Luggage Tag

This is a special time of year when gemologists, palaeontologists and geologists head to Tucson, Arizona for the annual Mineral & Gem Show. I am often guilty of dragging rocks home from vacation……basalt from Mt.Baker Washington, lava from Iceland, pumice from Mt.St.Helens and fossils from anywhere I can collect them (legally).

My travels are about to take me somewhere more sandy than rocky. But I will keep my eyes open for another unique and beautiful addition to my rock collection. Maybe this luggage tag will come in handy.

musings – Engineering as art

The Eiffel Tower is such an iconic feat of architecture that it has taken on the aura of an art form rather than an engineering feat. However, Eiffel worked mainly as an engineer, designing bridges for French railways. It is in this regard that I first saw his work in the famous Viaduct de Garabit in the Central Massif area of the country.

Viaduct de Garabit, France photo source : Lorie Pierce

The photo looks a bit out of focus but that is due to the twinning of girders. My tour group, fresh from an interesting conference in nearby St. Flour, had a picnic lunch by the Truyere River, beneath the expanse of this eye-popping structure.

Eiffel went on to design the Tour Eiffel as the dramatic entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair in Paris.

More about Eiffel himself :

Alexandre Gustave Eiffel  15 December 1832 – 27 December 1923) was a French civil engineer and architect. A graduate of the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit viaduct. He is best known for the world-famous Eiffel Tower, built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, France. After his retirement from engineering, Eiffel concentrated his energies on research into meteorology and aerodynamics, making important contributions in both fields. source : wikipedia

Image making

Membership Cards photo source : Lorie Pierce

There are many opportunities for a museum to present an image to the public. In this case, the Royal Ontario Museum uses its Membership Cards to produce mini-billboards for its permanent collection (top card).  Increasingly, the Membership Cards have been showing images of the most recent major exhibit…. Ultimate Dinosaurs (centre) and Mesopotamia (bottom).

Look closely and you will see the identification information printed on the image.

Quote – Dian Fossey

Dian Fossey Google logo source : Google

When you realize the value of all life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future.

(from her last diary entry before she was killed)

Acting the part – costumes

trilobite costume source : betsy the divine

Our museum has three costumed mascots…..all dinosaurs. I would love to see a trilobite added into the mix. Especially one that could talk to the families, as our mascots cannot do.

On a personal level, I would like one of these outfits just to wear myself – what better attire for #trilobitetuesdays

 

Donations including foodstuffs

medicine bottles source : theantiquesalmanac.com

A recent inquiry was posted on the museum listserv.

I’m looking for feedback on food in a museum collection. What policies do you follow regarding food items and your collection? For example if a spice tin is donated and still has spices in it, do you discard the spices or keep them? This might also apply to remnants in other containers: perfume, oil, medicines?

An answer from an archive specialist:

I know many museums would discard original foodstuffs because of concerns about attracting insects.  With medical potions and lotions, etc. the greater concern is often health & safety of teh staff.  Many such items contain toxic poisons or are made with things that become unstable over time and for that reason medicine bottles and tins are usually emptied.  But like with other hazardous waste should not just be tossed into regular garbage.  I have approached a local pharmacy in the past and asked for their help in disposal of such contents.

But in the real world of museum work, there can be complications. This answer from the curator of a local museum.

I’ve run into a hiccup when approaching local pharmacies. They all say the same thing- that in order to accept items for disposal they must also receive the original package so that the people doing the disposing know what they are working with. I explained that these are museum artifacts and that giving the original package would defeat the purpose; they had no suggestions.
Has anyone actually had a pharmacy accept a jar or other sealed receptacle full of a cocktail of unknown medicinals?

And another answer….

We used (a specialist company) to dispose medicines that the pharmacy would not take back due to their age and volatile nature. They were not cheap either.  Also you may not get the bottle back that they came in, depending on the medicine/chemical. However if it is a safety issue for staff/visitors you may not have another choice.

And yet another……

I ran into a similar problem once many moons ago.  I took the medicine to the hospital pharmacy and explained the situation to the pharmacist.  The medicine was destroyed, the bottles were kept.  There were a many many ampoules that contained some pretty potent drugs (Phenobarbital and the likes).  We were not able to keep them all, but they did agree to cut two of each open, dump the contents, clean them and give them back.
Talk nice and get them involved.  I was grateful for the information that they provided about the drugs (usually in the form of “oh my goodness, you shouldn’t have this, do you know what this is??”) and they learned about some of the wacky things that we have in Museum collections!

This issue shows that curating a museum is an inexact science.

sightings – Baby Cuttlefish!

A lot can happen in three weeks. That’s how long it had been since my last visit to the aquarium. At that time, the cuttlefish had laid dozens of egg cases in clusters.

cuttlefish eggs source : riverocean.org.uk

Cuttlefish eggs are often mistaken for seaweed air bladders and resemble a black bunch of grapes. The black colour comes from the cuttlefish’s defensive ink.source : riverocean.org.uk

babies look just like the adults source : riverocean.org.uk

Newly hatched cuttlefish
Newly hatched cuttlefish (1cm) will often change colour to match the eggs they have hatched from. After a while they will move off and change colour to match the surrounding seabed.

Cuttlefish are able to change colour for camouflage and squirt out ink to confuse predators. They have 8 tentacles covered in suckers, and two longer tentacles with suckers on the tips which they shoot out to catch prey. source : riverocean.org.uk

It was really difficult to see the new hatchlings although there are now 45 of them in the tank, with more to be released from the remain egg cases. The one I saw was about the size of my baby finger nail. The adults have been removed from the tank as the young grow.

The aquarium has provided staff at this tank to explain about the hatchlings. I appreciated having a professional to talk with about this most marvelous event. I hope to return once a week to see these newly born critters develop and explore their world.

Just to remind you what the adult cuttlefish look like …..

adult cuttlefish photo source : Lorie Pierce

 

sightings – 'Have Bones Will Travel' logo

source : paleoporch.blogspot.ca

‘Have Bones Will Travel’ is the logo of paleontologist/educator James Burnes @LifeThruTime  Blips of life throughout time: Paleontologist, Archaeologist, Author, Natural Historian, Capybara rancher, and Dentist to Anteaters, Sloths, and Armadillos   Norman, Oklahoma. · paleoporch.blogspot.com

When I was young, there were an excessive number of westerns on TV. Remember we only had 2 or 3 channels and so they were hard to miss. One of the favourites at the time ‘Have Gun – Will Travel’ starred Richard Boone as Paladin (real name unknown).

Richard Boone photo source : CBS

Professional gunfighter Paladin was a West Point graduate who, after the Civil War, settled into San Francisco’s Hotel Carlton were he awaited responses to his business card: over the picture of a chess knight “Have Gun, Will Travel … Wire Paladin, San Francisco.” Written by Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu>

So it was with delight that I found the Have Bones Will Travel logo. Especially since the dinosaur head used to complete the Mesozoic chess piece is the famous Parasaurolophus skull, a key fossil in my museum’s collection.

Copyright on signage

example of text on plaque   photo source : Alan L. Broan

An interesting question was posed recently on the museum list-serv.

During the development of a recent exhibit, I referenced a local plaque marking the site of the subject of our exhibit. I recently received a letter from the author of the text on the plaque, a local writer, who claims he holds copyright on that text. The plaque was installed by our municipality in 1991 (with assistance by the ministry).
As a public plaque, does the author of the text own copyright?

I will add answers here as they are offered by other museum folk.

********************************************************************************

Answer added from government source :

If the plaques are from the Government the article is as follows:

12. Without prejudice to any rights or privileges of the Crown, where any work is, or has been, prepared or published by or under the direction or control of Her Majesty or any government department, the copyright in the work shall, subject to any agreement with the author, belong to Her Majesty and in that case shall continue for the remainder of the calendar year of the first publication of the work and for a period of fifty years following the end of that calendar year.

Since the plaques would be commissioned and paid for by the Crown, copyright would be held by Her Majesty.

Another answer:

I think this needs a further conversation with the writer.
Does he wanted acknowledgement? If so, that seems a simple task to do that in the exhibit.
You make no profit from the use of the writing so therefore even if he does own it, he may simply want his accomplishment acknowledged.

sightings – the paintings of Franz Marc & Robert Delaunay

My attraction to the world of artists is recent. I have never taken an art appreciation course. Still, I feel I have absorbed a fair amount about the major artists and art movements. So it comes as an unexpected surprise when I come across a talent like Franz Marc, whose work was unknown to me until my visit today to the Art Gallery of Ontario’s Great Upheaval exhibit.

Stables source : uniquearts.com

The Yellow Cow source : philipphauer.de

I saw the above two canvases, which are in the Guggenheim Collection.

Franz Marc (February 8, 1880 – March 4, 1916) was a German painter and printmaker, one of the key figures of the German Expressionist movement. He was a founding member of Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a journal whose name later became synonymous with the circle of artists collaborating in it.

Franz Marc was born in 1880 in Munich, then the capital of the Kingdom of Bavaria. His father, Wilhelm, was a professional landscape painter; his mother, Sophie, was a strict Calvinist. In 1900, Marc began to study at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, where his teachers included Gabriel von Hackl and Wilhelm von Diez. In 1903 and 1907, he spent time in France, particularly in Paris, visiting the city’s museums and copying many paintings, a traditional way for artists to study and develop technique. In Paris, Marc frequented artistic circles and was able to meet artists, including the actress Sarah Bernhardt. He discovered a strong affinity for the work of Vincent van Gogh. wikipedia

Unfortunately, Franz Marc was killed at Verdun during WW1. His main task in the army was to paint canvas covers in camouflage colours.

Wished I could have seen this painting done by Franz Marc too.

Tiger source : wikipedia

Another artist whose work I discovered today is Robert Delaunay.

Robert Delaunay (12 April 1885 – 25 October 1941) was a French artist who, with his wife Sonia Delaunay and others, cofounded the Orphism art movement, noted for its use of strong colours and geometric shapes. His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee. His key influence related to bold use of colour, and a clear love of experimentation of both depth and tone. wikipedia

Love his rendition of the Red Eiffel Tower.

Red Eiffel Tower source : L&M Services

You really have to see it to appreciate how Delaunay has portrayed this icon of Parisian life.