This weekend, some of the staff of JMM headed over to the Wayne County Historical Museum to help with Where’s Your Mummy Day. Interactive stations were set up inside and outside the museum to help visitors learn about the culture of the ancient Egyptians, including their board games, fashion, after-death myths, and the mummification process.
Both museums are committed to learning more and more about the mummies housed within their walls. Stop by anytime so we can share what we’ve discovered!
In case you missed seeing Jim Fowler while he was visiting the museum, check out Mark Brim’s interview with the naturalist here.
Jim talks about how he came to Earlham and the benefits of his experiences here, as well as the challenges of working with animals on television.
Don’t forget to stop by to see the exhibit about Jim Fowler and the specimens he collected during his time at the museum!
Saturday, May 19, 1-4pm, at the Wayne County Historical Museum.
Come dressed up like an ancient Egyptian! Children can bring a small stuffed animal to wrap like a mummy, and older kids can learn how to play the ancient Egyptian game of Senat. Many other fun activities!
Cost:
Adults $5
Children (6-18) $2
5 & under free
Classification: Administrative Faculty-Collections Manager
Department: Joseph Moore Museum
Status: Part-time, no benefits. One-year appointment with merit-based renewal up to five years
Salary: Commensurate with experience
Here at the Joseph Moore Museum, we have an extensive collection of specimens not on display. This includes more than 12,000 vertebrate specimens, such as skins, skeletons, alcohol preps, fossils and subfossils, and ~40,000 invertebrate specimens, including fossil invertebrate type specimens.
Responsibilities
• Organization, care and improvements of the collections, daily;
• Manage collections data using a computerized database (Specify 6);
• Preparation and conservation of specimens;
• Develop and implement an integrated pest management plan (with
direction from the Director);
• Supervise students and volunteers;
• Administer loans and facilitate use of the collections;
• Assist with grant-writing to support Museum operations and improvements;
• Other duties as assigned.
Collaborative research with students is highly encouraged; independent
research may also be supported on a case-by-case basis.
Qualifications
• BA/BSc in biology, geology or related field is required;
• Experience preparing vertebrate specimens is required;
• Must be self-directed and have the ability to work independently.
• Must have good manual dexterity, impeccable handwriting and good
time-management skills;
• Museum experience, integrated pest management knowledge, excellent
computer skills (particularly, knowledge of collections databases),
and a background in systematics are highly desirable
To Apply:
Interested candidates should send letter of application, curriculum
vita, and names of three references electronically (as a pdf) to Marilyn Lea at leama@earlham.edu.
For more information, contact Dr. Heather Lerner, Director of the Joseph Moore Museum, at lernerhe@earlham.edu.
Thanks to a grant from the Bonner Center for Service and Vocation, the museum was able to hire a summer intern to keep the museum open during the summer!
Our hours will be the same as during the academic year: Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1-5 pm.
Come visit us this summer!
We want to continue providing top-notch education to the public through our museum, so we’ve set up a donation website to make supporting the Joseph Moore Museum easier. Just follow this link to donate!
https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=9474c9
There’s a permanent link on the sidebar, so you can always come back to it!
Thanks for your support!
Jim Fowler, world renowned naturalist and Earlham alum, paid an extended visit to the museum this week.
On Monday and Tuesday Jim gave talks in several biology classes including Biological Diversity and Curation for Natural History Museums. Students were amazed at his vast knowledge of animals and stories of handling wild creatures.
Jim also gave a public talk entitled “Jim Fowler’s Life in the Wild” on Tuesday during lunch. The lecture hall was packed with eager students, curious professors, and fans of Jim’s decades long television show. Jim told anecdotes from his experiences handling wild animals on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom including stories of his friendships with Marlin Perkins and Johnny Carson. The talk included some footage from Jim’s appearances on Carson’s late night show and the pilot episode of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Jim wanted to center his speech around the dire need for wildlife conservation, which he sees as greatly connected to the public’s access to and appreciation for parks and outdoor spaces. He especially stressed the need for families and children to connect with the wild.
Later in the week Jim met with the museum staff during which he told more stories about capturing birds of prey live in the wild. He also gave a talk at the Friends Fellowship Community. There was also a reception in the museum lobby with Jim in which students were able to meet and personally ask Jim questions.
The museum is very grateful for Jim’s visit and enthusiasm towards sharing his love of the wild with students at Earlham.
Here are some photos from the week:
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Jim Fowler
Renowned naturalist, Earlham alumnus, and star of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, Jim Fowler will be visiting Earlham’s Joseph Moore Museum next week. Jim Fowler graduated from Earlham with degrees in zoology and geology. His career included decades of appearances on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom in addition to worldwide travel and study of animals. Fowler is an expert on predatory birds, the museum holds several specimen’s collected by Fowler including a Harpy Eagle from British Guiana and a Brown Snake Eagle collected in North Rhodesia. These specimens and others will be displayed in a special exhibit in the museum during Fowler’s visit.
Several events provide opportunities to meet Jim Fowler during his visit:
Jim will present a colloquium entitled “Jim Fowler’s Life in the Wild” on Tuesday April 17th in Dennis Hall 110 (open ot the public).
There is a public reception with Jim in the Museum at 4 pm on Thursday the 19th.
On Friday April 20th, there will be an event in the Friend’s Fellowship Community Room at 9:45 to share “Stories of Jim Cope’s and Jim Fowler’s Adventures Together”.
Check out this website about Jim Fowler and Wild Kingdom: http://www.wildkingdom.com/nostalgia/history.html
Wild Kingdom has a Youtube channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/WildKingdomTV
Joseph Moore Museum summer 2012 internship:
The Joseph Moore Museum is offering a summer internship in partnership with the Bonner Center through the “Richmond Area Summer Internship” program. The selected intern will gain hands-on experience working in a variety of capacities at the Joseph Moore Museum, including leading natural history tours to interested groups (usually children), giving planetarium shows, handling and caring for live reptiles, running the museum gift shop and more. The intern may also be involved in creating and running activities at the community event “Where’s Your Mummy” on May 19th sponsored in partnership with the Wayne County Historical Society. The intern will choose a focus area for the internship, such as exhibit development, tour design, website development, animal care/husbandry, tourism initiatives or collections management. Other foci may be developed with the director. Biweekly reports to the Director or Coordinator of Education will be scheduled throughout the summer to document the internship progress. Interns MUST be comfortable handling and caring for live non-poisonous reptiles (snakes, large lizards, and turtles).
Internship Period: May 6th to August 17th
Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1 to 5 PM, plus an additional 2-4 hours per week to be scheduled. Attend “Where’s Your Mummy “ event on May 19th, including setting up and taking down activities.
Regular Duties:
- Open the Museum to the public every Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 1 to 5 PM
- Care for and feed our collection of living snakes, lizards, and turtles
- Give natural history tours to interested groups (usually children)
- Perform general secretarial duties (check phone messages, run errands, arrange tours)
- Perform regular maintenance tasks (empty dehumidifiers, deal with flooded areas, etc.)
Stipend: $2500
Background:
The Joseph Moore Museum (JMM) is the regional natural history museum for eastern Indiana. First publicly opened in 1887, the JMM is a non-profit organization located in Richmond, Indiana on the campus of Earlham College. We have 4,000 visitors annually of all ages, including toddlers through grandparents. We are currently undergoing a major transition to becoming a hands-on interactive experience, including redesign of each of the major exhibit areas.
Questions: Heather Lerner x1402 Email: hlerner@gmail.com
Applications:
Due April 8th, 2012 by 5:00 p.m. Submit to Heather Lerner hlerner@gmail.com
Please submit
1. resume–include at least the following headings, Education (with GPAs), Relevant Academic Experience (i.e. coursework, projects), Relevant Work Experience, Relevant Skills, References (list two references that are not me or Carol–John Iverson is OK)
2. a 1-2 page cover letter carefully worded–no typos, no grammatical errors–addressing why you are interested in working at the Joseph Moore Museum, how this internship will further your career goals, how you would like to focus your internship (describe the types of things you would like to learn about and how you can contribute to the museum’s initiatives) and verifying your comfort caring for and handling the reptiles (we will provide training)
3. two references (it’s okay to include this in the text of your cover letter and/or your resume)
Preference will be given to applicants with well-written, convincing applications and a clear plan to contribute to the museum and their future career goals.
*Not open to Bonner Scholars completing Bonner summer service. *Open to all other Earlham College students not graduating in May 2012
Recently, senior Biology major Kellen Paine has started on a new project for the museum, on honeybees and pollen. Using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), he can look at pollen grains collected from the legs of honeybees. Pollens from different flowers have distinct structures under magnification, and some experts can even identify the flower the pollen came from by looking at the structure. Kellen’s goal is to take pictures of the SEM pollen images and pair them with pictures of the flowers and bees the pollen came from to create an exhibit for the museum.
Kellen will collect bees from Earlham’s back campus woods. He’ll look for bees with pollen stuck to the scopea (tufts of dense hair) of their back legs. Honeybees collect nectar as well as pollen from the flowers they visit, which they then mix with digestive enzymes to create honey. The honey is stored as food for the winter. Honeybees are one of the few perennial bee species; the bee colonies survive from year to year until the queen dies, instead of regenerating with new bees every year.
Here are a few of the images Kellen has collected so far:
Some images from a bee in the museum collection.
Honeybees are not a native species in North America, so other bee species struggle to survive when honeybees colonize an area. Many bee species are in decline, though, including honeybees. Kellen talked about a recent study that showed the effects of insecticides on bee populations. You can read a report on it here. He also mentioned how farmers use honeybees to pollinate crops, stressing the bees and, when bees must be transported, spreading diseases and parasites.
A bee decline story was what originally interested Kellen in studying bees. Bombus Pensylvanicus, a species of bumblebee, used to be found almost everywhere east of the Rocky Mountains. The bee hasn’t been seen in Indiana since 2002, and Kellen says they are now mostly found in the Texas area. He considered studying the differences in diet (pollen types) between declining species of bees and more stable populations. This potential research idea led to the educational project for the museum.
Keep an eye out in the coming months for this exciting new addition to the museum!
