A Visit To The University Museum

A Visit To The University Museum

Building Is Open To Public

At the intersection of Washtenaw, N. University and E. University Aves. stands a building with a wealth of knowledge inside its walls.

It’s the University Museum, which is open not only to University students and faculty for study and general use but also to the public. Actually it is five separate museums, each with a director and staff, made up of an exhibit museum and four research museums — zoology, anthropology, paleontology and the University herbarium.

Had 50,000 Visitors

Although approximately 50,000 persons were estimated as having visited the facilities last year, Exhibit Museum Director Irving R. Reimann wishes that more city residents would take advantage of the displays.

Classes of students from all around the southeastern part of the state make special trips to the museum, yet only about one visitor in eight, records show, is from Ann Arbor.

A total of 16,000 school children from 88 different communities visited the museum last year, some coming from as far away as Port Huron.

Has Staff Of 100

The five museums have a total staff of approximately 100. There are four floors of displays with the “hall of life,” biology and anthropology on the top, Michigan wildlife on the third, the “hall of evolution” on the second and a variety of small exhibits on the first.

The museum is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays and 2 to 5 p.m. on Sundays.

News Photographer Doug Fulton sought out two children who had visited the museum before and would enjoy going again. The two youngsters, who got to see some things behind the scenes in addition to the regular displays, are Peggy and Paul Schutze, ages 4 and 10, children of the Rev. and Mrs. W. R. Schutze of 608 Onondaga St.

LIFE THROUGH THE AGES: A whole wall on the fourth floor of the University Museum is devoted to this geological timetable of life. Paul’s and Peggy’s glances are aimed at the fantasy-filled period when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

MIGHTY BIG BONES: Dwarfed by the University Museum skeleton of a mastodon found near Owosso, Mich., Peggy and Paul Schutze, ages 4 and 10, look up in awe at the massive teeth and huge tusks. Because of the heavy weight the tusks are simulated, although when the remains were found the right tusk was broken off as seen here.

EVEN BUTTONS TO PUSH: Besides just looking, visitors can sometimes direct what they want to see. Here Peggy takes great pleasure in testing all the buttons that light up this display of the endocrine gland system in the human body.

YOU CAN SEE THROUGH!: Peggy and Paul take a closer look at the shell of this Testudo, a large land turtle found by a University field party near Dallas, Tex., in the summer of 1956.

LIFE IN MINIATURE: The various races of mankind and their distribution are depicted in this display. Most displays of this type throughout the four floors of the museum are made either from rubber, plastic or plaster molds.

BEHIND THE SCENES: Exhibit museum assistant to the director, Robert S. Butsch, and his taxidermy work is the subject of fascination for Peggy and Paul. They need not look so worried though; the duck was humanely killed so that it could be mounted and used in a display. Feathers are being held in place until they dry.

SAFELY BEHIND WIRE: It’s as ugly and dangerous as it looks – this live gila (pronounced “heel-a”) monster, a sluggish, poisonous, egg-laying reptile that can be found in Southwest U.S. and Mexico. Paul and Peggy were lucky; usually it’s far less active than as seen here trying (with little success) to climb a rock.