AREA 1.0: GRAND MUSEUM ON THE PLAINS
AREA 1.0: GRAND MUSEUM ON THE PLAINS
9.5 ft East Wall
96” 8’
108” 9’
12.5 ft South Moveable Wall
84” 7’
ALL SENT TO PRINT
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A S TO R Y O F FO S S ILS A N D FR IE N DS H IP
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This is the story of two extraordinary men who shared the same vision of building a “Grand Museum” in Nebraska. Charles H. Morrill and Erwin Hinckley Barbour led fascinating lives as individuals, but when they became friends in 1891, they formed a partnership to preserve the state’s fossils for generations to come.
IMAGES OF YALE INDIVIDUALS, CA. 1750-2001 (INCLUSIVE). MANUSCRIPTS & ARCHIVES, YALE UNIVERSITY
The Bone Wars
1871
Scientific name FISH VERTEBRA, CRETACEOUS PERIOD 1881 | Nebraska This fish vertebra is one of the very first specimens in the State Museum collections. It was collected in 1881 by the Museum’s first Director, Samuel Aughey.
Three toed horse foot. ERWIN H. BARBOUR, MUSEUM PHOTOGRAPHS SERIES (RG 32-01-01) ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA–LINCOLN LIBRARIES
Nebraska’s Famous Fossils
This period of competitive fossil collecting sparked the famous “bone wars” rivalry between two pioneers in paleontology, Edward Drinker Cope of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences and Othniel C. Marsh of Yale University.
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA STATE MUSEUM DIVISION OF VERTEBRATE
1871. THE NEW CAPITAL CITY, LINCOLN, NEBRASKA. The University campus occupied four blocks just north of the planned downtown. For the first fifteen years, University Hall, seen in the distance above, was the only building. ERWIN H. BARBOUR, MUSEUM PHOTOGRAPHS SERIES (RG 32-01-01) ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA–LINCOLN LIBRARIES
Nebraska’s location downslope from the Rocky Mountains was ideal to capture stream sediments, like sand and gravel, eroding from the mountains. Sediments buried and preserved fossil elephants, horses, camels, and rhinos. Nebraska’s remarkably complete fossil record documents the last thirty-seven million years of mammal evolution better than anywhere else in North America.
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Othniel C. Marsh (standing in center) and his 1872 expedition party.
As the Museum was being established, the transcontinental railroad opened the West to paleontologists. Easier access to the fossil-rich badlands of western Nebraska and South Dakota initiated a steady flow of fossils being shipped back east to established museums.
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Their dream lives on today with Cherish Nebraska, a new floor of exhibits opening in 2019.
1872
At its 1871 inaugural meeting, the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska established the University Museum as one of the first departments on campus. With one-time funding, a small collection of the state’s plants, animals, and minerals was acquired and housed in corridors and science classrooms of University Hall. The “Museum Cabinet,” as it was called then, was a study aid for students in the natural sciences.
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ERWIN H. BARBOUR, MUSEUM PHOTOGRAPHS SERIES (RG 32-01-01) ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA–LINCOLN LIBRARIES
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Charles Henry Morrill
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Humble Beginnings
Erwin Hinckley Barbour
ERWIN H. BARBOUR, MUSEUM PHOTOGRAPHS SERIES (RG 32-01-01) ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA–LINCOLN LIBRARIES
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72” 6’
THE MUSEUM BUILDERS
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96” 8’
108” 9’
CASE for #607-7-81 Fish vertebra collected by Aughey SIZE TBD
AREA 2.0 TWO VISIONARIES 9’ 2.5’ ft South Moveable Wall
EC Tough Times
EC Success
ST Finding a Passion
84” 7’
96” 8’
108” 9’
EC Failed Farmer
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The Morrills and Reminiscences, by Charles Henry Morrill.
The Rocky Mountain locust, Melanoplus spretus, an extinct species of grasshopper.
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA STATE MUSEUM, DIVISION OF PALEONTOLOGY ARCHIVES
MINNESOTA LOCUSTS (GRASSHOPPERS), C.1870S. PHOTOGRAPH BY JACOBY'S ART GALLERY, MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Failed Farmer
Tough Times
After the war, Charles Morrill reunited with his wife and worked to earn enough money to buy a wagon and team of horses so they could homestead in Iowa. In 1869, his crops failed, and he was unable to pay his creditors. When merchants refused to sell him any more goods, Morrill knew farming wasn’t right for him.
As Morrill and his wife started a new life in Nebraska around 1870, they lost a child, and struggled to make money on a land deal. His new attempt to be a merchant also failed, because three summers of locust plagues wiped out farmers and merchants alike. Bankrupt, Morrill set off to join the Black Hills gold rush in South Dakota.
On his way to the Black Hills in 1875, Morrill took a job at Camp Robinson in western Nebraska. There he met a fossil field crew of Yale students working for paleontologist O.C. Marsh.
1868. "Hat full of Bones" collected by O.C. Marsh from Antelope Station (Kimball), Nebraska. COPYRIGHT 2015 PEABODY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CT, USA. PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBERT LORENZ.
Charles H. Morrill ERWIN H. BARBOUR, MUSEUM PHOTOGRAPHS SERIES (RG 32-01-01) ARCHIVES & SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA–LINCOLN LIBRARIES
After visiting Yale’s Hat Creek fossil site, Morrill wrote, “Bones of the giant animal called the Titanothere were to be seen at every turn while of the rhinoceros, three toed horse and others often crushed under foot as we walked.” The experience ignited his passion for fossils, and he decided the remarkable creatures should be preserved for his fellow Nebraskans.
Success Charles Morrill transformed himself into a man of wealth and influence when he seized opportunities to work in land trading, livestock, and banking. His success led to service under Nebraska Governor Albinus Nance. In 1891, Morrill was elected to the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, where he served ten years as its president. Type (holotype) skeleton of Brontops robustus (Titanothere) published by O.C. Marsh in 1889.
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COURTESY OF PEABODY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CT, USA. PHOTOGRAPHY BY W.K. SACCO.
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Yale College Scientific Expedition of 1871. COURTESY OF PEABODY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CT, USA.
Finding a Passion
Earliest known photograph of Camp Robinson, renamed Fort Robinson in 1878. HISTORY NEBRASKA, RG1517-13-04
"Hat full of Bones" collected by O.C. Marsh from Antelope Station, Nebraska, in 1868. YALE PEABODY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ARCHIVES
Brontops robustus (Titanothere) skeleton published by O.C. Marsh in 1889.
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1871
BOOK OPEN ON STAND 7.5h X 10.5w
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ALL SENT TO PRINT
YALE PEABODY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ARCHIVES
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Exhibit Panel Design Panels were carefully designed with information and images around the exterior wall of the exhibit. They were planned around incorporating original fossils recovered by Barbour.
108” 9’