Curation of Vertebrate Spirit Specimens of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History

Yale University, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

The Yale Peabody Museum (YPM) houses a world-renowned collection of vertebrate specimens. Approximately 30 percent of the entire holdings of the Division of Vertebrate Zoology (VZ) are fluid-preserved specimens. The goal of this project is to recurate the entire fluid-preserved vertebrate zoology collections of YPM, to facilitate accessibility of the collections, and to promote their use in research and education. YPM-VZ?s fluid-preserved collections have been amassed over more than 160 years by Yale academics, researchers from other institutions, and government agencies. We will recurate of the entire spirit specimen collections in the YPM-VZ including fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. These activities will include rejarring, relabeling, changing fluids, checking identifications, evaluating data quality, etc. The rehousing and improvement of storage conditions of the VZ spirit collections will help preserve these unique materials, and foster comparative biological research on them. Recuration will foster accessibility to visitors, faculty, and students wishing to use the collections. The project will provide curation, identification, and database training for Yale undergraduates, and high school interns (most of whom are under-represented minority students) through the YPM's after-school intern program.