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FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



June, 1933 



Field Museum of Natural History 



Founded by MarahaU Field. 1893 

 Roosevelt Road and Lake Michigan, Chicago 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 



Sewbll L. Avery 

 John Borden 

 WnJOAu J. Chaluers 

 Marshall Field 

 Stasxey Field 

 Ernest R. Graham 

 Albert W. Harris 

 Samuel Insull, Jr. 

 Cyrus H. McCormick 



John P. 



William H. Mitchell 

 Frederick H. Rawson 

 George A. Richardson 

 Fred W. Sargent 

 Stephen C. Soocs 

 Jambs Simpson 

 Solomon A. Smith 

 Albert A. Spragub 

 Silas H. Strawn 

 Wilson 



OFFICERS 



Stanley Field President 



Albert A. Spragub Firtt Viee-Pretident 



Jambs Simpson Second Viee-Prendeni 



Albert W. Harris Third Viee-Presideni 



Stephen C. Snois Diredor and Secretary 



Solomon A. Smttb . . . Tr«aMurer and AniMtanl Secretary 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Stephen C. Sdcms, Director of the Muteum Editor 



CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 



Berthold Laut^r Curator of Anthropology 



B. E. Dahlgren A^ng Curator of Botany 



OLn-ER C. Farrington Curator of Geology 



Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology 



H. B. Harte Manaffing Editor 



Field Museum is open every day of the year during 

 the hours indicated below: 



November, December, January 9 A.U. to 4:30 pji. 



Februar>-, March, April, October 9 AM. to 5:00 P.M. 

 May, June, July, August, September 9 A.M. to 6:00 p.h. 



Admission is free to Members on all da>*s. Other 

 adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and 

 Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. 

 Children are admitted free on all days. Students and 

 faculty members of educational institutions are admit- 

 ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. 



The Museum's natural history Library is open for 

 reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. 



Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of 

 Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Elxtension 

 Department of the Museum. 



Lectures for schools, and special entertainments 

 and tours for children at the Museum, are provided 

 by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond 

 Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. 



Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the 

 public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, 

 will appear in Field Museum News. 



A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitora. Rooms 

 are provided for those bringing their lunches. 



Chicago Mot«r Coach Company No. 26 buses go 

 direct to the Museum. 



Members are requested to inform the Museum 

 promptly of changes of address. 



MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM 



Field Museum has several classes of Members. 

 Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- 

 tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members 

 give $500; Non-Resident Life and Associate Members 

 pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. 

 All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining 

 Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they 

 become Associate Members. Annual Members con- 

 tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- 

 rate, Honorary, Patron, and Corresponding, additions 

 imder these classifications being made by special action 

 of the Board of Trustees. 



Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free 

 admission to the Museum for himself, his family and 

 house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum 

 lectures provided for Members- Subsoiption to FffiLD 

 MusELTi News is included with all memberships. The 

 courtesies of every museum of note in the United 

 States and Canada are extended to all Members of 

 Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card 

 to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of 

 which they will be admitted to tiie \Iu9eum without 

 charge. Further information about memberships will 

 be sent on request. 



BEQUESTS .\ND ENDOWME.NTS 



Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may 

 be made in securities, money, books or collections. 

 They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to 

 a person or cause, named by the giver. 



Cash contributions made within the taxable year 

 not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income 

 are allowable as deductions in computing net income 

 under Article 251 of Regulation 69 relating to the 

 income tax under the Revenue Act of 1926. 



Endowments may be made to the Museum with the 

 provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. 

 These annuities are tax-free and are guaranteed against 

 fiuctuation in amount. 



THE MUSEUM HERBARIUM 



By Paul C. Standley 

 Associate Curator of the Herbarium 



When the press announces that Field 

 Museum has acquired an important collec- 

 tion of plants, interested persons often 

 visit the Museum expecting to see a display 

 of living plants. Unfortunately, such collec- 

 tions usually consist of pressed and dried 

 specimens, dreary enough to the uninitiated, 

 but a joy to botanists studying the relation- 

 ships of the plants of the world. 



While it would be impracticable to collect 

 living individuals of the several hundred 

 thousand different flowering plants that 

 inhabit the earth, it is possible to assemble 

 in relatively small compass dried specimens, 

 although no museum can boast a repre- 

 sentation of all the plants that are known. 

 For study, such dried plants are almost as 

 useful as living ones. Small herbs can be 

 preserved entire, and even the largest trees 

 can be adequately represented by leafy 

 branches or twigs, flowers, and fruits. 

 Properly dried herbarium specimens often 

 exhibit accurately even the colors of delicate 

 flowers. To study the internal structure 

 of smaller flowers, dried ones may be soaked 

 in water, whereupon they resume some 

 semblance of their original form. 



The dried specimens are attached with 

 glue and strips of adhesive plaster to heavy 

 sheets of paper (11x16 inches), and labeled 

 with their geographic origin, collector, date 

 of collection, color of flowers, and other 

 information. Placed in protective covers, 

 these sheets are arranged by genera and 

 families, making it possible to locate quickly 

 any plant represented. 



Often it is asked how long such dried 

 plant specimens will last. If properly 

 protected from dust, insects, and careless 

 handling, they should last indefinitely. 

 Wreaths of flowers and foliage placed in 

 Egyptian tombs three or four thousand 

 years ago are still perfectly preserved, some 

 in as good condition as specimens dried 

 only ten years ago. Herbaria of Europe 

 possess specimens three centuries old, which 

 still retain their natural colors. 



As Field Museum was founded only forty 

 years ago, its Herbarium consists chiefly 

 of recent collections, but from older institu- 

 tions it has acquired many specimens more 

 than a century old. The Herbarium, con- 

 sisting of 660,000 mounted sheets of plants, 

 fills a large hall on the third floor of the 

 Museum. Every country of the globe is 

 represented by specimens of its plants. 



The Herbarium is particularly rich in 

 plants of the United States, Mexico, the 

 West Indies, and the Andes of South 

 America. The floras of Peru and the 

 Yucatan Peninsula are illustrated here more 

 completely than in any other museum of 

 the world, largely because of exploration 

 conducted by Field Museum in those areas. 

 There is maintained, also, a special her- 

 bariimi of Illinois plants, their segregation 

 making them more easily accessible to those 

 interested primarily in the flora of the 

 state and the Chicago area. 



The Herbarium is used constantly by 

 the staff of the Department of Botany 

 and others, for reference in the determina- 

 tion of specimens and as a basis for the prep- 

 aration of monographs and floras. 



Specimens are often lent for study to 

 botanists in other parts of the United States 

 and in Europe, and the Herbarium is visited 

 frequently by botanists of other cities. 

 Although there are several large herbaria 

 in the United States, there is no other 

 within several hundred miles of Chicago, 



hence the great utility of one placed in so 

 central a location. 



European herbaria possess thousands of 

 type or historic specimens upon which were 

 based the earliest descriptions and the Latin 

 names of American plants. Since in classi- 

 fication and naming of plants it is important 

 to have access to these specimens for com- 

 parison, Field Museum, with the aid of a 

 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, has 

 engaged in photographing some thousands 

 of them. In this work it has had the 

 cooperation of the European herbaria. Such 

 photographs often serve for study almost 

 as well as the specimens. Field Museum 

 has thus acquired representation of probably 

 more South American plants than any 

 other museum of the United States. Since 

 South America, with its vast unexplored 

 areas, is the region in which American 

 botanists are most intensely interested. 

 Field Museum has an enviable equipment 

 for current work in systematic botany. As 

 a result, it receives large additions to its 

 tropical American collections, presented by 

 collectors to be named by comparison with 

 the authentic material here available for 

 the purpose. 



"MINERAL MOONLIGHT" 



By Hen-ry W. Nichols 

 Associate Curator of Geology 



Owing to their exceptional size and beauty, 

 two selenite crystals have been given a case 

 by themselves in the mineral collection in 

 Hall 34. These crystals have the form of 

 prismatic columns about twenty inches high. 

 They are transparent and have a soft luster 

 which suggests moonlight. This luster is 

 like that of the selenite column in the fabled 

 temple of the oracle of the "Dives Bouteille" 

 which Rabelais said has "a splendor like that 

 of Hymettian honey." 



The suggestion of moonlight in the luster 

 of selenite has been recognized from remote 

 antiquity. The Chaldean astrologers attrib- 

 uted selenite to the moon. The Greeks 

 named the mineral "selenites," which means 

 "belonging to the moon." 



Selenite is the pure, transparent form of 

 the common mineral, gypsum, which in its 

 ordinary occurrence is a common-looking 

 rock used for making plaster of paris. So 

 attractive a mineral should find use as an 

 ornamental stone, but selenite is far too 

 soft and easily marred for such lase. It can 

 be scratched easily by the finger nail. The 

 attractive luster is lost when the crystal is 

 cut in certain directions and it is difficult 

 to cut without opening cracks, owing to a 

 strongly developed cleavage. Two other 

 varieties of gypsum, alabaster and satinspar, 

 although equally soft, are used for ornament. 

 These are not transparent, so that marring 

 on account of their softness is not so readily 

 seen. 



The exhibited crystals grew in a cave in 

 the Braden Copper Mine in Chile, a mine 

 dug in the crater of a volcano which is 

 probably extinct. They were collected by 

 the Marshall Field Brazilian Expedition of 

 1926. 



Completing Stone .\ge Hall 



PYederick Blaschke of Cold Spring-on- 

 Hudson, New York, the sculptor com- 

 missioned to prepare the restorations of 

 prehistoric peoples for the Hall of the Stone 

 Age of the Old Worid (Hall C), arrived at 

 the Museum in May, bringing with him the 

 various figures for the groups. Mr. Blaschke 

 is now working upon the installation of this 

 hall which, it is expected, will be completed 

 in a few weeks. 



