Laysan Island Conservation

Two professional conservators spent July 8-9, 2003 in the Museum closely examining the Laysan Island Cyclorama. They recommended a plan to restore and protect the 89-year-old exhibit. Their effort was funded by a $5,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

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Natural History Conservator Catharine Hawks, George Washington University. Assisted by JoAnn Seeman, Museum staff. Catherine has visited the Museum on two previous occasions. In 2000 she performed perform a general conservation assessment. In 2001 she returned to repair our historic ostrich.

The IMLS is a Federal grantmaking agency that fosters leadership, innovation and a lifetime of learning by supporting museums and libraries.

The grants, which are awarded by a competitive peer review process, help museums undertake their most critical conservation activities.

The agency received 234 grant proposals in 2003, requesting a total of $6.3 million. Only 86 projects were funded, totaling $2.8 million. The Museum was one of only two State institutions receiving awards this year.

"Because it so eloquently testifies to issues still in the forefront of biological and social sciences today, the Laysan Island Cyclorama is an enduring American treasure. Many of the earliest efforts to educate the public about species diversity and conservation have disappeared from museums, leaving the erroneous impression that what is expressed in new exhibits is entirely new knowledge. The cyclorama is not only unique in American museums, it is beautifully complemented by the exhibit in the adjacent gallery, which carries on the same themes using modern technology and other modern interpretive methods, without losing either the style or the substance inherent in the Laysan Island presentation.

Preserving the cyclorama is not only important to the UIMNH, it should be important to anyone concerned about preservation of the natural world. The cyclorama is proof that there were people who had the vision to understand environmental conservation long before the term became common usage. It is a poignant reminder that there is still much that is at risk, and that neither attitudes nor actions have changed greatly in the past hundred years."

- Catharine Hawks, Conservator