It’s been a couple weeks since our new cabinets were installed, and we’ve been slow to update our readers about these badly needed updates. It certainly has been a whirlwind of movement and discovery, as we repopulate the collection room with precious specimens and renewed enthusiasm. First, a reminder of where we were three years ago:

That was the state of the collection room when we arrived almost exactly three years ago (June 2012). It at least a year and a half to remove all the items we deemed inappropriate for a room that houses natural history specimens: books, journals, reprints, and correspondence (all moved to special collections, a separate library room at the Frost, or recycled), broken equipment, old aquaria, collecting gear, cardboard box upon cardboard box of exposed specimens, you name it. We fixed the lighting and the floor and then wrote a successful proposal for a U.S. National Science Foundation Collections in Support of Biological Research grant. Phase I of this project is almost complete! Not to give too much away, prior to the grand reopening, but check it out!

We have five new team members, whom you’ll meet shortly, and we’re working like mad to get the collection reorganized and (eventually) digitized. I’m personally handling each drawer—all 1,700 of them—as they get moved into the new cabinets. I clean them, assess their condition, and make emergency curatorial fixes:

No collection is perfect, but I have been pleasantly surprised by how few problems I have found in Frost Museum. For example there is virtually no evidence of dermestid damage! And the collection is really well organized (except for Lepidoptera, which I’ll write about later).

Personally interacting with each storage unit has been incredibly rewarding and insightful. For example, I found a new record for the oldest specimen in the Frost. Our previous oldest was collected in 1878, but I found one from 1876 and then another, a few minutes later, from 1868! More on that later (Spoiler: It’s a beetle.) This tray takes the cake for the most maddening discovery, so far:

Unlabeled beetle specimens from what is likely THE MOST DIFFICULT COUNTRY IN THE WORLD TO GO TO … and none is labeled. The one note in the unit tray reads “North Korea see notes”. Well, I can tell you those notes do not exist anywhere, and no one alive who has been associated with this insect collection has any recollection of their history. Argh. Oh well.

Stay tuned for much more, soon.