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San Diego Natural History Museum Stands Tall
The 2004-05 fi scal year brought several "fi rsts" of which the staff is justly proud. In January, the San Diego County Bird Atlas was published by the Museum. Author Philip Unitt, Assistant Curator of Ornithology, conducted an extraordinary fi eld study with the help of 400 San Diego volunteer "citizen scientists" over a period of fi ve years. The fruits of their labor? Not only a gorgeous 645-page, full-color encyclopedia of over 500 species, but the important discovery of several previously unseen species in our county. Never before has such a comprehensive survey of the birds of our region been undertaken, nor such attention to detail been given to the subject. Paul Hess (Birding Magazine) wrote: "The importance, usefulness and educational value of this extraordinary volume go far beyond the county's borders." 
Another fi rst has been the development and launch of an award-winning product line based on exquisitely detailed botanical watercolors by A.R. Valentien, an early 20th century artist of the American Arts and Crafts movement, whose paintings of California native plants reside in the Museum's permanent collection. These products include fi ne-art prints, placemats and coasters, silk scarves and illustrated note cards. Already selling briskly in Museum stores and art galleries around the country, sales proceeds benefit SDNHM's mission and programs. In January 2005, the San Diego Natural History Museum was featured prominently on CSPAN during a Jared Diamond lecture hosted by the Museum. Dr. Diamond is the bestselling author of Guns, Germs and Steel and most recently, Collapse, two nonfi ction books about the rise and fall of civilizations and the impact of humans on our planet. Although the Museum regularly features headline-making authors and leading experts on a variety of topics, this was the fi rst time such an event was broadcast nationally on television, and re-broadcast regularly as Collapse climbed the bestseller list. This was also a year replete with fi ne exhibitions, and especially noteworthy were two in-house creations-Fossil Hunters San Diego and Earth, Wind & WILDFIRE-which not only informed and excited visitors, but earned professional acclaim. Fossil Hunters, which premiered in March 2004, was the "prequel" to a comprehensive permanent exhibition entitled Fossil Mysteries, due to open in summer 2006. Showing how paleontologists hunt for and interpret fossils is a subject of world-wide interest. Putting a local spin on the topic, Fossil Hunters appealed to audiences of all ages by detailing life that previously existed in this region right under our own feet. Earth, Wind & WILDFIRE was recently recognized with the Western Museums Association Award for Exhibition Excellence. (The 2004 award was given to SDNHM for Plant Portraits: The California Legacy of A.R. Valentien.) The timeliness and relevance of Earth, Wind & WILDFIRE to the residents of our wildfi re-prone region were extremely important. The Museum played a signifi cant educational role in the community following the devastating wildfi res of 2003. It continues to serve as "home base" of the Fire Recovery Network, made up of community leaders involved in the restoration of habitat destroyed by the fi res. |
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