Takin' Care of Business

Since I had said "see you later" last autumn to John Kudlas following his retirement as my right-hand man, my collections workspace has lacked that friendly energy which I had grown accustom to. Of course, Haley has come in every now and then to prepare food for our live raptors and chat for a bit. But once she's off to another project I've again been left to work in solitude. That's all changing now--at least for a few fleeting months of summer. 

Over the past two weeks, I've barely had the chance to hang up my bags and log into my email account before Al walks in with his briefcase, always ready to work. Al hasn't been around for long, but I already feel like he's just another staff member around the office instead of a new volunteer. It was just a few months back that we had first met while he and some friends visited the Museum one winter afternoon. I distinctly remember that encounter because he had complimented our pinned insect collection--something that frankly did not occur often. So when he called months later wondering how to get involved with our collection, I jumped on the opportunity. 

While not fully developed, the Museum has a nice
collection of pinned insects, including the beetles pictured here.

When Al first started his volunteer work I had a number of collections projects that I knew I could trust him with, but one was most pressing--mounting plants. Amusingly, the delicate spring plants had been collected and pressed by yet another volunteer. I've always valued the work done by  our many helpers at the Museum, but having a few who are specifically dedicated to assisting with collections sure relieves a lot of stress on my end. 

Al works on mounting a Spring Beauty specimen to
an herbarium sheet. Smaller, more delicate plants can be
difficult to handle and require a lot of patience. 

A recent graduate with expertise in both entomology and botany, Al has exceeded my expectations with ingenuity, commitment, and enthusiasm.  Just yesterday, we had both been frustrated while trying to take archival photos of the herbarium specimens he had just mounted. The lighting in our work area simply didn't work for what we needed. Instead of grumbling with me over our predicament, Al proclaimed that he would leave for the day and return the very next morning with a makeshift lightbox he was to create. True to character, that's just what he did. 

This dandelion plant was recently mounted and required
archival photos to add to its records. Unfortunately,
the lighting in our area was not conducive to the project.

While I'm not sure that this lightbox would rival
that of other institutions, it was surprisingly helpful in
us attaining better quality photos of specimens.

A second take with this dandelion resulted in
a much clearer image for us to use in cataloging.

Beyond fashioning lightboxes for our museum, Al has thrown himself into any and all projects I've offered up to him thus far. He's been instrumental in us cataloging the first new herbarium specimens our collection has seen in the past twenty years. He also looks forward to pinning new insects for our collection, and plans on getting our two new summer interns involved as well. And while I could continue to applaud all of his work so far, I can't forget to mention what a delight it's been to simply open up the doors to the collections workspace and once again receive a cheery greeting followed by laughter and plenty of learning. Thanks for the great volunteer work so far, Al!