Minerals of Connecticut

Blog by Johan C Varekamp, Smith Curator of Mineralogy and Petrology of the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History, and Harold T Stearns Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Emeritus The Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History has a significant number of minerals from the pegmatite quarries from the direct surroundings of Middletown. … Read more

Specimen Of The Month: Nine-banded Armadillo

When we first placed Shelley, the Glyptodon, in front of the Science Library in the lobby of Exley in February 2018, we planned to add the skeleton and carapace of her extant (alive today) cousin, a nine-banded armadillo (Dasypus novemcinctus Linnaeus 1758). We finally succeeded: Shelley now has the company of her much smaller relative. … Read more

EYEBALLS of OWL

Our Wesleyan natural history collections include many taxidermy specimens of birds (‘stuffed birds’), some of which can be admired in display cases along the hall ways of Shanklin, 2nd floor. Other were stored haphazardly in the storage room on the 3d floor of Exley, on top of display cases in the Joe Webb Peoples Museum … Read more

Names of our Glyptodon

The results of our ‘name Glyptodon‘ contest are in, and she will be called:  ‘Shelley the Glyptodon‘. Here we want to share the many creative and inventive suggestions made, and thank you all for participating, by suggesting names or voting for your favorite, as well as for showing your appreciation for our own Wesleyan Shelley the … Read more

The Wesleyan University Ward & Howell Collection and Its Impact on the History of Science

We are excited to welcome Melanie McCalmont to Wesleyan. Melanie McCalmont is a geographer and data scientist. She has a Master’s degree in Geography, and a Master’s degree in Life Science Communication, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Melanie is the national expert on historic 3-dimensional relief models. She has been a relief model consultant to … Read more

Visit by Dr. Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History

We are very excited to announce a visit to Wesleyan by Dr. Kirk Johnson,  Sant Director,  National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Dr Johnson will give a public lecture:   Natural History in the Age of Humans. The lecture is scheduled for 1 March 2018, 7:30 pm, in room Shanklin 107, and will be followed by … Read more