Pioneer Life
Earlier this week we introduced you to Ernest M. Brown, a taxidermist in Warren, MN who served as a field guide to Thomas Sadler Roberts when Roberts visited Warren and nearby Thief Lake and Mud Lake in the summer of…
negatives
Wednesdays with Walter: An Introduction to Taxidermy
For several months now I have wanted to share some unique images from the Bell Museum of Natural history negative collection. The images document the preparation and construction of the iconic Bell Museum dioramas, or what museum director Thomas Sadler…
Wednesdays with Walter: Preparator, Curator, Director, and Herpetologist
In addition to preparing specimens for exhibits and giving talks to museum visitors about mammals and birds during his tenure as curator and director of the Bell Museum of Natural History (1926-1970), Walter J. Breckenridge was also involved with academic…
Monday Mystery: The First Minneapolis Auto Show?
Car enthusiasts are currently descending upon Minneapolis to attend the Twin Cities Auto Show which opened over the weekend. The latest and greatest in chrome and horsepower will delight automobile enthusiasts through March 16. After seeing several advertisements on local…
Wednesdays with Walter: The Hasty Honeymoon, Part I
Followers of Exploring may have caught a personal reference in a previous blog post when I mentioned a July camping trip with my husband-to-be in connection with introducing historical photographs of Itasca State Park. In a recent honeymoon brainstorming session,…
Monday Mysteries: Doll weddings
The past few Mondays we shared peculiarly labelled images from the negatives in the Bell Museum of Natural History records. These “mystery” negatives are labelled with an “M” along with a number inconsistent with the approximately 6,000 negatives that are…
Tuesday Tweet: The Mystery of the “Redwing storks”
On May 29, 2013, the student scanners in Digital Library Services (DLS) began scanning Drawer #1 of the 56 drawers that contain the more than 6,000 glass plate and film negatives in the Bell Museum records. A mere 8 months…