Paleonet: Collections Improvement: University of Rochester Museum

[Penny Higgins]

Hi all,

This is a little long, but I'm looking for suggestions. Please 
respond to this off-list - unless you feel that this is of general 
interest to the entire list.

Many years ago, the University of Rochester (in Rochester, NY), had 
its own natural history museum. That museum went away and parts of 
the former museum collection were donated to other museums. The 
remainder of the collection remained in the Geology Department (now 
Earth and Environmental Sciences) in cabinets spread around the 
building. Some of the museum collection was incorporated into the 
teaching collection, and the rest, alas, has now found itself stored 
in a non-climate-controlled warehouse offsite. The former museum 
catalog remains (thankfully) in a file cabinet within the department.

It is my feeling that these collections could be restored to their 
former scientific glory and utility through a collections improvement 
grant, and there are some whispers from the University higher-ups 
that there could be support from the University infrastructure to 
make this possible.

The collection, as it stands right now, is about 1/3 invertebrate 
fossils (in need of re-curation), 1/3 rock specimens (also curated 
into the museum collection), and 1/3 research collections (much of 
which has never been curated, but resulted from NSF-supported work 
and thus must be kept). Most of the collections were made in and 
around western New York. There are about 190 Lane cases in the 
off-site warehouse and about 80 in the department with the teaching 
collection (comprised mostly of former museum specimens of rocks and fossils).

My questions for this group are:

(1) If we were able to procure climate-controlled space for the 
collection on-campus (as support from the University), do you think 
that re-curating and re-housing the collection is a fund-able project?

(2) Would you have specific suggestions on how to go about 'selling' 
such a project to those who might fund such a grant? (Also, are there 
other granting bodies besides NSF I should consider?)

(3) Is there anyone out there that could cite a specific interest 
they might have with the collections here? In other words, is anyone 
out there doing work that could benefit from access to the specimens here?

Thanks for your help. Your thoughts and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Again, please reply directly to me, unless you think that this is of 
general interest to those subscribing to this list.

Cheers,

~Penny

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                       Dr. Pennilyn Higgins
                        Research Associate

                             "SIREAL"
   Stable Isotope Ratios in the Environment Analytical Laboratory

         Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
         University of Rochester
         227 Hutchison Hall
         Rochester, NY 14627

                    loligo at earth.rochester.edu

Office: 209b Hutchison Hall               Lab: 209 Hutchison Hall
Voice : (585) 275-0601              Outer lab: (585) 273-1405
FAX   : (585) 244-5689              Inner lab: (585) 273-1397

           http://www.earth.rochester.edu/SIREAL/index.html
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