Spotlight on Volunteering (From Home!)

In last week's update, I shared a photo of a woman at the Field Museum hunched over a specimen conservation project. Intently focused on the work before her, she may not have even noticed the audience of four young girls pressed against the glass viewing window, or me holding up my bulky camera in the background to capture the whole matter. I imagine she feels rather exposed on her workdays. I can empathize, as on many days here in Cable, I have felt similarly on display while working on specimens. And I know that our collections volunteers feel that too--so let's put those volunteers under the spotlight one more time. 

Volunteers typically toggle between our restricted workroom and a makeshift desk in the back office. But I also ask them to set up shop in the collections storage room, where much of their work is as on display as hundreds of motionless animals. Their projects range from writing out paper documentation to stuffing songbirds. It doesn't matter much to the visitor exactly what volunteers are working on--it seems any window into the collection reveals fascinating work. 

What are volunteers up to now that the Museum is closed for a bit? You may imagine it's difficult to complete much of our work from home, but we have found ways to move forward. Our newest incoming specimens are locally-collected plants that one volunteer gathered this summer. She will be mounting those pressed plants to herbarium sheets from home, and we can't be more appreciative of her dedication through new circumstances. 

These new specimens will become part of our expansive herbarium collection, where plant samples have been documented by the Museum dating back to nearly 50 years ago. For many years since, the herbarium has sat idle, but since last summer three volunteers made a concerted effort to focus on developing our plant collection. We hope to make this a continuous effort moving into the future--one that specifically relies on the work of volunteers. 

To learn more about how volunteer work benefits our collection or to offer your support to collections projects, contact Curator/Naturalist Mollie Kreb.