Days at the Museum

It's hard to believe - I'm already halfway through my internship at the Smithsonian.  It's been a fun five weeks so far, full of museums and behind-the-scenes collections tours...and, you know, work.

Posing with Kari and Carrie

A couple weeks ago, I was walking with a few of my coworkers over to the Museum Support Center (MSC), and we caught sight of the above vehicle.  I guess it was some kind of advertising ploy (I forget the website the was written on the back) - but this van was pimped out with all kinds of halloween/graveyard-style stuff.  I believe it was called the "Vanadu."

Enjoying preserved organics!

In a previous post, I regaled you with the story of our tour of the NMAI's collections.  That day we primarily went through the ethnographic collections, which contains items acquired from people (not excavated) over the past hundred years or so.  Since then, I've also had the opportunity to look around the archaeological collections, which includes artifacts that are thousands of years old.  We looked through collections from a dry cave in Arkansas, which mean preserved organic material - baskets, bags, bones, seeds, wood - all still intact after thousands of years in the ground.  It's pretty darn awesome.

With old exhibit props

Finally, I had the much-awaited tour of Natural History's Museum Support Center - also known as "where they keep the Ark".  I must say, they have some pretty cool stuff from all over the world.  Chinese opium pipes.  A million-year-old (and proto-human made) hand axe.  One of the Easter Island heads.  Mesoamerican sculpture.  Parkas made from seal gut.  Old exhibit props.  Both of the collections buildings in Suitland (NMAI and NMNH) were built during the 1990s, and are truly state-of-the-art facilities.  I'm glad that the Smithsonian is taking good care of the world's treasures.

I didn't find the Ark.  Maybe I should keep a look out for secretive-looking black cars pulling through the wrought iron gates...

Natural History's Museum Support Center