|
The Museum of Natural History and the Bert
Bailey Museum
In April of 1892 the Cosmos rejoiced to
report that a life like bust of Abraham Lincoln had recently been
donated to the Coe College museum, which was located on the third story
of the main building (I think.). Mr. Parvin also gave the addition of a
rare collection of nearly a hundred shells to the museum in the spring
of 1897. Each shell was in its own individual box and clearly labeled.
The museum was growing and thanks to generous donations such as these,
providing students with a new means of research and study.
Gifts of unusual and rare specimens continued
to pour in to the museum. The October 1903 Courier listed the following
as recent additions from various sources: a sawfish, Indian skulls,
petrified wood, human bones, a Virginia deer, an osprey, bird eggs, and
star fish. All of these specimens were the responsibility of Dr. Bailey
of the Zoology department, a ’97 Coe graduate and professor of biology
from 1900 – 1917. In the summer of 1904 he and Prof. Stookey of
the Geology department collected a series of fossils from the Trenton
limestone at Postville, Iowa, and made additions to the collection of
bird skins, which proved quite interesting as the feathers were now in
their summer plumage. Nearly two hundred plants were collected as well,
and added to the Herbarium. Bailey also traveled to British Honduras in
1905 where, according to Stookey, he returned with “the third largest
collection of birds from that region in this country.”
Students contributed to the museum as well.
The class of 1906 donated a stuffed American Bison as a class gift.
Members of the class of 1907 had the same idea, and Mr. G.H. Berry
collected specimens from Honduras for the class, such as beetles,
reptiles and rare birds. One particularly interesting display was of
three King Vultures feeding on a dead crocodile that had washed up on
the Caribbean Sea shore.
According to the August 1908 Courier, the Coe
museum was doing very well in comparision to other college museums, but
students and Cedar Rapids citizens were not taking full advantage of
it. The College began looking for ways to encourage students to use the
museum in association with their studies. The museum had also outgrew
its quarters in Old Main and was looking forward to the day when
adequate museum rooms could be used as well as an endowment for the
annual purchase of new collections and material to properly mount and
display collections.
When Carnegie Science Hall was completed in
the winter of 1910, the museum moved to the fourth floor. The exhibit
space in this new building was more than double the old space and the
capacity of the exhibit halls was more than three times larger. The
January 1910 courier reported that “there are no finer exhibit rooms in
the state” and the display cases were of the “most modern type”. A
special room was now available for taxidermy and ornithology students
were encouraged to use the study room, which was equipped with a study
series of bird skins.
With the sudden death of Dr. Bailey in June
of 1917, Miss Clementina Spencer, who had been filling in for Bailey
while he pursued his graduate work, became assistant professor and
acting chair of the Zoology department. The Museum was named the B.H.
Bailey Museum in October of 1917 in honor of his years of service and
dedication to the museum. All of Bailey’s plans for expansion of the
museum were now to be carried out by Miss Spencer. After a through
cleaning of the animals and cases, the Carnegie Science Hall was
fumigated and closed for a full day. Bailey had directed the
preparation of habitat groups for some Iowa birds and had planned to do
the same with Iowa mammals. The animals had been collected, and Miss
Spencer worked with various professors at State universities to
complete the project.
There were three animal groups total: the
first being a group of beaver specimens with the appropriate setting of
water, rocks and underbrush. With permission from the class of 1906,
the second group, two mountain lions and three cubs, was obtained in
exchange for their class gift of the stuffed American bison. The third
was three black bears which were to be placed in a large case in the
center of the west end of the museum, while the other two were placed
in the corner cases of the east room.
Not only did the B.H. Bailey museum contain
rare specimens of over 200 birds, and hundreds of butterflies and
beetles from north, central and south America, but also a collection of
curious relics from the orient. These included weapons, idols, musical
instruments, models of furniture and instruments of torture, all
gathered in oriental countries from Coe alumni, missionaries, or
professors in travel. Although these relics were crowded into a small
space, they provided “a realistic idea of the land and peoples across
the sea,” (Cosmos October 23 1917).
Improvements needed to be made. In the
December 13, 1918 issue of the Cosmos, the museum was listed as one of
many structures in need of financial aid and repair. The collection,
which was referred to as “priceless,” was difficult to access because
it did not meet fire regulations.
Specimens continued to be donated, despite
the small space and lack of proper display equipment. In November of
1924, Dr. McDaniel ’97, who had been a personal friend of Dr. Bailey,
mailed shipments of stuffed birds and animals from Siam and China
In May of 1926 four cases of moths and
butterflies were taken from the museum and placed in cases in the third
floor hall in the Science building. Although the May 13, 1926 Cosmos
described the collection as “the most attractive,” it may have been
moved due to space constraints on the fourth floor, where the rest of
the museum collection was held.
The 1932 – 1933 catalogue explained that the
west hall of the top floor in the Science hall was dedicated to
vertebrates and at the east end was the hall of invertebrates, geology
and botany, with classified ethnological exhibits. In 1948 the west
hall collection provided accommodation for visual education classes,
which included projection equipment for both silent and sound moving
pictures, as well as slide projectors. The room was also acoustically
treated and new lighting was installed. These additions may have
occurred to entice students and classes to use the museum
facilities.
|
