For the next couple months, I'll be working in the Invertebrate Zoology Division at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History to document stories from the division's collections and archives. Eric—the collections manager—describes the stories as 'dendritic': from person to person, to specimen and expedition, the stories quickly branch out and extend into the broader history of the division and the Peabody Museum. They raise questions like who was key in developing the Peabody's collections, and how? And questions about the role of collections and museums: what questions did specimens help answer, in and outside of science? What have been historical implications of acquisition? What assumptions of collecting do we make today? The archives and specimens together inform one another and can aid our understanding of the relationships we have through museums and the natural world.
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| Invertebrate Zoology/Invertebrate Paleontology archives room |
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