Morrill Hall, Scientific Collections and Research:
An Inseparable Resource for the People of Nebraska

 In 1871, the Regents of the University of Nebraska called for the creation of a museum specifically to house examples of Nebraska’s natural history and scientific treasures.  For the next 130+ years, scientists of the museum’s research divisions have continued to collect, study and preserve an incredible array of fossils, artifacts, and modern plants and animals found throughout Nebraska.  They have shared the fruits of their research with the people of Nebraska by creating the wonderful exhibits in Morrill Hall and the Museum’s branch facilities at Trailside and Ashfall Fossil Beds.  From a humble beginning more than a century ago, the State Museum has evolved into one of Nebraska’s crown jewels.

Everyone loves to visit Morrill Hall.   A vast room filled with the skeletons of ancient Nebraska mammoths and mastodons creates a visual impression that lasts a lifetime.  Habitat displays and beautiful murals of Nebraska wildlife transport visitors instantly to every corner of the state.  Walking on the floor of an ancient sea that once covered Nebraska, without getting wet or being eaten by the giant fossil fish and swimming reptiles surrounding them, excites children of all ages.   But behind every fossil, stone, tooth, fur, feather and leaf of Morrill Hall is science.  Nebraska science.  And for 130 years, that science has been revealed and presented to Nebraskans by scientists of national and international repute; by scientists of the University of Nebraska State Museum.

On March 10, 2003, the University, faced with yet another deep budget cut, announced a proposal to eliminate all research divisions of the Museum.  Under this proposal, two important collections would be deaccessioned...given to museums in other parts of the country...permanently.  Other collections would be kept on campus, but the staff, including research scientists (curators) and all collections-care staff, would be eliminated.  Indeed, on March 13, the entire staff received official letters of termination from the University, moving this proposal one step closer to reality. 

Under this proposal, Morrill Hall itself would be retained, but the Museum scientists will be gone, some moved to academic departments, some simply terminated; they will no longer be able to share the wonders of science with Nebraska’s children.  Some of the collections will remain, but the professionals who care for them will be gone; they will no longer be able to preserve our state’s heritage of natural history treasures.  People across Nebraska will continue to find wonderful fossils that could shed light on our state’s unique and fascinating past, but the Museum’s collectors will be gone; the new treasures will be lost to erosion, to commercial fossil miners, or to out-of-state museums.  

Imagine Elephant Hall without “Archie” or any of his tusker friends.  Imagine the Mesozoic Gallery without the giant “sea serpent” plesiosaur from Valparaiso.  Imagine Ashfall Fossil Beds without any rhinos or three-toed horses.  Imagine the Museum’s informal science education programs without science.   In the classic Christmas movie “It’s A Wonderful Life”, Jimmie Stewart is given a great gift: he is allowed to see how the world would be if he had never been born.  Without the research staff of the past, Morrill Hall today would be the Pottersville of museums.  Without continued collecting, scientific research, interpretation and care, the Morrill Hall of tomorrow will surely fare no better.

The Museum that lights the spark of scientific curiosity in so many children, and rekindles in so many adults, will not survive without your help. 

A Parade of Elephants

March 10, 1993 marked the rededication of the most famous exhibits gallery in the Great Plains.  After six years of fund-raising, planning, preparation and installation, a newly renovated Elephant Hall opened to the general public.  This gallery, containing ten mounted skeletons of fossil and modern elephants, is one of the world's most complete exhibits on the evolution of elephants.  More than a thousand square feet of new displays encourage visitors to touch and explore aspects of elephant biology such as "How long do elephants live?", "Why are there so many elephants in Nebraska?", and "How did the elephant (really) get its trunk?"

The new Elephant Hall preserves the dramatic impact of the gallery, designed by E. H. Barbour more than 75 years ago.  Consistent with Barbour's design, the gallery invites Nebraska visitors to find an elephant tooth from their home county.  Teeth from a total of 90 counties in Nebraska are now included in the gallery, along with elephant jaws that illustrate the 40 million-year story of elephant evolution.  A spectacular new mural, painted by artist Mark Marcuson, brings the gallery to life by showing a herd of mammoths on the Platte River.  A new feature of the gallery provides touchable teeth, skins, and labels that make the gallery more accessible to the visually impaired.  This effort was made possible by the extraordinary talents of staff in two Museum departments: Exhibits, directed by Debra Meier (Supervisor); and Vertebrate Paleontology, directed by Dr. Michael Voorhies (Curator).

Judy Diamond
Curator of Public Programs