Victor G. Springer {without his usual mustache), curator oj 

 fishes, in the west court in front of Office of Exhibits 

 buildings, October 23, 1963. The cigar is fjrobably an El 

 Pro/hicto. 



Thomas Mclutyre cataloguing specimens oj several genera 

 of sijuirrels, September 197 1 . The cinderblock wall is in the 

 ivest wing, and the paper tape machine today has value 

 only as a collector's item. 



an art group in Philadelphia offered to design a foun- 

 tain for the center, but this offer was kindly refused. 

 A tenipoiary hoist built in the west coiut in the late 

 192()s was removed when it was no longer needed. 



During the late 194()s the only activity in the court- 

 yard — according to Lachncr, whose office looked out 

 on it — was the quiet decaying of a few- wooden boats. 

 C^liarles Handley, the manimalogist, recalls that the grass 

 was lush and the grasshoppers abundant. Pigeons ate 

 the grasshoppers and sparrow hawks swept in to eat 

 the pigeons. 



The "Butler Buildings" 



In 1957 a sei ies of three connected metal "Butler build- 

 ings'" was put up in the west court, cUid this became the 

 home of the rapidly expanding exhibits program. The 

 west and centei buildings housed the exhibits staff and 

 the displays in preparation; the east one was used mainly 

 for anlhropcjlogical storage. When they moved from 

 the east-court toilet building to the west-court Butler 

 building, the taxidermists were officially transferred 

 from the Department of Zoology to the Office of Ex- 

 hibits. Designers, carpenters, model makers, painters, 

 and others were all busy with the new halls. 



In these buildings, considerable effort was devoted 

 to such projects as carving sticks into the shape of pa- 

 pyrus stems to go into the water-buffalo exhibit. Over 

 about two years the stick-carvers turned out thousands, 

 inspiring a local reporter to do an Arbor Day story on 

 people who "made trees. " Another day, a brown recluse 

 spider in its web and the shed skin of another were 



found in a box of dried African mammal skins. Because 

 this spider is so poisonous, the building was evacuated 

 and fumigated. 



One major technique was developed in the Butler 

 buildings: the freeze-drying of specimens. The speci- 

 men, positioned by wires and other supports, is quickly 

 frozen with liquid nitrogen and then kept cold until all 

 moisture evaporates. F"or some mammals it works quite 

 well, for some reptiles it is fair, and it requires great 

 skill to work well with fish. Of course one is limited by 

 the size of the cryogenic chamber, and no large animals 

 have ever been freeze-dried.' ' 



Exhibits Staff Expands 



The exhibits group kept expanding. Some workers were 

 moved into Stone Hall, abandoned by the Geological 

 Survey when the east wing was completed; others were 

 assigned to the high-ceilinged rooms in the north wing 

 of the main building near the north elevators. A lot of 

 casting of models for exhibits was done there, and ex- 

 cess plaster kept getting into the sink. Eventually the 

 pipes were filled solid all the way to the ground floor, 

 and new plumbing had to be installed when the area 

 was renovated. 



In 1962 and 1963, when the Museum of History and 

 Technology was substantially finished, much of the ex- 

 hibits staff went there, though there were still a number 

 of people in the west courtyard and scattered in still- 

 closed exhibit halls. When the west wing was finally 

 completed and the scientists moved in, the ground floor 

 on the south side of the main building was modified. 



156 



The Museum 



