The Bell Museum reopened the weekend of July 13, 2018 in the new building at Larpenteur and Cleveland in St Paul, N of the UM campus. The Bell was established by statute in 1872 as the natural history museum for Minnesota and the ornithologist Thomas Sadler Roberts was its first director. The MOU has a long history with the Bell also-- more than a mailing address. Jan Green described the history of the MOU in a recent article in MN Birding. The MOU annual meeting has been hosted by the Bell for many years and many of the ornithology professors at UM had offices and labs in the Art Deco building. It also housed a collection of 1000's of bird specimens from MN and around the world. That collection is now in the new museum. The new Bell invited MOU members to a "science partner" event before the public opening.
The W Breckenridge & FL Jaques & J Jarosz dioramas in the old museum can now be seen in the new building in even better condition. The background paintings were removed in three pieces through a giant hole in the wall and transported in steel frames to the new building. The huge paintings were thoroughly cleaned and retouched to original condition. The contents of each diorama foreground were individually documented with photos and maps, then carefully cleaned and restored before repositioning in the assembly of the scene. Likewise every mammal and bird was completely cleaned (and repainted as necessary) and restored by the team of museum conservators. (The keenest observers of birds may note a change in the before & after moose diorama.) Twin Cities Public Television (TPT) and the Bell Museum cooperated in producing a documentary of this entire process--- "Windows to Nature: Minnesota's Dioramas". It is a fascinating look at the careful preservation and very detailed restoration of these wonderful displays about nature, its beauty, and its inhabitants. The video is 26 mins long. https://www.tpt.org/windows-to-nature-minnesotas-dioramas/ the home page for the new Bell.... sorry for "Goldy" (but maybe he's in a rotation of images) https://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/ GAndersson St Paul ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
