Author: UMMNH

Charles C. Fensch

UMMNH

 

Year of Memory: 1975-2014

I can think of few things that eclipse the Exhibit Museum in importance in my young life in Michigan. Starting in the mid-1970s, when I was still living in my home state, my mother and I would frequently travel into Ann Arbor on a drizzly Saturday. We’d start off with a toasted and buttered bagel and limeade at Drake’s Sandwich Shop just down the street (a young lad must have some energy to visit such a wondrous place). The excitement I’d have every time I’d walk into the rotunda was overwhelming. We’d wind our way through the many floors — past the mastodon, the Allosaurus and the toothy Tyrannosaurus skull; the mammals and birds of Michigan (including the wolverine), my adventure was always capped off with a visit to the museum shop, which at the time was on the top floor, where I would bring home a small fossil or mineral. I still have them all.

A couple key remembrances of the Exhibit Museum…
Once, in the late 1970s, my mother and I took a skull that I had found in the woods on our property to the Museum. We were given a tour of the areas not seen by the public. I distinctly remember a student or professor opening a drawer, revealing a gigantic skull that looked like something out of a horror film — it was a giraffe, and I was thrilled. On that same visit, I was given an intact mouse skeleton. I still have it, more than 40 years later.

Another 1970s memory… less than half a mile from where I lived, a few mastodon fossils were discovered. I have photos of me by them on the property of the Sakstrup family, where they were excavated. Later, the fossils would have a prominent display at the Exhibit Museum. That was exciting, as it brought paleontology so close to my own home.

I left southeast Michigan in 1983 at age 14, moving with my family to El Paso, Texas. I still live in El Paso today. Every trip that I’ve made home to Michigan (probably 8-9 over the past 35 years) has included a visit to the Exhibit Museum. I’ve taken my daughter twice, and always explained how important the Museum was to my childhood. I’ve thought about it and missed it so many times over the years. It seems impossible to me now to think that I made my last visit four years ago, my last trip to Michigan. I will miss it dearly. But as times change, so must the museum…and I am looking forward to my next visit to my beloved Great Lake State and the new Museum!

Fred Baker ’71

UMMNH

English and history ’71

Year of Memory: 1953, 1969-71
I remember the menagerie that used to be located just outside the front door, which included a black bear and, I believe, for a time, a wolverine. This was in 1953, when my mother returned to school after my father died, and I was 3.

And on the landing, on the stairs to the hall of dinosaurs, there was a pair of live gila monsters. They were quite long-lived, and still there when I returned to Ann Arbor in 1969 as an undergraduate, and again later, at some point in my young adulthood. I visited them regularly during my undergraduate years, in their Stendahlic red and black solitude, marveling that they could pass their long lives so calmly in a 2×3 glass box, and wondering if they were quietly insane.

I wonder if they were retired, too.

Michael Erlewine, he of later Prime Mover fame (fleeting, but long enough to overlap with Iggy), had his own desk there as a child, and somehow wangled a position of responsibility, I think feeding creatures, in that strange post-war environment in which the university exploded with vets on the GI bill and all things were possible.

Tanya Dewey

UMMNH

PhD Biology (UMMZ) 2006

Year of Memory: 1998
I was in a PhD program in the museum (so many stories I could share!) and my daughter, pictured here, loved to spend school days off at the museum with me. I would give her $1 for the vending machine – as it was a great and slightly scary adventure to take the elevator into the basement there – and she would take her drawing supplies and go out into the exhibits to draw. My daughter is now a scientific illustrator working for the University of Chicago, so this was transformative!

Gael Tisack

UMMNH

Engineering 1985, Law 1999

Year of Memory: 2013
My daughter’s wedding was held at the museum. The ceremony was in the rotunda with food stations and tables scattered around the second floor. It was amazing!

The Connelly Family

UMMNH

BGS ‘93

Year of Memory: 1977
When I was in first grade, we had a field trip scheduled for my first visit. I probably loved dinosaurs more than anything, and got so excited I threw up all over my desk. I was so sad when I was sent home, my mom drove me herself to Ann Arbor to meet the class because she knew I wasn’t sick, just too excited. And I’ve been coming ever since, with classes, on my own, as a student, and now here, on the Last Day, with my 4 year old daughter. I hope her memories are as great as mine. You will be missed.

Lauren Carlson

UMMNH



Alumni Husband: Brian Carlson, General Studies, 2001

Year of Memory: every visit

Every time we visit, every time, our kids (ages 8 and 4) run to the back corner of the main gallery and pose like the deinonychus. We have pics from every single visit, when they were little up to now which is at least 20+. No idea who started it but it’s a tradition. Can’t leave the museum without doing it.

Max Kuang

UMMNH

Biochemistry, Class of 2019

Year of Memory: 2017
I used to visit the Natural History Museum frequently when I was in elementary school, particularly when the museum hosted its annual Halloween party. It was always a fun time, getting to hang out with dinosaurs on the Saturday before Halloween. Over the years, I’ve noticed the games have changed quite a bit. I remember one time where I had to stick my hand in a pumpkin filled with cold spaghetti and sliced grapes just to get a handful of candy. I don’t think I saw this game in 2017 when I photographed the Halloween party for the Michigan Daily.

Nevertheless, the Natural History Museum has had a tremendous impact on my life. Most importantly, it got me interested in the natural sciences, which I am currently pursuing at the University of Michigan.

Cameron Walkowiak

UMMNH

LSA 1997

Year of Memory: 1994
During the stresses of finals in my first winter semester at U of M, I found myself returning to the Museum I had such fond memories of as a child. The feeling of peace and belonging that settled over me as I walk between exhibits that had thrilled me as a child was astounding. This had been the first place I had ever seen dinosaurs outside of books. Looking down at the dinosaur and mastodon displays from the railing was like returning to that childhood exhilaration of that first time seeing these massive beasts.

I left the Museum that day with a sense of calm. During my time at the university, I would return whenever I needed the reset. Later, I would bring my children there to share with them this magic building.

Edgar and Rose Kahn family

UMMNH

1978 Anthropology Zoology

Year of Memory: 1960’s
My two sisters and I spent so much youthful time exploring the Natural History Museum. Our grandfather, who had long since passed before our births had designed the building. Oddly, I don’t remember our parents being there. Seems we walked less than a mile to get there from our home. There was a blessed freedom in the place. You could never see all the details in the displays. Never. So, we kept returning again and again.
There were rocks and gems. Bugs in amber. Colored lights illuminated one large quartz crystal. Seems I was hypnotized by the colors. There was a planetarium where in the darkness, stars captured my imagination.
There were bears outside at one time in a large cage. I remember their foul wild and captive odors.
The more pleasant fragrances could be found inside the museum building. My young nose loved the smell of Old history mixed with pure marble.
The staircase fit my little legs perfectly as I would grab on to the brass banister pulling myself past whatever smelly creature was alive in the cage. The bird displays…. I can still see them. Our dad told us that his mentor had prepared the tiny hummingbird skins. How was that humanly possible?
Of course, the best part of the visit was when we laid down our monies at the gift shop counter for a cool pencil filled with polished rocks. I can still hear the sound of those little rocks and see the bright colors.
The final event was to climb up on the pumas. I don’t remember the details of how we three young girls shared the pumas. Surely, we squabbled. We pretended to ride them, always convinced that they were put there for us by our Grandpa. How could he have known that we would arrive on the planet some ten years and more after his death? He must have imagined this.

Jenn B

UMMNH

 

Year of Memory: 1982
We were pretty poor growing up after my parents divorced when I was four. She was a single mother of 5 for the rest of her life. She couldn’t afford vacations or even day trips, but she could take us to the museum. We would go as a family and spend hours wandering, learning, and reading. It was one of my favorite places. It feels like her. The museum is tied to countless wonderful memories of her and with my own children.