions to the Bahama and Dry Tortugas Islands, New Zealand and the Fiji Islands, Laysan Island (where he and his successor, Homer R. Dill, obtained specimens for one of the best-loved Bird Hall exhibits), and other locales. UI graduate student Frank Russell spent two-and-a-half years in northern Canada collecting birds, mammals, fossils, and other items.

The donation of several private bird collections also increased the holdings of the museum. The largest belonged to Clinton M. Jones, an Episcopal minister and talented taxidermist who, in the late 1800s in New England, collected and mounted specimens and maintained daily logs of his avian observations for more than 35 years. (Private collecting of most species became a federal offense with the passage of the Lacey Act in 1900 and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 1918.) The museum today has 12,000 birds in its research collection, with over 1,000 on display in Bird Hall.

Currently 32 of the birds can be seen at Old Capitol Mall as part of an Iowa City Area Science Center exhibit, John J. Audubon's Birds of America.

"Seeing the mounted birds juxtaposed with the painted birds puts them both in a different light," says Jim Larew, president of the Iowa City Area Science Center, which organized the exhibit. "The UI collection is a tremendous resource."

George Schrimper agrees, and looks forward to presenting that resource to scholars and the public in new ways.

"Birds are meaningful to people at so many levels, whether they hunt them, watch them through binoculars, or feed them in their backyard," Schrimper says. "We want to use our large, valuable, and historically and biologically significant collection to explain the science of birds, but also to acknowledge their importance in our lives."