Waiting outside the museum (Henry Gee, John McKay, Hilary Maybaum, Kate Porter). NOTE: All photos copyright Elia Ben-Ari
(l to r) Henry Gee, John McKay, Kate Porter, Mary Spiro, Hilary Maybaum, DeLene Beeland, Jelka Crnobrnja Isailovic
Roy Campbell, Director of Exhibits, led our museum tour, which began in the central hall featuring North Carolina's natural treasures.
Roy Campbell waxes poetic about the treasures of North Carolina.
Roy Campbell explains this geological map of North Carolina.
Geological map/model of North Carolina
The group studies the map.
Toadfish in Mountains to the Sea exhibit
A giant blue whale skeleton hangs overhead.
Jelka takes a photo of the blue whale skeleton.
Stuffed birds in an exhibit of coastal North Carolina
A 20-foot waterfall modeled on Linville Falls, NC, and constructed from concrete
Extra support had to be added to the building to allow for the weight of the water in this model waterfall.
Mary and Hilary check out an exhibit.
wOOt!
These samples of NC woods were displayed at the St. Louis Worlds Fair to attract business to the state.
Part of the Nature's Explorers exhibit, which tells the history of the museum
"I want my mama!"
The best part of the tour took us behind the scenes, to the research and collections section of the museum.
Specimens such as these kestrels are kept in cabinets that protect them from humidity, light, etc.
Becky Desjardins, collections manager of birds at the museum, showed us a few of the 20,000 bird specimens.
Eagle wing (?)
Hummingbirds
Hummingbird closeup (note the irridescent purple feathers)
Becky Desjardins holds a hummingbird specimen.
Becky shows us some honeycreepers.
This mountain lion sits on top of a file cabinet in the collections area.
Lisa Gatens, curator of mammals, shows off a jumping mouse. (Can someone confirm this is Lisa?)
Lisa shows us one of the museum's bat specimens. She had trouble deciding which species to show us, given limited time.
Bat closeup
These bones are from a LARGE marine mammal. (Can someone identify?)
This is the humerus of a right whale.
Skeleton of a right whale
We paid a brief visit to the paleontology lab, where scientists unearth fossil bones from rock.
Dr. Paul Brinkman explains how he and colleagues remove rock from fossils collected in the field.
