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Lipps, Jere H., 2007. Into Focus: Museums and Their Exhibts. Palaeontologia Electronica Vol. 10, Issue 2; 3E:6p, 5MB;http://palaeo-electronica.org/paleo/2007_1/editorial/focus.htm

INTO FOCUS: Museums and Their Exhibits

Jere H. Lipps

Paleontologists generally love museums ofnatural history. Nearly every one of them can tellstories of how their lives and careers were posi-tively influenced by a museum or how they got agreat new idea while visiting one. Many of us evenwork in such museums, and some museums arebranches of academic departments or institutes.Most people who visit museums, in fact, areintrigued by the paleontology exhibits (especiallydinosaurs, naturally). In other words, museums ofnatural history around the world are integral partsof paleontology, if not of every paleontologist’s life.We owe them much gratitude for displaying our sci-ence so consistently, if not so thoroughly.

All museums are faced with the question ofhow to show off their proud possessions. All agree,as do funding agencies, teachers’ groups, and pro-fessional exhibition developers, that the educa-tional potential is the most important value to buildon. So we see in recent decades some very fancyeducational exhibits with explanations, commonlygoing into great detail with graphs and illustrations,all making the fossils quite clear and understand-able. They do their educational job. For these kindsof exhibits, museums can receive large amounts offunding. And funding is of primary importance tomuseums, as they now must compete for people’sattendance with an increasing number of fantasylands like Disneyland, thrill parks like Magic Moun-tain, nature parks like Marineland or even just themovies. This competition almost makes museumsobsolete, so the museums try to counter these withgreat new and rotating exhibits. Of course theseare important, especially in paleontology, for if any-thing can capture the joy of science for young peo-ple and adults as well, it is paleontology. Yet, Iwonder. It’s not what I experienced growing up and

it’s not what I have seen while wandering muse-ums on six continents. Let me give you an opinionthen that may differ from these newer views, but isnot totally incompatible with them.

My own trip back through time began when Iwas about 7 or 8 years old. I visited the Los Ange-les County Museum of Natural History in Exposi-tion Park, not far from my home. I still rememberthe Rancho La Brea room, with fossils from the tarpits over on Wilshire Blvd. Dark colored boneswere everywhere, a profusion of disarticulated andmounted skeletons that took my breath away. Icould not imagine that there were so many fossils,most of them different from one another and obvi-ously from different kinds of animals. Evenbranches and logs were laid out along the center ofthe hall. All of this made sense to me even thoughthe animals were like nothing I had ever seen orimagined. I was in a real state of excitementamong those bones and the smell of residual tarthat penetrated their every nook and cranny. I feltclose to that ancient world. The story was made abit clearer to me by an amazing, huge mural at oneend of the room showing giant scavenging birds(Teratornis) perched on branches of a scraggly oldtree overlooking a sabre tooth cat (Smilodon cali-fornicus, now the California state fossil) eyeingseveral giant ground slots (Paramylodon harlani).This, of course, was one of the famous Charles R.Knight murals that have influenced several genera-tions of paleontologists to take up the trade. Noneof these bones or other fossils or the mural wasburdened with lots of explanation. They were allexhibited in such a way that every case or mountcontained the thrill of discovery. I felt like there wasa lot yet to do and that the answers were stillincompletely known. I knew I wanted to be part of

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that excitement. As exciting as the mural was, thebones thrilled me even more as I roamed amongthose cases and the mounted skeletons all barelylabeled at all. I wasn’t just thrilled at the sight ofthese strange animals that thousands of years agowalked over the same ground where I lived, but myimagination leaped to recreate in my mind what thelandscape must have been like beyond the boundsof Knight’s mural and what those animals actuallydid there. I begged my father to go to the tar pits,and when we arrived, it was a rather unkemptgrassy square block with open and accessible pitsof asphalt (Figure 1). I saw the tar-encrusted bodyof a song-bird lying near the shore of one of the tarpit lakes, and I could picture in my mind exactlywhat happened to all the thousands of individualsand species of animals and plants that accumu-lated in the pits over the millennia and were nowdisplayed in the La Brea room at LACM. Back atthe Museum, I wondered about the life and deathof this enormous number of animals. I could seethe dire wolves (C. dirus) on the edge of the tarpools waiting for the ground sloths, horses andmammoths stuck in the tar to tire and stop strug-gling so the wolves could leap from shore to thedying animals’ backs for a meal of their own. Thatwas a mistake for many of them, of course, for theyare the most abundant vertebrate in the pits. Icould easily picture those taphonomic moments inmy mind’s eye, even though that word had not yetbecome common in paleontology and I certainlyhadn’t heard of it. In fact, I hadn’t heard very much

about paleontology at all! I remembered the skele-ton of a woman, a Native American, found in onepit, and I wondered if she, like me, crept carefully tothe edge of the water, but not knowing about theasphalt or maybe seeking some of it to repair abasket, became trapped and preserved for poster-ity. In some ways, I admired her sacrifice, for itadded much to my own life although I was alwayssorry she died the way I assumed. But maybe, itoccurred to me, she was thrown into the pit by anirate relative, probably a husband, in a sort of earlyHolocene murder scene. I didn’t know, but I soughtevidence for which of these hypotheses might beright on her skeleton. Alas, I could see nothing thattold me the answer, and I still wonder how she died(apparently there’s not many of her bones and theexhibits were a bit contrived, but no longer on dis-play at the Page Museum). Of course I didn’t thinkin terms of hypotheses then, but clearly my imagi-nation generated alternatives for me to puzzleover. I returned to the museum and the tar pits atevery opportunity, and every time I came away withlots of excitement and many new if not great ideas.Those ideas eventually led me to tell everyonearound that I wanted to be a paleontologist when Igrew up, and I did.

Now when I go back to the tar pits, thegrounds are manicured with fancy plants, cutgrass, impressive concrete sculptures of ancientanimals rise from the largest of the tar lakes, theLos Angeles County Museum of Art (whose base-ment, like those many of the fancy buildings near

Figure 1. Rancho La Brea fossil pits exposed along Wilshire Boulevard about the turn of the 20th century. Theasphalt was mined from the Quaternary pits in the alluvium, and wells pumped oil from the underlying Pliocenemarine rocks. The fossils were thought to be the remains of old cows and other animals that roamed the area then.Later their importance was recognized, and the earliest systematic excavations were carried out in the early 1900s byteams of students and paleontologists from the University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology under thedirection of Professor John Merriam and Dr. Loye Holmes Miller. Rancho La Brea is one of the most abundant anddiverse fossil deposits anywhere in the world.

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the tar pits, needs careful attention as tar threatensto pierce it) has usurped a corner of the park, andthe wonderful George C. Page Museum fossilmuseum now sits, as it should, between the majortar pits. However, I was happy to see a vestige ofthose earlier times—tar bubbling up through thegreen grass, waiting to trap some careless bug orbird or get some little kid dirty and sticky. My mindwas imaging a lot of things once again, but in amuch more restricted environment than I hadremembered some 50 years ago. Of course, thearea was nothing like it was when the pits trappedthese magnificent animals thousands of years agoanyway. Today’s kid has a much larger problem toeliminate the traffic, modern edifices, crowds ofpeople, trash, and urban noise from his mind sothat his imagination can take off with an entirely dif-ferent Pleistocene scene. But it is still possible,thankfully.

Not long ago, I wandered around Les Galeriesde Paléontologie et d’Anatomie comparée, one ofseveral large museum buildings of the Muséumnational d’Histoire naturelle just off the Seine (LeftBank) in Paris, looking at more than ten thousandskeletons, skulls, bones, and dissections, allarranged in Victorian symmetry and orderliness.

Two full skeletons of giraffes, placed one on eachside of the gallery, whale skulls balanced by mas-siveness on the wall, and all the others arranged insome ancient systematic order spreading out to theright and left and for what seemed an infinite dis-tance down the gallery (Figure 2, Figure 3). Onefloor above the comparative anatomy exhibits werethe paleontology specimens (Figure 4). Again, fos-sil vertebrates arranged more or less in strati-graphic order, all facing east, with invertebratesand microfossils in cases around a balcony in thehall. I was in ecstasy on both floors! All thosebones and fossils made my imagination whirl onceagain. What mysteries lay in that place? Whatexcitement! I was in my element again. Most of youhave been there in Paris too, or should go. Don’texpect much in the way of educational materials. Itremains one of the few old-style museum exhibitswhere the specimens matter. Indeed, the Gallerycaptured the attention of the many visitors whoseemed amazed by the variety and variation of allthose bones—150 skulls of one kind of mouse, anassemblage of whales from the smallest to thelargest, human embryos in various stages of devel-opment, horses, dogs and cats, and as fascinating

Figure 2. The interior of the Galerie d’Anatomie comparée. Note the giraffe skeletons mounted on either side of thehall, the whale skulls high on the walls, as well as the sheer abundance of skeletons and bones.

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as could be, conjoined twins of humans and othermammals. So much to see, so little time.

I was drawn by that place and, of course, theCity of Light, when choosing my sabbatical site for2005-06. I was lucky to have a wonderful host inDr. Marie-Thérèse Vénec-Peyré, a micropaleontol-ogist, who provided all sorts of intellectual excite-ment and all the resources of the Muséum nationald’Histoire naturelle. She also graciously showedme how to get into Les Galeries de Paléontologieet d’Anatomie comparée from the office space, andI sneaked in there often, just to walk around andlook at all those specimens. Those Galleriesremain fixed in a special place in my mind. I wasexcited to think that now I would have all the time Ineeded to explore it! Not true, it turned out, as ayear is not enough time at all. I must go back andfind new steps, perhaps starting at the back or atone side, and see what new ideas and excitementcome of this.

Other museums around the world fall some-place between those Galleries in Paris, includingthe newest and largest natural history exhibit in thenearby Grande Galerie de l’Evolution, a fantasticcollection of materials from all parts of the world.The Grande Galerie, the pride of the Muséumnational d’Histoire naturelle, has its remarkable

elements. I love the parade of stuffed animalsappearing to march in some orderly mannerthrough the center of the place and the whale skel-etons hanging above visitors, again with limitedlabeling. Elsewhere the exhibits remain outstand-ing but the explanations get more detailed andmore complex. The kids, who stand in amazementalong the parade or silently gaze upwards to seethe whale, run right by these exhibits in the questfor items that excite them more. So it is with somany of our museums elsewhere in the world. Nowthe museums and the tar pits have become “edu-cational” centers with elaborate explanations ofevolution, geologic time, paleoenvironments, platetectonics, etc, etc. Everything is well explained,leaving nothing to the imagination. They are veryeducational and I hate it.

I am a minimalist when it comes to museumsand field sites too for that matter. I do not like a lotof educational text that explains it all or, worse,tries to explain it all. I am not an expert on anyone’seducation but my own, and I’ll tell you that all thattext and labeled illustrations robs me of the adven-ture that my mind generated while puzzling it all outin front of the bones. In Paris, I saw huge numbersof school children almost every day in the anatomi-cal and paleontologic collections, sitting on the

Figure 3. The whales of the Galerie d’Anatomie comparée.

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floor and drawing the specimens they saw. Yes, itwas an assignment and their teachers helped themwith a little instruction, or so it seemed to me, andthey appeared to like the work. Very little explana-tion accompanied those bones in the exhibit, butthe students were clearly learning a good dealwithout them. I hope their little imaginations ranaway with them too, and that they could secretlyenvision the giraffe running across the veldt withthe lion in pursuit or perhaps some other adven-ture.

While I am sure that we will never get rid of allthe educational exhibits, and we shouldn’t, I think,but museums must rekindle the creativity andimaginations of people of all ages. Let’s have moreexhibits where nothing more than the diversity andabundance of organisms or their parts (or really,anything else) can be seen and admired withoutdetailed or complicated explanations. Leave roomfor self-generated discovery and excitement. It’snot hard to do, as some museums have indeeddone such complementary displays. For example,the California Academy of Sciences in San Fran-

cisco some years ago had a display on skulls. Awhole room was devoted to them in the Academy’sold facility, and one wall was covered with skulls ofdifferent creatures. Once again I felt excited andcreative as soon as I walked in—imagination wasworking hard once again and the thrill was there. Ihad been captured by the wall and was compelledto read a bit of the explanations too. The NaturalHistory Museum—London has its unique new Dar-win Centre, which contains some 22 million speci-mens occupying 27 km of shelf space. It is theresearch collections of the museum and now peo-ple can tour it for free. I’ve only seen part of it butI’d bet that the adults and children will be mesmer-ized by the wonders of this collection. Again, notmuch in the way of labels but certainly a lot of mys-tery on those shelves. It should certainly get thepeople thinking about Earth’s diversity, if nothingelse.

Good educators, I think, know that explana-tions without excitement and creativity are not thebest way to teach people. While everyone getsexcited by different things, museums certainly have

Figure 4. An excited tourist in the Galerie de Paléontologie.

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an abundance and diversity of such items. All theyneed to do is lay them out in some exciting way.Those ways seem to me to include lots of speci-mens, lots of diversity, juxtaposed with just enoughillustration to act as a point from which people canbuild their own discovery. There’s somethingdeeply satisfying about discovering and creatingour own realities. Creativity must be the primarygoal for stimulating visitors but making that happentakes it own creative deep thought.

Most museums have educational and exhibitsdesigners. These people work hard and come upwith good ideas, but I often think that more paleon-tologists (and other scientists) should be intimatelyconnected, as they sometimes are, with exhibit

design. Once that happens, however, we seem tostep in the wrong direction—we want to explaineverything to the visitors. We are excited by ourstuff, but remember they might not get it yet. Theyneed to make those same discoveries themselves.So don’t explain. Remember how excited you werein a natural history museum. Remember why yougot excited. Then work to get all those kids andtheir parents just as excited as you were. If I coulddo that, I’d take all those Rancho La Brea bonesback out of their cabinets in the back rooms, andpile them high in the middle of some room wherepeople can stand around and puzzle them out. Ibet that would be an enormous amount of creativefun!