Columbia Collection Project
Science Conservation and the Department of Invertebrate Paleontology are working together to preserve the Columbia University (CU) collection—a scientifically and historically important collection of fossil invertebrates.
About the collection
The Columbia University Collection is one of the largest collections of fossils ever donated to the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), comprising an estimated 350,000 specimens. It was amassed from the 1850s to the 1970s, primarily through the meticulous fieldwork of world-renowned paleontologists and geoscientists John Strong Newberry, Amadeus William Grabau and Marshall Kay, along with their students and postdoctoral researchers. Many of the original collection sites are no longer accessible or productive, making these specimens a unique and irreplaceable scientific resource.
The collection arrived at AMNH on long-term loan in 1975, but was not officially donated and accessioned until 2022. The transfer of ownership has brought the long-term care and preservation of the collection into focus.
Project goals
- Renovate four storage vaults to modern conservation standards, improving air quality, temperature control, lighting, fire detection, electrical access, Wi-Fi and environmental monitoring.
- Conserve specimens affected by pyrite decay, and create passive, oxygen-free microclimates with stabilized relative humidity.
- Conserve specimens preserved in shales and other clay-rich matrix that is prone to cracking, and create passive microclimates to stabilize relative humidity.
- Inventory, re-house and relocate the archival materials to the AMNH archives at the Gottesman Research Library where storage conditions are optimized for paper-based collections.
Impact and benefits
- Improved access: Modernized storage vaults will make it easier for museum staff and visiting scientists to access and use the collection.
- Preservation: Climate control, and tailored enclosures for specimens with pyrite decay or preserved in shale will protect the collection from environmental damage and ensure their survival generations to come.
- Increased discoverability: Moving archival materials to the Gottesman Research Library will make associated documents easier to find and access for researchers.
- Museum-wide impact: Developing passive microclimates for specimens requiring anoxic storage and/or stable relative humidity will inform a new treatment protocol, extending the benefits of this project to vulnerable specimens across AMNH collections and beyond.