In the fall of 1868, Albert Bickmore traveled to Colgate (then Madison University) to become the University’s first professor of geology and zoology. In his luggage, he carried an extensive collection of natural history specimens — including more than 700 brightly colored birds — which he had collected and preserved from the East Indies and Asia.

After a year of teaching, Bickmore went on to found the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 1869. His birds, however, remained at the University, forming the basis of what was to become a vast collection of natural history specimens.

Today, a new exhibition in Olin Hall celebrates Colgate’s natural history collections and explores the curious afterlife of Bickmore’s birds. Life After Death: 200 Years of Natural History at Colgate was spearheaded by professors Eddie Watkins (biology), Tim McCay (biology), and Elizabeth Marlowe (art and art history). Julia Marchetti ’18 (art and art history and environmental studies double major) and Erin Burke ’18 (history major) curated the exhibition.

“This exhibition has helped me to think about the way we frame what is valuable and what should be preserved,” says Marchetti, who is pursuing a master’s degree in historic preservation at the University of Pennsylvania. (Burke is working on a master’s degree in museum studies at the University of Glasgow.)

For many years, Bickmore’s birds, along with a growing assortment of other preserved creatures, were housed in glass cases in Lathrop Hall. By 1964, however, the birds were in decline, so zoology professor Robert Goodwin restored many of them with the help of student volunteers.

Puffer fish skeleton in display caseWhen Olin Hall was built in 1969, the collections were moved there for storage. McCay found them when he arrived in 2000 and has spent several years working with students to catalogue and organize
the specimens.

“We have more than 34,000 identified and catalogued skulls, mammal skins, eggs, seeds, mosses, lichens, lizards, pressed plants, stuffed birds, and other specimens,” he says.

Last summer, Marchetti and Burke combed through the collection, researched the objects and their unique histories, and designed the exhibition. McCay and Watkins served as scientific advisers. The result is a captivating array of preserved specimens, detailed labels, and archival images. Bickmore’s birds peer out from every display, still looking vibrant and inquisitive after 150 years.

Life After Death offers a timeline of specimen collection and preservation at Colgate, and delves into the use of specimens in interdisciplinary learning. Marchetti and Burke show how the collections have been used by theater, art, and museum studies students, as well as by those in the sciences.

McCay uses the bird collection in his vertebrate zoology class. Over his office desk, a stuffed passenger pigeon perches, serving as a silent testament to the extinction of a species. In the meantime, deep under Olin Hall in a climate-controlled room, the remainder of Bickmore’s birds await their next incarnation into interdisciplinary learning at Colgate.