SRAC and Museum of the Earth Teaming Up

I spent the better part of the day at the Museum of the Earth in Ithaca, NY taking a tour with Richard Kissell, PhD who is the Director of Teacher Programs at the Museum.  Robert Ross, PhD who is over Community Outreach for the museum joined us later for a meeting to discuss possible opportunities for our two organizations to team up on some awesome projects in the future...

First just let me say that the Museum of the Earth is an amazing museum packed with many exhibits that range from the beginning of life on earth to present day...My favorite area of course was that time period of the ice age in our region, and at part of the tour by Dr. Kissell I finally got to see the mastadon that Dr. Ross did a presentation, “Bones in the Backyard: Excavation of the Renowned Hyde Park Mastodon” at SRAC last year!

Hyde Park Mastodon, (approximately 11 feet tall)

We also got to look through the museum's archives areas - (they have over 3 million specimens!)  to include the remains found of a mastodon found in Chemung, NY as well...

The first reason for this visit was to talk with these people about the possibility of adding more ice age animal remains/examples and information to the SRAC Woolly Mammoth Exhibit in a co-branded effort between our two organizations. It is my hope that the visit today will lead to further discussions towards this goal.

The second reason for my visit was to learn more about traveling exhibits that are available, and we made more headway in that respect as well.

While it is too soon to say anything more, I want to thank the people at the Museum of the Earth for taking the time for us today and for working with me to bring more exciting exhibits to SRAC in the future. I think it really is wonderful that people and organizations work together to do great things - and this is another example of just that.

Stay tuned for updates in the future concerning this effort!