Behind-the-Scenes Visit at the Puget Sound Museum of Natural History

By Linda Rhodes and Patricia Duarte

Ellie Olpin, Education and Outreach Director, displays a California condor wing.

Newer members of the Whidbey Audubon Society Bird Specimen Collection team were treated to a late April behind-the-scenes visit to the Puget Sound Museum of Natural History, located at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma. The museum contains more than 28,000 bird specimens, including extinct species such as the Passenger Pigeon and parts of birds (Figure 1). Ellie Olpin (Education and Outreach Director) and Gary Shugart (Collections Manager) displayed specimens, shared archiving methods, and described feather structure research to Patricia Duarte and Linda Rhodes. Patricia learned useful techniques for preparing and displaying skeletons, a special interest for her. 

In addition to the museum's regular curatorial work, a team from the Burke Museum (University of Washington) was on-location to collect images for an upcoming mammalogy course. By serendipity, our visit coincided with the weekly visit by Dr. Dennis Paulson, former director of the museum and well-known North American ornithologist and dragonfly expert. He graciously spent time chatting with us about a wide range of scientific topics, and we even snagged a photo with him!

A visit to the Puget Sound Museum of Natural History highlighted the role and importance of natural history museums in documenting changes in the biosphere along time and across space. As bird enthusiasts, we typically see short-term changes or local shifts in bird distributions. Natural history museum collections remind us to include a longer view about the evolution and adaptation of the birds we love.

Burke Museum specialist collecting images for new mammalogy course.

Evidence of a happy visit with Dr. Paulson by Patricia Duarte and Linda Rhodes.