Museum Finds

Still Life with Flowers, Peaches, and Red Plums by Spanish painter Juan de Arellano (c. 1670, oil on canvas)

“Natural history specimens are collected in a moment, but as time passes, we get new sets of tools we can use to explore them over and over again. We never know in that first moment how valuable a specimen will be in the future. They have a seemingly endless ability to transform into new tools for understanding our changing world.”

Armatures were constructed for exhibits like the one pictured above, of a bull elephant, for the Indian Elephant Group.

“A 1905 illustration depicts an Eastern Forest Robin (Stiphrornis erythrothorax xanthogaster), found in Central and West Africa.

Stiphrornis sanghensis, the Sangha Forest Robin, was discovered on a scouting trip for a museum exhibition.”

1) Field notebooks from the early 1900s Congo expedition record the team collecting “one tin can of Okapi excrement.”

2) Botanical illustration with colors noted for use in Okapi Group, Akeley Hall of African Mammals.

3) Botanical illustration of ferns for use in Okapi Group, Akeley Hall of African Mammals.

4) The completed Okapi group, as seen in the museum today.

1) Peony flower. 1826. Mezzotint printed in color made by William Say

2) Chrysanthemum flower. 1825. Mezzotint printed in color made by William Say

3) Semi-double quilled orange chrysanthemum. 1824. Mezzotint with stipple, printed in color by William Say

LEFT: June flower; three flowers. 1902 watercolour by Helen Allingham

RIGHT: April flower; six short stemmed daffodils. 1848 - 1946 watercolour by Helen Allingham

“All-purpose cloth (servilleta in Spanish), made from calico/cotton (chizo in Spanish), used to wrap food, to put on altars, and many other purposes; woven on back-strap loom of hand-spun cotton; embroidered with design in running stitch and satin stitch using commercial cotton thread; design features burgundy vase with blue stripes, red and yellow flower, pink and yellow flower, burgundy and orange flower, yellow and red flower, orange and violet flower, purple and fuchsia flower; four yellow birds outlined in black in four corners.”

Japanese butterfly woodblock print. Opening from the illustrated book, ‘Yomo no haru’