World-renowned museum displayed pieces of the past

Jason Lipeles Guest Writer

Upon the first landing, ornamental tropical birds flaunt their featherson the landing above are a stuffed bison and gorilla, and reconstructions of skulls and heads of early men[On the third floor,] there is a collection of birds eggs, Japanese mollusks, mammals, skeletons of vertebratesand [preserved] amphibians and reptiles, wrote a reporter for The Miscellany News describing Vassars natural history museum in 1918.

Actually, this is just a hummingbird-sized description of what Vassars natural history museum once had to offer. In the late 1800s it was thought to be one of the finest, most expansive natural history museums in the United States.

When the school opened in 1861, it boasted an impressive array of stuffed birds, eggs, fossils, and fish that took up the entire second floor of Main Building. The museum was originally used as a teaching facility. Matthew Vassar wanted students who came here to have hands-on primary resources, said Lois Horst, the Administrative Assistant for the Geology Department, who delved into the topic of the Colleges museum in her recently completed thesis.

In 1875, all of the specimens were moved to the Calisthenium and Riding Academy and the buildings name was formerly changed to The Museum. Thirty-three years later, most of the collections were moved to the New England Building and the others were stored in the basement of the old museum.

The collections were kept in New England for many years until the various collections from the museum began to suffer from neglect. Horst explained that, by the 1970s, the condition of the stuffed animals and various other collections had begun to worsen because they had not been cared for properly.

The students only amplified the museums problems. According to Horst, as a prank, a few students stole the stuffed ape from the museum and displayed the hairy mass on Main Buildings flagpole, wearing a Vassar College t-shirt.

In 1986, Vassars administration decided to push the Natural History Museum out of the New England Building. Some of the collections went to the second floor of Avery Hall, other collections were stored in Averys basement, and, still, many of the other collections were discarded due to their poor condition.

Since then, the Geology Department, stationed in Ely Hall, has moved a small portion of what was in Avery into its building. Kirsten Menking, a Professor of Geology at Vassar, said, We have a very tiny version [of the original museum] left in our building. According to Menking, the rest of the museums collection moved from Avery Hall to the Students Building, where it stayed for only a few years. Currently, you can find the remains of the of Vassars world-renowned natural history collection not in Ely Hall, but in various cow barns on Vassar farm. We are just going through the boxes now and slowly trying to bring it back, said Menking.

With additional reporting by Sarah DeFillippe, Assistant Features Editor

The Museum at a glance

In 1873, Vassar formally opened its natural history museum. It contained over 16,000 specimens and admission was free. Since then, the museum has experienced numerous acquisitions and changes. Here is a chronology of past attractions:

1864
Collections of models of meteorites
Cast of Ichthyosourus
Three casts of fossil fishes

1882
Arctic birds, eggs of arctic birds
Skeletons of arctic quadrupeds or mammals
Relics of arctic expeditions.

1884
Portion (skull, pelvis) of Female Gorilla

1887
205 species of plants from US Agricultural Department.

1888
Foreign ferns, two Ostrich eggs

1890
Live Mygale Spider
Live centipede from Guthrie, Oklahoma
Live land crab from Baracoa, Cuba (later escaped)

1915
Mastodon moved to old hall of paintings to relieve crowding
Stone Indian relic acquired

1916
Two sets of armadillo embryos showing twinning
Series of reconstructions of heads of primitive man

1918
Giant kelp from Pacific Coast
Skeleton and mounted skin of a chimpanzee
Skeleton and mounted skin of an Aye-Aye
Reconstruction of skull of homo neanderthalensis
Mounted elks head
Copper head snake from Mr. Herbert Hart

1920
Two human embryos
Exhibition of confiscated feathers from Audubon Society
Two cases for elephant casts
Elephaas primogenesis Siberian mammoth cast
Elephaas imperator imperial mammoth cast

1921
Human skulls
Human brains

1922
Skull of S. American Jaguar
Head of swordfish
Tip of a mastodon tusk