The past is past, as they say, but it’s never dead.  The Archives is constantly acquiring, learning, and preserving new pieces of information about the way things used to be here at the Museum.  Sometimes we go looking for things and sometimes they come to us.

Recently we’ve been focusing on the Museum’s dioramas.  Over the decades, dioramas have proven to be popular with visitors and the Museum continues to use the diorama technique in its permanent exhibits.  There are currently about 100 dioramas in the Museum, depending on how you count.  The earliest of the Museum’s existing dioramas were opened in 1938, when five new habitat groups were opened in the Mead Hall, a.k.a. Explore Colorado.  Some of the more recent dioramas appear in Prehistoric Journey and in Space Odyssey (the Mars diorama).  To see specific information about the dioramas go to www.dmns.org/librarycatalog and search for the word “diorama.”  A list of catalog records will appear and you’ll be able to click on items in the list to see more information.  You can also search for specific animals in the dioramas.  Try searching on “diorama bear,” for example, and see what comes up.

The dioramas are made up of numerous elements:  the diorama case itself (including metal, plaster and wood), the background paintings, the foreground (including vegetation, rocks, dirt, snow, and the occasional fake excrement), and the critters (both real specimens and modeled).  The talented staff of the Museum made our dioramas some of the best in the world and we are trying to more fully document these people and their work. 

Numerous people worked on the dioramas and we know little about many of them.  But, as I said, sometimes things just come to us.  Recently relatives of former employees have sought information from us.  We have been able to provide them with some and they have given us even more in return.  The children of one of the Museum’s background painters, Sharon Wolverton, sent us biographical information and photographs of their mother.   And the grandson of one of the Museum’s foreground workers Emma Ball Butler called me from the Museum’s information desk asking if I knew anything about Emma.  I did and, now, thanks to him, I know a whole lot more.

We also go looking for information.  We are doing a series of recorded oral history interviews with former Museum staff to flesh out our knowledge of the dioramas and the people who worked on them.  Know anyone you’d like to recommend for an interview?

Kris Haglund