Canadian Museum of Nature - Aylmer Visit

The Museum of Nature trip brought information to my attention that I had never considered having interest in. I can't say I would be thrilled to jump into a career in these new avenues of interest, but I do have some thoughts about it.

The cleaning of animal bones, and how that happens, whether it is before or after an acquisition, is something that never entered into my consideration of a natural history museum. After today that was different. I now know about hot composting, dermestids (and their inconsistent appetites), and the process of boiling bones. These are things that never entered the scape of my nightmares, but I am sure they will make an appearance now. However, despite my personal qualms with these processes, it does open one's mind about the roles available at museums, and the grittier aspects of them previously unrevealed.

Another intrigue that was presented, is that the museum is much like any other office setting. While at first that broke the illusion, gone are the notions of a fantastical space in which everything runs smoothly, it did make me realize how useful office and administrative experience is in a museum setting. The siloing of information is something that was a familiar issue in my previous workplaces, and its good to know that that is experience I can bring and build on in the History field. I also got to feel good about my aversion to shorthand.

The final tangent that this visit brought to me is the consideration of the scent of a museum. I have always neglected considering the olfactory aspect of an exhibit and of working with artefacts. When confronted with bones, there was no choice but to think of it. I find it odd that this had not previously come to mind, as it's the first thing I think of when considering paper archives, but somehow I didn't factor it into more pungent materials. Should we be playing more with this in museum settings? Is this a way to harness curiousity? What if there was a way for us to smell and taste the past? How can we make exhibits more all-encompassing and immersive?

PS: Very excited to have finally figured out how to make these devlogs post. It has been quite the troubleshooting journey.