Rooting for the Underdogs

I try to pay attention to where and how visitors spend their time around the building. As a fly on the wall, I wonder, "Do they pause for the unique opportunity to experience a now-extinct passenger pigeon right in our hallway? And since they're stopped there, do they then turn around and appreciate those drab-colored pressed plants that I admire? Do they get up close to the insect display, or even read the signage in detail?" I think back to my own first visit to the Museum and I suppose that even I bypassed many of the small things that I now hope for others to appreciate. 

Black bears, funny-colored deer with genetic mutations, and stately eagles receive the most attention in our specimen collection. And we like these big, beautiful animals for good reason. But deep down, I think it's the hope of every curator of natural history collections that we don't let our preference towards these charismatic megafauna overshadow the smaller, uglier, and generally unappealing specimens. 

I was able to dig up an old newspaper article written by Peter Maller that better explains our steady history of rooting for the underdogs of our collection:

"The common mosquito is not so common to Lois Nestel, director of the Cable Natural History Museum in southern Bayfield County. 

"Insect specimens occupy a special place at the museum, along with mice, moles, bats, garden snakes and a variety of plants and animals often thought of as un-glamorous or ugly. 

"Their displays are placed beside those of eagles, hawks, owls, bears, deer and coyotes. 

"To Nestel, everything in nature is spectacular in its own way. People, plants and animals - big and small - are part of the same fascinating and interdependent ecosystem. 

"Yet Nestel, 62, admits that the more humble products of nature are what attract her attention. 

"'I like all the lichens and moss,' Nestel said. 'I'm kind of for the underdog. I like the things many people pass by. Many people only notice the obvious things.

"'I have a display of seeds here. They're amazing. Huge trees grow from them. People admire the trees, but they don't pay much attention to the seeds.'"