Extinct Monsters to Deep Time: Conflict, Compromise, and the Making of Smithsonian's Fossil Halls

333 Pages·2019·4.132 MB·English

by  Diana E. Marsh

Extinct Monsters to Deep Time
Museums and Collections
Editors
Mary Bouquet, University College Utrecht
Howard Morphy, Th e Australian National University, Canberra
As houses of memory and sources of information about the world, museums function
as a dynamic interface between past, present, and future. Museum collections are in-
creasingly being recognized as material archives of human creativity and as invaluable
resources for interdisciplinary research. Museums provide powerful forums for the
expression of ideas and are central to the production of public culture: they may in-
spire the imagination, generate heated emotions, and express confl icting values in their
material form and histories. Th is series explores the potential of museum collections
to transform our knowledge of the world, and for exhibitions to infl uence the way in
which we view and inhabit that world. It off ers essential reading for those involved in
all aspects of the museum sphere: curators, researchers, collectors, students, and the
visiting public.
Volume . Th e Future of Indigenous Volume . Th e Enemy on Display: Th e
Museums: Perspectives from the Southwest Second World War in Eastern European
Pacifi c Museums
Edited by Nick Stanley Zuzanna Bogumił, Joanna Wawrzyniak,
Tim Buchen, Christian Ganzer, and
Volume . Th e Long Way Home: Th e
Maria Senina
Meaning and Values of Repatriation
Edited by Paul Turnbull and Michael Volume . Museum Websites and Social
Pickering Media: Issues of Participation,
Sustainability, Trust, and Diversity
Volume . Th e Lives of Chinese Objects:
Ana Luisa Sánchez Laws
Buddhism, Imperialism and Display
Louise Tythacott Volume . Visitors to the House of
Memory: Identity and Political Education
Volume . Colonial Collecting and
at the Jewish Museum Berlin
Display: Encounters with Material Culture
Victoria Bishop Kendzia
from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands
Claire Wintle Volume . Th e Witness as Object: Video
Testimony in Memorial Museums
Volume . Borders of Belonging:
Steffi de Jong
Experiencing History, War and Nation at
a Danish Heritage Site Volume . Extinct Monsters to Deep
Mads Daugbjerg Time: Confl ict, Compromise, and the
Making of Smithsonian’s Fossil Halls
Volume . Exhibiting Europe in
Diana E. Marsh
Museums: Transnational Networks,
Collections, Narratives, and
Representations
Wolfram Kaiser, Stefan Krankenhagen,
and Kerstin Poehls
Extinct Monsters to Deep Time
Confl ict, Compromise, and the Making of
Smithsonian’s Fossil Halls
Diana E. Marsh
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First published in 2019 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2019 Diana E. Marsh
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A C.I.P. cataloging record is available from the Library of Congress
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78920-122-2 hardback
ISBN 978-1-78920-123-9 ebook
To my parents, for taking me to the museum.

Contents
List of Illustrations and Tables ix
Foreword xiv
Jennifer Shannon
Prologue. Fieldnotes from the Badlands xvii
Acknowledgments xxii
List of Abbreviations xxv
Chronology A. Lists of Relevant Leadership xxvii
Chronology B. Geologic Time Scale xxxi
Chronology C. Fossil Exhibits Timeline xxxii
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. Increase and Diff usion: Early Fossil Exhibits and a
History of Institutional Culture 27
Chapter 2. Group Dynamics: Exhibit Meetings and Expertise 56
Chapter 3. Group Dynamics: Th e Roots of Team Frictions
and Complementarities 108
Chapter 4. Content Development: Debates about
Interconnected Processes and Static Th ings 135
Chapter 5. Content Development: Th e Roots of Interpretive
Frictions and Complementarities 189
viii Contents
Chapter 6. Diff usion and Increase: Shifts in Institutional Culture
from Modernization to Now 215
Chapter 7. Conclusion 248
Chapter 8. Coda: Th e Nation’s T. rex 258
Appendix A. Consent Form 261
Appendix B. Interview Questionnaires 265
Sample Team Interview Questionnaire 265
Sample Oral History Interview Questionnaire 270
Bibliography 272
Index 291
Illustrations and Tables
Illustrations
Figure 0.1. Th e team at the K/Pg boundary, Hell Creek Formation,
July 2013. Photo by the author. xviii
Figure 0.2. Th e team hikes across the badlands, July 2013. Photo
by the author. xx
Figure 0.3. Geologic time scale. Courtesy of the U.S. Geological
Survey, Department of the Interior/USGS. xxxi
Figure 0.4. Th e Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural
History, September 2012. Photo by the author. 2
Figure 0.5. Map of the Natural History Building fi rst fl oor, 1936,
altered to show current numbering for halls 2–6. Smithsonian
Institution Archives. Image # SIA2009-4096. 3
Figure 0.6. Deep Time exhibit timeline. Courtesy of the Offi ce of
Exhibits, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian
Institution. 4
Figure 1.1. Comparative Osteology Hall with Basilosaurus Cast,
U.S. National Museum (now Arts and Industries Building),
1896. Smithsonian Institution Archives. Image # NHB-9469. 35
Figure 1.2. Cyanotype of the Vertebrate Fossil Hall, ca. 1913.
Smithsonian Institution Archives. Image # 2005-3000. 36
Figure 1.3. Diplodocus under construction, ca. 1930. Image
31024. Courtesy of the Department of Paleobiology, National
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. 39
Figure 1.4. Fossil crinoids, Springer Collection, ca. 1920. Image
30543. Courtesy of the Department of Paleobiology, National
Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. 40
x Illustrations and Tables
Figure 1.5. Top view of the Stegosaurus display. Image 29895.
Courtesy of the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum
of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. 42
Figure 1.6. Norman Boss and public onlookers at the Texas
Centennial Exposition, 1936. Image 32697-e. Courtesy of
the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural
History, Smithsonian Institution. 44
Figure 2.1. Exhibits hallway, May 2013. Photo by the author. 62
Figure 2.2. Paleobiology hallway, July 2013. Photo by the author. 64
Figure 2.3. Th e director’s hallway, November 2013. Photo by the
author. 65
Figures 2.4a and b. “Chairs” of Paleobiology in the Cooper Room,
2013. Photos by the author. 68
Figure 2.5. Exhibit meeting in 71A, 2013. Photo by the author. 70
Figure 2.6. Angela Roberts Reeder describing hierarchies of
exhibit text, April 2013. Photo by the author. 74
Figure 2.7. Exhibit Team meeting including R+P, additional
Exhibits staff , and a guest media group, June 2013. Photo by
the author. 77
Figure 2.8. Exhibits staff organizational chart, June 2013.
Courtesy of the Offi ce of Exhibits, National Museum of
Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. 78
Figure 2.9. Deep Time roles draft diagram, December 2013.
Drawing courtesy of the Offi ce of Exhibits, National Museum
of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. 82
Figure 2.10. Exhibit meeting with Deep Time Temporary and
Core Exhibit Teams and Sant Director Kirk Johnson, May
2013. Photo by the author. 101
Figure 3.1. Ian G. Macintyre, Eugene Behlen (standing), Kenneth
Towe, Daniel Appleman, Sue Voss, and Elizabeth Hilkert (all
seated), Francis Hueber on the right, Richard Molinaroli at very
back (blocked by Hueber), ca. 1981. Image 81-1709. Photo by
C. Clark. Courtesy of the Offi ce of Exhibits and Department of
Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian
Institution. 119