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A "Touching" Farewell
A "Touching" Farewell
The Bell Museum of Natural History's division of Public Education has created educational opportunities for community members to enjoy throughout its lifetime.
Events like their Sunday Lecture Series, local nature hikes, informal courses on caring for your plants or bird identification, field trips, tours and workshops are among that list; however it wasn't until 1968, when then Public Education Coordinator, Richard Barthelemy, came up with a new "hands-on" approach for museum visitors.
- Touch and See Room, date unknown. Photograph of a child engaging in the Touch and See Room, Bell Museum of Natural History records, ua00876, University Archives.
On October 15, 1968, Barthelemy's concept, the Touch and See Room, then known as the Children's Room, was opened. This room placed items such as bones, horns and fossils at eye-level to encourage visitors (mostly children) to "touch, feel, poke and prod" (1) for further exploration.
Designed to host school classes, clubs or guided tours, the Touch and See Room was a center to ask questions and where a guide would provide a guessing game to help children identify an animal skull, horn or antler (1).
- Touch and See Room Ticket, date unknown, Bell Museum of Natural History records, ua00876, University Archives.
"[The Touch and See Room] allows [visitors] to get the feel of what it might be like to wear those big horns like an antelope or buffalo does," Barthelemy said. "Where else can you put your finger in a moose's nose or look a bison in the eye?" (2)
"[The Touch and See Room] allows [visitors] to get the feel of what it might be like to wear those big horns like an antelope or buffalo does," Barthelemy said. "Where else can you put your finger in a moose's nose or look a bison in the eye?" (2)
- Touch and See Room, date unknown. Photograph of children engaging with antlers found in the Touch and See Room, Bell Museum of Natural History records, ua00876, University Archives.
Through the years, various additions were added to the Touch and See Room, including donated animal mounts, such as a seal, cougar and water buffalo, along with an assortment of hides, feet and teeth (3). Live animals were also introduced by the 1970s and 1980s, where visitors would be able to hold or view animals while museum staff were present.
- Touch and See Room, date unknown, Bell Museum of Natural History records, ua00876, University Archives.
Today, the Bell Museum has renamed the space to the Touch & See Lab, which continues Barthelemy's legacy, by allowing museum visitors to continue to interact with specimen in a hands-on approach.
- Touch and See Room, date unknown. Photograph of children using a microscope to examine a fossil in the Touch and See Room, Bell Museum of Natural History records, ua00876, University Archives.
This week, in preparation of ending this grant project, the University Archives visited the Bell Museum of Natural History to engage in our own "Touch and See" experience. Among a few other classrooms of children, we got feel the bone of a giraffe, examine cave beetles, and peer at mounted, iridescent butterflies - all with intention of exploration.
Much like our museum experience, we have also touched and seen many areas of the Minnesota landscape throughout this project. From mineral ore samples in the Iron Range, to urban land development; from the drumming of roughed grouse, to the preservation of wood; from understanding bird species, to reading core samples, this 32 collection project has expanded the meaning of environmental history collected at the University of Minnesota.
And it is with that, that I say farewell and thank you for exploring Minnesota's landscapes with me!
References: 1: Press Releases, September - October 19682: Press Releases, January - March 1971 3: Report, 1974
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