Category: Staff

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.

Debra Christein

UMMNH

MBA 1983

Year of Memory: 1976-1979
As a graduate teaching assistant in the Herpetology Division, my office was in the Natural History Museum. One of those years, I shared an office in the basement with another TA who studied spiders – great big ones with huge spinnerets from Costa Rica. One late evening I saw something creep from the corner of the doorway and as I watched it move toward me, growing bigger and bigger, I felt like I was in a real life horror show. However, I realized that it was one of my office mates beloved spiders. I wanted to run as far away as possible, but I couldn’t just leave the poor spider to wander and die – no matter how afraid I was. So I figured out a way to pick it up (without coming into direct contact) and put it back safely into it’s cage. My office mate was very happy.

Cam Clark

UMMNH

Anthropology – 2014

Year of Memory: 2012-2014
I worked as an exhibitions assistant from 2012-2014 while studying as an undergraduate. While my academic focus was on anthropology, through this new role, I got the remarkable opportunity to get up close with the museum’s exhibitions in a way I never thought possible.

I can remember weaving in between the mastodon skeleton carefully dusting its old bones. I’d look up at the tusks high above my head and imagine what they might have been like alive – how it might have felt being so close to such a magnificent creature. In the lab, I’d spend hours getting lost in painting a fossil cast and the hours just seemed to melt away, as they did when I painted the fish fossil in this picture. It was such an incredible inspiration to be a part of the team involved in creating the museum’s displays and I enjoyed the thrill of taking part in each new exhibition and learning everything from carpentry skills to exhibition lighting. I always took great joy in seeing visitors interact and engage with the displays, as this is truly what museums are all about.

On my last day, I climbed the ladder on the third floor to change my very last light. It was a bittersweet moment as I stood there looking over the third floor balcony onto the place I’d grown to love so much. I never thought I could have done half the things I did in that job – but by the end, the museum truly felt like home and stepping through the doors each week always put a smile on my face and a spring in my step. I’ll never forget that feeling and despite a fair amount of travelling, I’ve yet to find such an inspirational museum or museum team than that at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History Museum.

Libby and Kyle Williams

UMMNH

 
Year of Memory: 2014
My husband, Kyle, and I were married in front of the TRex skull in the hall of evolution. The curator told us that she did not recall any other couple getting married in that spot! We had a wonder cocktail reception and took pictures while the guests enjoyed the museum. This was a very special place to both of us from childhood, but now it is one we share as husband and wife.

Paul

Liz

Screen Arts & Cultures, 2008

Year of Memory: 1991
I recently ran into this picture taken by my grandfather, Thomas Sutherland, while he and I visited the University of Michigan Natural History Museum in 1991. I was six. He blew the picture up and framed it, creating a significant representation of our relationship at that time. Finding this picture now at age 33 made me reflect on everything I owe my grandfather in my life, including a love for the University of Michigan that led to my attendance at and now employment by U of M. These museum trips also helped inform my love of science and fascination with the world around me. He and I enjoyed a longer and closer relationship than most grandchildren to their grandparents. I lost my grandfather just a couple of weeks ago, and while that day drew near I thought it the right time to take this picture and re-create it for him and the museum.

Balogh Halton Family

UMMNH

LSA – Poli sci 1085

Year of Memory: 6/1/2004
1. Exhibit Museum Butterfly Garden Grows (see photo on UM website) – My daughter, Amanda, and I helped plant the butterfly garden outside the Ruthven building when she was 4 years. She grew up going to the museum and donated money toward Edmontosaurus exhibit as a birthday gift. In Fall 2017, she will be a first year student year at U-M and maybe we can help plant the garden outside the new museum!
2. My daughter, Carli, contributed to the Whale exhibit when growing up. As a U-M student, she got to work in the Tucker Lab in the building at her UROP position. As a geologist now, she has such fond memories of working int that beautiful, historic building!

Ronnie Order

UMMNH

2001, Geology (emphasis on Paleontology) and BioPsychology

Year of Memory: 2001
Some of the most fun I had during my undergrad was at the Exhibit Museum! When I was a docent, we would sometimes have parties there and were able to visit the 2nd floor with the most of the lights out – always an awesome experience! I made many good friends through being a docent. I even met my wife while working at the museum, when she was docent. The building is a very significant structure to me, as many important firsts happened for me there. These include my first experience with informal education and getting my first full-time job. My wife and I got married in the rotunda.

Caption: Left to right, all former docents and/or planetarium operators: Julia Plummer, Sarah Thompson, Emily Parker, Adam Boisvert, Ronnie Order, and Josie Chang-Order

The Hassinger kids

UMMNH



BA, Psychology, 1973, MSW 1975

Year of Memory: 1961

In late 1960, my family moved to Ann Arbor from Cincinnati. We lived on the east side in what is now called the College Hill neighborhood, within a mile from campus. The big sister, and the oldest of three, I was in charge of looking out for my sister Sara and our 2 year old baby brother Donnie. In our first spring and summer of 1961, new to the neighborhood, we had few friends but my sister and I had our bikes and mine had a big front basket into which Donnie fit snugly. Several times a week, with sandwiches and thermoses in our knapsacks, down the Geddes hill we’d fly on our big tired bikes, headed for our day’s outing to the Natural Science Museum. I felt very proud of my independence that summer and didn’t even mind my duties as sister-in-charge.

I was in awe of the museum’s beautiful building with its marble floors and large staircases. Our visits began with the Great Mastodon and bone-counting contests (how many bones does a Mastodon have?!). Then up the stairs to the amazing dioramas and learning about the eco-systems of woodlands, swamps, lake shores; the many varieties of birds and small mammals, the human body (edited for certain body parts), and native human ecology. I loved those dioramas that opened my curiosity about ancient societies of the grasslands and forests. I remember thinking about the craftspeople who made these wonderful displays and how lucky they were to have jobs like diorama-builders.

Then, back down the stairs we went and out the door to take our turns sitting on the enormous black stone panthers by the front door before we headed to our last and favorite stop–our picnic lunch at the zoo at the back of the building. I marvel now at our affection for that zoo–really a rather sad, smelly place with an odd-lot collection of animals–I think there was a small bear, a raccoon, and was there really a wolverine? (I think so).

No matter how many times we went on that field trip that summer, it remained a magical adventure. We felt very lucky indeed to have this magical place in our own neighborhood. Now, an alum and retired faculty member, I still live in that neighborhood and still go by Ruthven Hall everyday. And everyday, I fondly remember those exhilarating bike rides down the Geddes hill and our afternoons at the natural science museum.

Maureen D

Liz

 
Year of Memory: ’78 – current
Museum of Anthropology: Perhaps my favorite 4 years within a 40-year U-M career. My children loved exploring the Museum. My grandchildren too. Not long ago my oldest granddaughter brought in a magnifying glass so that she could see the exhibits better! There is not a better place on campus in which to think about the past, the present and the future. Thanks to all of the dedicated people who conducted the research, taught the students and inspired the public.

Stuart and Matthew Segal

Liz 1 Comment

Ph.D. 1992

Year of Memory: Late 1980’s- Early 1990’s
My son Matthew, as a small boy, was obsessed with dinosaurs and we would visit the museum as often as we could. Matthew would do the same ritual every time we came- always running up the stairs to the second floor and going into the rooms with the dioramas and studying each one very carefully. Than he would precede to visit every exhibit on the second floor. When finished, depending on the day and time, he loved going upstairs to watch the star show. Every visit always ended with a trip to the gift shop to add another dinosaur to his collection. Matthew died in a car crash 10 years ago and the memories of our time together in the museum always bring a smile to my face and I’m also so glad he was able to feel such joy. I hope the new museum is able to bring that joy to many more generations to come. Best wishes