Joke of the Day
Last Friday, I walked across campus from Andersen Library to the Bell Museum of Natural History in order to research the animal habitat groups that are featured in the museum’s stunning dioramas. As I stood in front of a display…
Botanical
Exploring Minnesota – electronically
Last summer I made a resolution to explore Minnesota by visiting destinations in my home state that I have not yet experienced. I started with an excursion to Ely and the Sudan mine last August, and just this past…
Friday Flora: Profile of C.J. Hibbard
When the Exploring project began back in mid-April, the inaugural collection of materials scanned were 2,200 botanical photographs from the collection of the Department of Botany (precursor to the Department of Plant Sciences). The final scan of this collection was…
Friday Flora: Touch Me Not!
I thought the name of this plant was implicit, but apparently not… Touch-Me-Nots, circa 1900 (Image taken by Thomas Sadler Roberts, part of the glass plate negative collection from the Bell Museum of Natural History records.)…
Natural Sciences: Instruction
In addition to carrying out explorations and documenting the unique geologic formations of the state for the Minnesota Geologic and Natural History Survey, State Geologist Newton Horace Winchell (pictured at left) also assumed the responsibility of providing initial instruction in…
Friday Flora
This week’s Friday Flora is not from the collection of the Department of Botany as regularly featured, but comes from the documentary nature photography of Thomas Sadler Roberts. Though birds are Roberts’s most common subject, several examples of flora and…
Minnesota Place Names
In 1920, Warren Upham, contributor to the Minnesota Geological and Natural History Survey, published Minnesota Geographic Names, which included 15,000 names of locales and geological entities in the state of Minnesota. The current and third edition, titled Minnesota Place Names:…
Friday Flora
From the collection of the Department of Botany, Box 17, photo 287: – Lycopodium clavatum, Running clubmoss, Tofte ’00 (1900)…
Friday Flora
From the collection of the Department of Botany, Box 17, photo 148: Burl on oak, Glenwood ’00 Burl: a hard woody often flattened hemispherical outgrowth on a tree (Merriam-Webster)…
Blitz!
Earlier this week I received an email announcement from the Bell Museum of Natural History about BioBlitz 2013, an event slated for this upcoming Saturday, June 15th. At the event, scientists and nature lovers will participate in a 24-hour natural…