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Information for Preparation
The following article was distilled from my master's project for the Department of Museum Studies at John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley, California, completed in January 2007. For more information and a complete copy of my project, contact me at gav7@care2.com or log onto the John F. Kennedy University Museum Studies webpage at www.jfku.edu.
View of McDonald's Preparation Laboratory at the Field Museum, Chicago. Interpretive panels align the lab's exterior, and window workstations align its interior. Note the message on the window reads: "Please do not tap on the glass- fossil preparators at work." Photo by author.
Working Fossil
Laboratories as Public Exhibitions
Annette Gavigan
Today, visitors to Dinosaur Hall at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia (Academy) are greeted by a roaring skeleton of Tyrannosaurus rex mounted in a life-like pose. The sounds of mini-jackhammers, which remove rock from fossils that are on display in the Fossil Prep Lab, fill the hall. Visitors can observe casts of several Hadrosaurus foulkii bones mounted in a life-size silhouette of this dinosaur. These dynamic techniques of displaying fossils were relatively unknown to visitors before 1868. That year, H. foulkii was the first most complete dinosaur to be mounted in a life-size freestanding pose, a dramatic sight that drew many Philadelphians to the Academy[1] More than 100 years later, dinosaur displays continue to fascinate museum visitors.
Visitor study after visitor study conducted in natural history museums confirm that "everyone loves dinosaurs."[2] "Dinosaur fans," as one 1995 study shows, are mostly comprised of adults visiting with children, but span all genders, age groups, educational levels, and "visitor types."[3] According to Smithsonian Program Analyst Stacey Bielick,
Whether there was a special exhibition or not, more visitors stayed longer with the dinosaurs than with any other part of the museum... Visitors who spent most of their time with Dinosaurs (one quarter of all visitors) were disproportionately impressed by seeing the real thing.[4]
Visitors are also interested in watching people work on real fossils in laboratory exhibitions. such as the Academy's Fossil Prep Lab. Here, visitors can see the human dimension of fossil research. They can look at fossils displayed on tables, on walls, or with signs. Visitors can watch preparators or volunteers preparing fossils at window workstations and also can talk with them about their work.
Background
Changes in the methods of displaying fossils like H. Foulkii occurred in tandem with changes in the function of natural history museums. Since the first half of the nineteenth century, the core functions of natural history museums have oscillated between collecting, research, and public education. As these museums increasingly became intent on merging their collecting and research functions with the needs and desires of their public, more dynamic exhibits such as working fossil laboratories debuted.
In the 1950s, Dinosaur National Monument in Utah displayed a working lab as an adjunct to the fossil excavation located on the site. After the 1970s, natural history museums that didn't have in-situ fossil excavations on their grounds began to incorporate working laboratories into their exhibition menus as a way to disseminate paleontological research to their public.[7]
Conclusions of Project
The astounding popularity of fossils and dinosaurs aside, working fossil laboratories are a popular exhibit trend for several reasons. The first is that a majority of visitors have a natural curiosity about watching people work in authentic, culturally significant settings and in museum exhibitions. Visitors' interest in the work of paleontologists, both in the excavation and in the lab was, indeed, the inspiration for the development of the earliest fossil labs. Not unlike visitors' reactions to the quarry at Dinosaur National Monument in Vernal, Utah, visitors to the La Brea Tar Pits in the 1970s were in awe of the sight of paleontologists working in the pit. At La Brea, visitors were curious not only about the excavation in progress but also about work going on in the adjacent lab. Visitors' desire to tour this lab was the impetus for incorporating a lab into the Page Museum. In the 1980s and 1990s, more working fossil laboratory exhibitions debuted in natural history museums committed to paleontological research.
View of visitors observing Paleo Lab Coordinator Jason Poole preparing fossils in the Fossil Prep Lab at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. Note the half-windows with holes that can facilitate conversation between visitors and preparators. Photo by Reid Cummins. Courtesy of the Academy of Natural Sciences
The second reason for the popularity of fossil labs is the "exhibit replication effect." As fossil labs have become more popular, museums have looked to their museum colleagues with labs for advice, essentially molding themselves after original labs much the way paleontologists create molds of original fossils. Museums interested in developing labs with other emphases such as anthropological objects, living plants or animals, have also looked at fossil labs as models. Two examples are the Field Museum's McDonald's Fossil Prep Lab and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science's Fossil Lab. The Field Museum's McDonald's Fossil Prep Lab served as a model for the development of their Regenstein Laboratory, an exhibit showcasing anthropological research and collections that opened in August 2004. In order to improve upon the design of the McDonald's Fossil Prep Lab, exhibits staff designing the Regenstein Laboratory sought the advice of fossil preparators. The Field's Fossil Vertebrate Preparator Jim Holstein said the museum has altered the lab's interface with visitors to enhance both the physical and psychological comfort of staff working in the lab. The museum added a railing around the exterior of the lab, installed double paned window glass, and positioned volunteers, when available, outside the lab to serve as buffers between the lab and youthful visitors who have a penchant for pounding on the glass. The second example is the Fossil Lab at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, which served as a model for the development of the museum's Naturalist Center scheduled to open in 2009. North Carolina's Curator of Paleontology Vince Schneider explains "fossil labs have led the way for other fields interested in developing working laboratory exhibitions, which have spent less time interfacing their research with the public."
Finally, fossil labs are popular because they exemplify the growing desire of many natural history museums to create experiential exhibitions where visitors have the opportunity to converse with "real museum experts," while seeing "real things." Up-to-date, relevant, and customizable, the interpersonal interaction provided at some working fossil laboratories is both a social and cognitive experience and significantly impacts how visitors rate their experience at the lab. I studied interpersonal interaction between museum experts and visitors at the Fossil Prep Lab at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia during May 2006. I found that visitors who talked with a person in the lab were more likely to have higher visitor experience ratings for their overall experience, effect on their personal enjoyment, and effect on their personal learning than visitors who did not engage with a person in a lab. I found that visitors who were satisfied with having a chance to talk experts had higher ratings for their overall experience than visitors who did not talk to an expert.
Results indicated that having a chance to talk to experts is significantly correlated with other types of satisfying experiences that are either social (the visitor is focused on an interaction with another person, i.e., "Spending time with friends, family, other people" or cognitive (the visitor is focused on interpretive or intellectual aspects, i.e., "Enriching my understanding"). In other words, visitors who were satisfied with social or cognitive experiences were also satisfied with having a chance to talk to experts.
Visitors to the lab understood the lab's purpose regardless of whether they talked to a person in the lab. A majority of visitors understood that the purpose of the lab was to educate them about paleontology, allow them to see paleontologists at work, or offer them a chance to talk to a paleontologist. The messages visitors took away aligned with several of the lab's intended messages-to show the human element in the process of preparation as well as to serve visitors and answer their questions.
Visitors who talked with a person were satisfied with gaining information or knowledge at the lab. Visitors who reported gaining information or knowledge at the lab also had higher ratings for overall experience. Even more visitors who reported gaining information or knowledge rated their personal enjoyment and personal learning in the top two categories-superior or excellent.