The MSU Museum was awarded a substantial grant that will enhance preservation and expand educational opportunities for teaching and research with the Museum’s vertebrate specimen collection.
The Institute of Museum and Library Services recently awarded grants totaling $29,681,960 for 199 projects at museums across the nation to improve services to their communities. The MSU Museum was awarded a Museums for America Collections Stewardship grant of $92,129 to enhance the preservation of and access to 2,476 vertebrate specimens.
The newly funded project will focus on specimens that have proved particularly challenging to curate, like eggs and taxidermy mounts. Many date from the early days of the university. They include rare, endangered, threatened and extinct species from the Great Lakes Region, as well as North, Central, and South America, and provide a record of biodiversity extending back to the 1860s.
“These specimens are a critical resource for MSU and the global scientific infrastructure. Every day, our specimens and their online data are accessed by scholars and students both locally and globally. We are grateful to the IMLS for supporting our work to preserve these irreplaceable collections” said MSU Museum Vertebrate Collections Manager Laura Abraczinskas.
The award also provides a platform for student training in collections management, care, and digitization.
To read more, visit the MSU Museum website.