Associate Curator and Director were not the only titles that Thomas Sadler Roberts held during his tenure at the University of Minnesota. Beginning in 1916, just one year after he started at the U, Roberts also added the title of…
Last week in the Star Tribune, Bill Marchel of Brainerd, Minnesota contributed an article on the utility of snow in tracking animal behavior, “… there’s a tattletale residing in our woods and fields. Lying, waiting, it is able to recall,…
In spirit with the season of gift giving, I thought I would share a unique type of gift commonly received by the Bell Museum of Natural History when it was known as the Zoological Museum from 1915-1928. Sure the museum…
On the Friday before Christmas Exploring Minnesota’s Natural History gave to thee: Geese a laying! – Snow Goose, goose sitting, gander standing, H.J. Jaeger flock, May 1, 1925, Owatonna – Snow Goose, goose sitting on nest, gander standing guard, H.J….
Having a bad hair day? – American Bittern, one young, June 2, 1927, Long Meadow Gun Club Don’t worry, you have company! – American Bitterns, four young, June 2, 1927, Long Meadow Gun Club (from the glass plate negatives in…
While foraging in the secluded woods of the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota, this Marmota monax ponders, “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?” – Woodchuck, Winton, St. Louis County, May 1931. Another…
When I first saw the image from this glass plate negative I couldn’t help but notice the tufts of feathers that spike out from the heads of these birds. This part of a bird’s plumage is known as the crest….
It is Monday again, and as we introduced last week, a December Monday means it is time to open the mailbag to share some of the season’s greetings that Dr. Thomas Sadler Roberts received during his tenure as the curator…
As a reward for surviving temperatures that reached 20 below zero just a few days ago, for the Friday Flora we will travel to the spring of 1937 to sit alongside a University of Minnesota botany class atop Gwinn’s Bluff…
Minnesota winter scenes from Koma Lake in the Superior National Forest, 1938: – Snow on Koma Lake, Cook County, March 1938 – Beaver cutting on Koma Lake, Cook County, March 1938…