Vertebrate Paleontology Archives IMLS Grant

In fall 2020 the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology was awarded a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to improve access to the department’s archives.

After a delay due to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, work on the grant-funded project began in April 2021. This grant is instrumental in the start of a long-term project whose ultimate goal is to catalog and database the contents of the VP Archive according to current professional standards to encourage their discovery and use by researchers, students, and the general public.  

Currently, only a small subset of the cataloged archive materials are searchable in an online database, with the remainder maintained in an analog catalog system. Additionally, more than half of the materials consist of uncatalogued items. The goals of the current grant are to create records for the cataloged materials in a searchable online database and survey and create preliminary catalog records for the uncatalogued material. 

Through our survey of the uncatalogued materials, we hope to discover and bring to light some hidden gems. Among these are works created by a corps of artists whose work was informed by and supported the scientific endeavors of the research staff. The work conducted under this grant will lead us to a better understanding and appreciation of this artwork and of the artists who produced them, including Elizabeth Fulda who in the early 20th century forged her artistic career in a field generally dominated by men. 

Head and shoulders portrait of artist Elizabeth R. Fulda, holding an open book and looking into the camera.
Elizabeth R. Fulda, an artist in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology in the early 20th Century.
© AMNH
An angled canvas of illustrations that contains 9 panels that contain images of flora and fauna from land and sea.
An early 20th century sketch on canvas by AMNH Department of Vertebrate Paleontology paleoartist Elizabeth Fulda of the evolution of life on Earth. This panel is part of a series of murals designed for a stairway, but never produced.
© AMNH
Rendering of three different extinct relatives of elephants in their native landscape, the top one most closely resembling the present-day elephant.
A sketch by AMNH Department of Vertebrate Paleontology paleoartist Charles Knight of some extinct proboscideans (elephants and their relatives) from the Fayum in Egypt.
© AMNH
Rendering of three extinct elephant relatives facing one another as they stand in a shallow body of water.
An early 20th century drawing by AMNH Department of Vertebrate Paleontology paleoartist Margaret Buba of extinct members of the Proboscidea (elephants and their relatives).
© AMNH
Four renderings of extinct members of the Proboscidea that resemble their elephant ancestors.
An early 20th century drawing by AMNH Department of Vertebrate Paleontology paleoartist Margaret Buba of three extinct members of the Proboscidea (elephants and their relatives).
© AMNH
Georgia O'Keefe sits on stone steps and holds a cat in her lap, with a companion seated nearby and an adobe structure in view behind them.
Georgia O'Keeffe and friend. Taken by Edwin Colbert, a curator in the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, on one of his field trips to New Mexico.
E. Colbert/© AMNH

A dedicated team, including a Project Archivist and Interns supported by the grant, Research Library staff and Vertebrate Paleontology collections staff is working on surveying the archives and creating new digital records to be housed in an online database in the Museum’s Research Library.

Read more about the work in our blog. This is a new series by Maya Naunton, the current PA on the project, and records current progress.

 

Read more about work done at the start of the project in our first blog series, which was maintained by Melissa Silvestri, the first PA on the project.