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Johan C Varekamp, Minerals Curator of the Joe Webb Peoples Natural History Museum, Wesleyan University (submitted by E. Thomas)  The association between movies and minerals is not an intuitively straightforward concept, although many movies deal one way or another with diamonds (stolen or not), but about that another time. I was struck by two recent … Read more

The Joe Webb Peoples Museum celebrated Earth Day by presenting a new Specimen-Of-The-Month, a piping plover (Charadrius melodus) from the George Brown Goode Biological Collections. Piping Plovers are considered Endangered in the Great Lakes region and Threatened in the remainder of its U.S. breeding range, including 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

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

Our specimen of the month for March is virtual – no exhibit of actual specimens in the Wesleyan Science Library. But use the QR codes to see them in 3D..

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

In that past, too many students and faculty have been unaware of the existence of the amazing Wesleyan Natural History Collections (including those in the Joe Webb Peoples museum) on the 4th Floor of Exley. This year, for the first time, we try to do something about this, and are aiming to make incoming students … Read more

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

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