Tree of Disappointment: Colorado Blue Spruce
In pots or balled and burlapped in an Iowa nursery, Colorado blue spruce is an exquisite color. Depending upon the lighting and the variety, you …
Pawpaw Roundup announced
Are you fostering Bur Oak pawpaws? Listen up! We are hosting a Pawpaw Roundup Oct. 4-8 to collect all pawpaw plants for the winter. From 9 a.m. …
Virtual Campaign Kickoff Oct. 15
Fall campaign countdown After making the decision to cancel our in-person fall fundraiser, Brunch with Bur Oak, we’ve got something else up our sleeve. In …
George Catlin’s Travelling Museum – On The Road
By 1837, Catlin had assembled his portable Indian museum and began taking it around to eastern cities. It was offered as a stage show, with …
George Catlin’s Travelling Museum – His Field Study
Our last three notes regarding cabinets of curiosities, professional collections and museums mostly had a Euro-centric perspective. Today, let us review a uniquely American museum, …
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Walter Rothschild’s Museum Legacy
No sketch about museums and species would be complete without including Walter Rothschild. Born into the extremely wealthy banking family of Britain in 1868, he …
Cabinets of Curiosities Become Collections
The cabinets of curiosities of the 1600s and 1700s, scattered across Europe, raised some good questions about the life and the geology of our planet. …
An Ocean Disaster and Recovery
Once upon a time, some 80 million years ago, the center of the continent we now call North America was a shallow seaway. Its waters …
Bladdernut: An Unfamiliar Native Shrub
The native shrub called bladdernut apparently used to be quite common around here based on reference to it in early literature. But a couple of …
The Birds
In 1952, British author Daphne du Maurier released a macabre story titled, “The Birds.” The tale was about ordinary birds collectively abandoning their traditional role …