George Miksch Sutton Collection of Birds

More than 26,500 specimens preserved as skin, skeleton, fluid, mount, egg, and nest preparations representing 33 orders, and 179 families. Specimens provide a record of biodiversity from the mid-1800s to present day. Oklahoma is well represented (17,000 specimens), but there are significant holdings of specimens from Mexico, Texas and Thailand. The collection is one of the largest in the central United States. The collection also includes archives (e.g., collection catalogs, field catalogs, field notes, maps), a teaching collection, and a synoptic collection.

The collection provides research resources to scientists locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally, but is also used in teaching and by artists. For example, the collection is used to identify bone parts by staff of the Oklahoma Archaeology Survey. Recently, a clutch of eggs was destructively sampled to verify the species identification; if so, this would be the only known clutch of eggs of this species (Campephilus imperialis-Imperial Woodpecker) with a known locality in a collection.

The archives, such as field notes, represent an important resource of additional information about specimens in the collection as well as observations. Digitizing these resources provide greater access to information for curators and staff of the Sam Noble Museum as well as researchers around the world.