Comments Off

By Sara, December 21, 2009 4:49 pm

As many of you already know, the Burpee Museum is undergoing a great deal of construction right now. We’re not only expanding the museum, but we’re also doing some remodels and renovations of the building. Currently, the main focus of the remodel stage is taking place in our lower level. As I type this, walls are coming down in the former paleontology viewing lab.

When the last blog entry was posted at the beginning of the month, our museum’s biology and anthropology collection were just about ready to be moved. After many late nights for the lab staff, the move has finally been completed, and our collections has a new home. The entire process, from painting the floor in the new collections room to mounting specimens on the walls, took about three weeks to complete. While our paleontology and geology collection still isn’t ready yet, it was fun to see all of the new space that will be used for research in the future.

Let’s take a look….

We have more space in the new collections, as well as a new pattern of organization to the specimens, and a workspace so that visiting researchers will have room to examine the specimens.

It’s been a long month for our staff to get this major project finished, but they have done a great job, and we’re all very excited about our new home for collections!

Happy Holidays from all of us at Burpee Museum!

Comments Off

By Sara, December 1, 2009 12:37 am

December is finally here, and with several months of winter on the way, I couldn’t help but to try to think warm for this month’s “Undiscovered Treasure.” While Rockford may find itself hitting a balmy 50 degrees on
December 1st, weather like that isn’t going to stick around. I personally can’t ever find myself enjoying cold weather, so I decided to fire up the electric blanket and keep my mind on tropical temps. But what sort of item reflects that?

The fan.

Imagine it being December and you’re in some type of climate where you need to physically move air around yourself to cool off.
Sound good enough to ward off the chilly weather? I thought so.

Burpee’s Oriental collection has an interesting set of fans; including ones made of wood, silk, and feathers. In China, the earliest hand-held fans were made as early as the 2nd century BC! We are not sure how old exactly our fans at the Burpee are, but we know that this implement certainly is long-standing. …or long waving.

We’ve chosen two different fans to display this month: a silk fan and a feather fan.

So when you’re visiting the Burpee this month and you’re checking out the Undiscovered Treasures exhibit on the 3rd floor, even if it’s snowing outside, think back to the 2nd century BC, back in China, and imagine a day hot enough where you might need one of these. Those winter blues won’t last!