Harvard MNH April 2023

[Shellseeker]

I wanted an adventure and my youngest niece is graduating from Boston University in a few weeks. Definitely worth a celebration. I booked a 6 am flight Saturday, landing in Boston at 10 am.  I had about 6 hours before Emily was done with class.  Commonwealth Avenue has a park like setting with statues and walkways going back a couple of centuries. I took a 4 mile walk through Boston Commons to the Boston Opera House. My primary contribution to the activities was a pair of tickets to the touring play "My Fair Lady"  on Friday evening.  We went to dinner and to the Play. Grand time was had by all.

Emily had selected a fantastic lunch at the Tasting Counter, followed by a tour of the Harvard Museum of Natural History. We spent 3 hours viewing exhibits.

We started in the Hall of Rocks and Minerals,  A couple of interesting examples.

 

Next into the glass renditions.  In 1888, Harvard commissioned reproducing Flowering plants in glass.

You can read about it here...

https://hmnh.harvard.edu/glass-flowers

In thousands of plants and Flowers,  the creators included one insect buried deep in one flower. Unfortunately I did not get a photo.

I did get a few photos of the plants.... a flower,  a tree

As I moved out of the Glass plant exhibits,  I was looking for the marine and shark exhibits,  I did not realize that many were a glass collection of Inverts:

https://mcz.harvard.edu/blaschka-glass-invertebrates

 

So, as I provide photos, think about whether you are looking at glass or a fossil..... Just below is a Dorsal Spike from Hybodus reticulatus (200 mya)

 

So, Is that Meg glass ?  How about the Sawfish Rostral ?

 

This is Orodus ramosus tooth (300 mya)

 

Just for you , Daniel... Hexanchus griseus

Above Eryon arctiformis, Jurassic. Solnhofen, Germany

 

Very impressive.. easy to stand and stare at each exhibit..

On to Cenozoic Mammals,  I sometimes find many of their bones....I do not think these are glass..

Parahippus

Teleoceras....

 

Those tusks seem small.. Look at those footbones.  I have some..

Menoceras Jaw

 

Articulated bones for Sloth,  Osteoderms for Glyptodon..  an edge Osteoderms... and over this , I get to see it in place...

 

This was a great afternoon,  a nice gift from Emily....  Enjoy..

[jno]

My old hang-out as a teenager back in the '60s. Do they still have that big triceratops skull? Iirc there was also a huge marine reptile (ichthyosaur?) Their Mesozoic vertebrates display wasn't very large, though.

[FossilNerd]

An early congratulations to Emily on her graduation! 

Sounds like everyone had a great time on your little adventure. Plus fossils! 

[Shellseeker]

On 4/24/2023 at 11:06 PM, jno said:

My old hang-out as a teenager back in the '60s. Do they still have that big triceratops skull? Iirc there was also a huge marine reptile (ichthyosaur?) Their Mesozoic vertebrates display wasn't very large, though.

Yes,  still there.... but I did not get to see it... 3 plus hours is such a short period of time... My Dad took me along to Yale's Peabody Museum starting when I was 4 or 5 .. There was never time enough to visit all the exhibits in one afternoon..

 

[digit]

Tammy and I visited that museum several years back on our last visit to the Boston area during one of our road trips. One of the main draws to going was the Blaschka glass exhibits. The rest was just gravy.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[jpc]

visited many times a s young 'un growing up a bus ride away from Harvahd Squayah, but moslty I was going to the used record shops (1970s and 80s).  Is the modern coelacanth still there in its formaldehyde (I assume) aquarium, and the Kronosaurus? 

   

[Shellseeker]

5 hours ago, jpc said:

visited many times a s young 'un growing up a bus ride away from Harvahd Squayah, but moslty I was going to the used record shops (1970s and 80s).  Is the modern coelacanth still there in its formaldehyde (I assume) aquarium, and the Kronosaurus? 

   

I did not make it to Romer Hall, so no.  I was time constrained and had to choose my targets.  It would be a tremendous luxury to live close for a while and take my time exploring the offerings.

[Yoda]

@Shellseeker

Thanks for the tour. 

 

That Ammonite is absolutely fantastic 

[digit]

2 hours ago, Yoda said:

That Ammonite is absolutely fantastic 

Yup. That's just about the textbook definition of "some things belong in a museum".

 

I've got a small piece of ammolite that was gifted to me but to see an entire ammonite sporting ammolite is indeed impressive. It is interesting that geologic conditions to transform the ammonite's shell into this gem material apparently mainly occur along the Rocky Mountains.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammolite

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[Yoda]

22 minutes ago, digit said:

Yup. That's just about the textbook definition of "some things belong in a museum".

 

I have seen some of these for sale - eye watering prices 

Edited April 27, 2023 by Yoda

[digit]

Indeed! That's a fossil that could only be purchased by an extremely well-heeled collector with money to spare. Most ammolite seems to be fragmentary and is crafted into stunningly colorful jewelry. You'd have to have a pretty strong gold chain if you wanted to hang this entire ammonite around your neck. You'd better know a good chiropractor as well.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=ammolite&tbm=isch

 

Getting back to the topic of the wonderful Harvard museum, here are a few more images of the Blaschka glass flowers (and invertebrates) to augment Jack's trip report with some from when Tammy and I visited back in 2018. It's amazing to realize that these are not molded of plastic but were made out of glass as teaching models more colorful than herbarium specimens.

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

 

     

 

     

 

 

     

[Shellseeker]

3 hours ago, Yoda said:

@Shellseeker

Thanks for the tour. 

 

That Ammonite is absolutely fantastic 

The Ammonite is huge... likely 90 cm wide. 

We were on a tight schedule of events and did not have more than 3.5 hours to visit.   Basically , little planning but we certainly had known and would spend an hour in the Blaschka glass flowers exhibit. We initially walked into the Earth & Planetary Sciences Gallery (rocks and minerals) spending 45 minutes there... Then as Ken says, there were the Invertebrate and marine exhibits,  and the Cenozoic Mammals,  and so , so much more...  There was no time to do this Museum justice...   Just Amazing

 

@digit Thanks for the additional photos.  I will save them locally.

My version of the Octopus and some other marine inverts.

[digit]

1 hour ago, Shellseeker said:

There was no time to do this Museum justice...

We had the better part of a day and I think we did a lot of skimming so multiple visits are really necessary to take it all in.

 

1 hour ago, Shellseeker said:

My version of the Octopus and some other marine inverts.

They are really awesome looking and mind-blowing when you remind yourself that these are all made of glass. The Blaschkas (father and son team) made over 4000 glass models for the university. I believe I remember hearing that the Corning glass museum has some Blaschkas glass (mostly more of the invertebrates). Fascinating talent!

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken