A Day at the Museum of Natural History - Macbride Hall

Hidden in plain site on the University of Iowa's main campus is the Museum of Natural History at Macbride Hall located on the pentacrest. The museum occupies sections of three floors. On the third floor's Mammal Hall is home to a collection of large and small mammals from all over the world.

Some of the larger taxidermized animals where prepared over a hundred years ago. If you look closely you can see cracks in the skin from years of heat and light exposure. 

As a active museum students often participate in cleaning and modernizing the displays. Several of the background murals have been retouched or repainted over the years to give the display a fresh look.

Throughout the year and especially in the summer, school age students visit the Mammal Hall, Bird Hall and the Natural History portion of the museum. Text near the displays explain how the natural scenes came together in the early 1900s.

Some of the mammal displays are quite realistic and capture the environment of the natural setting like this otter placed in a scene from northern Minnesota. Always a favorite.

At one end of Mammal Hall is a display of ocean mammals and skeletons. Hanging above is a Right Whale skeleton that washed up on a beach over a hundred years ago. Today you can see it from the comfort of landlocked Iowa - some half a continent away from ocean shores. Access to the museum is free and is open most days except holidays and Mondays. If you are in Iowa City come check it out.

A Bit More of King Tut at Davenport's Putnum Museum

A few more photos of the King Tut replica exhibition at the Putnum Museum in Davenport, Iowa. This statue is one of several roughly two foot travelers that helped make the journey to the other side a bit less stressful for the boy king.

We often see the famous golden mask of Tut from a straight on front view. Here is a view from the right side. While this mask is a replica, the craftsmanship and attention to detail in reproducing the original is extraordinary. The sands of time are shifting. You have until the first week in September 2016 to see the full display and experience what it was like to discover King Tut and the unexpected burial chamber treasures.

A Towboat Captain's Detailed Map of the Lower Mississippi River near Rodney Island

In the days before easily updatable mapping software, towboat captains on the Mississippi River detailed sections of the river in their log books by hand drawings. Captain C.W. Elder's map book can be seen at the George M. Verity River Museum in Keokuk, Iowa. The 1920's towboat was decommissioned and sold to the city of Keokuk in 1961 for the purpose of educating generations about towboats on the river.

This map appears to show the hazards of the water along a stretch of river between Mississippi and Louisiana, just north of Natchez, MS. South is to the top of the map. Rodney Island is the key to trace this hand drawn waterway illustration to modern maps like Google Maps. Discover for yourself.

What to Wear on the Bottom of the Mississippi River

While two of your best buddies hand crank the air supply to your helmet you go overboard some nine feet down to inspect the towboat. Its caught on a snag or lodged on a sandbar on the Mississippi River. Weighted lead shoes, lead vests and lead belts stabilize you against a fierce river current, you will be lucky to see anything let alone function. A few tugs on the ropes that connect you to the surface and you will be pulled up into the air world. Just remember not to anger your buddies or they might forget to turn the crank of the air pump while you are watching catfish swim by.

US Grant Watches Traffic from Cuba City

Take a ride to southwestern Wisconsin and you'll drive through Cuba City. Many of the streets are named after US presidents including a president from the next door county in Illinois, US Grant. His portrait is painted on a the south facing side of a caboose overlooking main street.The rail car is actually a city museum and an information center for the area. The city's former rail depot is located across the street from this display but is difficult to recognize with all of its structural modifications.

University of Iowa Old Capitol's Melted Bell Tolls for Thee

The centerpiece of the University of Iowa's campus is Old Capitol. It serves as the icon of the university. The building dates from the mid-1800s and was a territorial capitol of Iowa before that function moved to Des Moines. This is what the building looks like today. When it was being renovated in 2001 the cupola caught fire from a worker's paint remover torch. The structure from the roof line to the top of the dome was destroyed - including the bell. Inside the Old Capitol Museum (located in the building's basement) you can view the melted bell and read an account of the replacement.

The story of the melted bell reads as such: "At approximately 8:50 AM on Tuesday, November 20, 2001, the tower of Old Capitol caught fire, quickly destroying the bell tower and dome. Firefighters poured 50 thousand gallons of water on the tower. Housed inside the tower was Old Capitol's third bell, which fell when its wooden yoke burned. The bell broke around the neck and landed on its side in the tower debris. 

The mass of mangled metal shown here is all that remains of the 1864 bell - the only casualty from more than 750 artifacts. Twist and turns in the metal reveals square nails, pieces of copper and gold leaf from the building's original construction.

During the tower reconstruction, Old Capitol staff located a similar antique bell from the Verdin Bell Company in Cincinnati, Ohio.

This bell was cast by the same foundry as the burned bell, is approximately the same age, and, at 1500 pounds and 42 inches in diameter, is slightly wider and heavier than the 1864 bell.

Old Capitol's "new" bell was installed in May, 2003. Crowds cheered as it rang across campus, once again. The bell signals the change of classes and significant university, state, or national events." 

Whale Bones in Iowa

Yes, Iowa was once covered by a shallow marine sea. Today the result of that long ago sea are layers of limestone found just under the prairie soil. Some of the rock contain fossils of small marine creatures like coral, snails, fish and a few larger marine creatures.

To see these suspended whale bones you need to visit the Natural History Museum at Macbride Hall on the University of Iowa's main campus. A Right Whale's skeleton was collected early last century on a North Carolina shore and brought to the university for study and eventual display. Many a schoolchild and adult has marveled at this creature's size and bone makeup. The whale is located in the  museum's mammal hall section. The other side of the building contains bird hall and is filled with all types of feathered creatures including a detailed observation post of a remote Pacific island sanctuary visited by UI researchers a hundred years ago. The lower middle portion of the building houses the third section of the museum and features a walk through Iowa's pre-history.  Come check it out. Admission is always free.

Living Memorial Day at Waterloo's Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum

Memorial Day 2012 consisted of tributes to those who gave their lives for freedom. Parades, speeches and cemetery visits are typical ways to participate in the national annual remembrance. On this day the 42N team trekked to Waterloo, Iowa's Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum. Among the visitors to the four year old museum of military artifacts and recorded stories was a Desert Storm/Shield vet.

She served in the US Army during Gulf War I helping to stage supplies along combat zones. The museum offers an opportunity for vets to be interviewed about their experiences on video or audio for others to learn about their contributions and observations of military service. When I asked if she had been interviewed, she answered no, but had added her name to the list of people waiting to be interviewed. Though not ready to fully discuss her experiences yet, she did however give us an outline about her time in active service.

While this former soldier looked young, she proudly admitted to being the grandmother of these two boys. Her other pride was this vintage 1990 t-shirt which she wore today. I think she described it as a R&R shirt that many soldiers received in theater. She hoped to donate it to the museum one day. 

Other veterans visited the museum today. I overheard an elderly women tell a wheel chaired women that she served in Korea during the conflict in the 1950s. Another older gentleman wore his militay cap and a chest full of ribbons while he talked to a small group of visitors. Today was for observing, listening and trying to understand the contribution from those who served. Know that.