Hey there! Today, we’re diving into the exciting world of museums with Jim and Emily. They’re on a mission to uncover some hidden treasures and mysteries at their museum. Let’s join them on this adventure and learn a bit about what makes a museum collection so special!
Jim and Emily are exploring a museum that’s been around for over 125 years. It’s a massive building with hidden rooms and cabinets filled with all sorts of fascinating objects. Some of these items are actively researched, while others are just waiting to be discovered. Jim’s goal is to figure out the scientific value of these mysterious objects and decide if they should stay in the museum.
One day, Jim stumbled upon a large frame with clawed feet in the museum’s mineral collection. It turned out to be made by Tiffany and Company, a famous jewelry maker. This frame was part of a collection donated to the museum by Harlow Higinbotham, an early supporter of the museum. The frame was meant to hold a carved quartz disk depicting a scene of Moses being placed in the river. Jim contacted Tiffany and Company to learn more about this intriguing piece.
Jim also discovered a carved jeweled casket made by Hermann Ratzersdorfer, a talented artist from Austria. This casket, along with the quartz disk, is part of a tradition called lapidary art, which involves creating objects from natural minerals. These pieces were displayed at the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893 and later donated to the museum.
Jim and Emily continued their exploration, finding a variety of objects made from minerals like quartz, jet, and gypsum. They discovered a letter opener made from jet, which looked like something out of a fantasy story. They also found decorative items like a monkey-lion face and a moon, which might have been used as soap dishes or simply hung on walls.
Among the discoveries were tiny shoes carved from gypsum and pyrophyllite, a rhodonite abacus, and a rose quartz dog named Chuck. These objects tell stories of the past and give us a glimpse into the lives of people from different times and places.
Jim and Emily found a cigarette holder and a buttonhook, tools used in the past for smoking and fastening buttons on boots. These objects remind us of how much everyday life has changed over the years.
Finally, Jim and Emily examined some beads and a jade fob. They weren’t sure what these items were used for, but they were eager to learn more. They also found a watch fob, a decorative chain used to attach a pocket watch to clothing.
Jim and Emily’s exploration of the museum’s hidden treasures was full of surprises and discoveries. They invite everyone to join in the adventure and help solve the mysteries of these fascinating objects. Who knows what other secrets the museum holds?
So, next time you visit a museum, remember that every object has a story to tell. Happy exploring!
Imagine you are a curator like Jim and Emily. Choose a theme for your own museum exhibit and select five objects from your home or school that fit this theme. Write a short description for each object, explaining its significance and why it belongs in your exhibit. Present your exhibit to the class and share the stories behind your chosen items.
Pick a famous artifact from history, such as the Rosetta Stone or the Terracotta Army. Research its history, significance, and how it was discovered. Create a poster or digital presentation to share your findings with the class, highlighting what makes this artifact a treasure of the past.
Using your imagination, design a mysterious object that could be found in a museum. Draw or build a model of your object and write a fictional backstory about its origin, use, and how it ended up in the museum. Share your creation and story with the class, and see if they can guess its purpose.
Learn more about lapidary art by researching different techniques and materials used in this craft. Create a simple lapidary-inspired artwork using materials like clay or colored paper to mimic the look of carved minerals. Display your artwork and explain the process and inspiration behind it.
Choose an everyday object from the past, like a buttonhook or a pocket watch. Research how it was used and why it was important in its time. Create a short skit or presentation that demonstrates the object’s use and significance, and perform it for the class to bring history to life.
**Sanitized Transcript:**
**Jim:** Hi Emily!
**Emily:** Hi Jim!
**Jim:** We have some mysteries to solve at the Museum today. Are you ready to investigate?
**Emily:** I am ready!
**Jim:** Let’s do it! As you know, we’ve been around for over 125 years, and this is a big building. There are hidden rooms in here. There are cabinets that we have to go through, and it’s part of a bigger question I want to talk about: what makes a museum collection a museum collection? We have artifacts, dinosaurs, mammals, plant specimens, and all sorts of things that people are actively researching. But we also have collections in this building that people aren’t actually researching. They don’t really fit into what our museum does.
**Emily:** Yeah.
**Jim:** So what do we do with those specimens?
**Emily:** We make YouTube videos about them!
**Jim:** Yay! What we’re going to look at today are objects that I found in a collection that I had to identify and figure out what their value was. Not necessarily their monetary value, but scientific value, and if it’s something that we want to keep at the Museum. I’ll show you how I went about this. I’m going to put my ignorance on full display to the world because I know nothing about this stuff. This isn’t my area of specialty. So when I went down to the mineral collection one day, I looked in one of the cabinets that had no specimens in it. I looked into the upper shelf and saw two clawed feet sticking out of the drawer. So, I climbed up on the ladder, pulled it out, and it ended up being this large frame. Obviously, something went in the middle of this frame. I flipped it over to see if I could find any maker’s marks or jeweler stamps on it, and I did find a Tiffany stamp on it. So, this was actually made by Tiffany and Company. We got this in 1894 after the World’s Columbian Exposition. But we also saw this collection called the “H collection.”
**Emily:** The H collection!
**Jim:** And that refers to H. Higinbotham, Harlow Higinbotham to be exact.
**Emily:** Ok.
**Jim:** He was one of our early benefactors of the Museum. He actually purchased a collection from Tiffany and donated it to the museum when we first opened our doors in 1894. During the course of investigating this, I found this one specimen, this carved quartz disk.
**Emily:** Wow!
**Jim:** And you can see a crack running through it. It was like this when I found it.
**Emily:** It looks like a baby scene.
**Jim:** Apparently, it’s Moses being put into the river. And the frame that I found was actually built for it by Tiffany and Company in New York. But at some point, the two pieces got separated from one another. I wanted to investigate what Tiffany and Company knew, so I contacted their archivist. The frame itself was built around 1880.
**Emily:** Wow! So how old is this disk then?
**Jim:** So, I don’t know. The object next to me over here, this carved jeweled casket, as it’s described, is kind of a similar quartz carving.
**Emily:** Do you want me to move this?
**Jim:** Yes. The carvings in the clear material itself are actually quartz.
**Emily:** Wow!
**Jim:** The rest of it is in brass and has jeweled inlays. Inside the casket, I found these little stamps that were stamped into the brass, maybe about less than a centimeter in diameter.
**Emily:** Okay!
**Jim:** I was able to trace this piece back to an artist named Hermann Ratzersdorfer from Austria. He was a prolific lapidary artist in the mid-1800s. At some point, this was purchased by Tiffany, put on display in the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, purchased by Harlow Higinbotham, and donated to the Museum. The design of this quartz disk is very similar.
**Emily:** Yeah.
**Jim:** So this is part of this tradition of lapidary art in the mid-1800s.
**Emily:** And what is lapidary art?
**Jim:** It’s basically creating objects out of natural minerals.
**Emily:** So these are two items that you’ve, more or less, figured out where they came from.
**Jim:** Less than more, I feel like sometimes.
**Emily:** You’re starting to answer some questions about these mysterious objects, but there is a lot more material in this collection we’re going to look at.
**Jim:** Yes, a lot more material in this collection.
**Emily:** Well, let’s look at some of it!
**Jim:** Reach into the bag of mystery!
**Emily:** The bag of mystery? Oh goodness! This is a blade with an ammonite in it.
**Jim:** It’s very “Game of Thrones-y.”
**Emily:** Yeah, a little bit, but it also feels like plastic.
**Jim:** It does, doesn’t it? That’s a mineral called jet. What do you think that was used for?
**Emily:** Avenging my family members against my enemies. I don’t know. I mean, it just looks ornamental.
**Jim:** Apparently, it was a letter opener.
**Emily:** Oh, a letter opener!
**Jim:** Yeah, for those really angry letters that you need to open right away!
**Emily:** Ooh! It’s a…thing! They look like fancy doorknobs!
**Jim:** They’re weighted. They’re made of minerals.
**Emily:** Yeah, so this is quartz?
**Jim:** Yeah, quartz.
**Emily:** Okay, that is smoky quartz. Hmm, that is a yellow mineral?
**Jim:** It’s rutilated quartz.
**Emily:** I wouldn’t have pictured that! Okay, this is… Is this cat’s eye?
**Jim:** Tiger’s eye.
**Emily:** Tiger’s eye! Well, a tiger is a cat. Close enough!
**Jim:** And, obviously, another quartz.
**Emily:** Quartz, and then this is a…pink one!
**Jim:** It’s a pink one. This is a piece of rhodonite, which is a very popular lapidary mineral. And, again, these were in the Columbian Exposition of 1893. So these are basically samples of seals that you can order and get your actual name, initials, whatever, engraved in them.
**Emily:** Cool! I love seeing how status symbols change over time.
**Jim:** Absolutely! Today, you would, I don’t know, what you would use. Maybe like “look at my fancy car,” whereas back then it was like “look at my horse and carriage and my custom quartz letter seal!”
**Emily:** Well, we don’t send letters anymore, right? We send emails. So what’s today’s equivalent of a wax seal?
**Jim:** It’s almost your AOL signature.
**Emily:** Stamped, sealed, and approved!
**Jim:** And delivered! Let’s see what’s in this bag!
**Emily:** That was a face that you made!
**Jim:** No, that’s not a face. This is a face!
**Emily:** Oh what! What is this? Wow! Is this a monkey wearing glasses?
**Jim:** Or is it a lion wearing glasses? We’ll leave it up to the viewers to decide.
**Emily:** Monkey or lion?
**Jim:** The matching set that every household needs is a monkey-lion and a moon.
**Emily:** Are these ashtrays?
**Jim:** I don’t know what they are. They are obviously decorative. Maybe a soap dish? I can’t imagine using this as a soap dish. So, this is made out of a mineral called gypsum.
**Emily:** It smells a little like perfume or maybe like a scented soap. Who knows! Or maybe it wasn’t used for anything; maybe they just hung it on a wall.
**Jim:** My moon doesn’t smell.
**Emily:** This stuff is weird!
**Jim:** Some of it is really weird! And we hadn’t even gotten to the weird stuff yet!
**Emily:** What?!
**Jim:** Evidence bag!
**Emily:** I’m going to reach in…oh they’re little shoes! What?! These are beautiful!
**Jim:** Okay, these are both made in China, actually. This was purchased from Ward’s Natural Science Establishment.
**Emily:** Really? Why is Ward’s selling objects of this nature?
**Jim:** So, that’s what they used to do. They used to collect objects from around the world.
**Emily:** And what are they carved out of?
**Jim:** That’s gypsum and this is pyrophyllite and some talc. So basically, talc is a really soft mineral. That means the carbons are very easy to break and stuff like that, so it’s a combination of the two.
**Emily:** Yeah?
**Jim:** What’s 2+2?
**Emily:** 4!
**Jim:** What’s 4 + 4?
**Emily:** 8!
**Jim:** What’s 8 – 3?
**Emily:** 5!
**Jim:** What’s the square root of 9?
**Emily:** Why are you quizzing me?!
**Jim:** Because we’re going to figure it out together…
**Emily:** Okay.
**Jim:** …using the 18th-century version of?
**Emily:** Oh, I know what this is! This is an abacus! Wow! I’ve never known how these things work.
**Jim:** Well, join the club!
**Emily:** Okay, I think it’s supposed to go like this because the number on the back says…
**Jim:** I wouldn’t trust the number because that’s the number that we put on there.
**Emily:** Okay.
**Jim:** No, yeah, you’re right! It goes like that, instead of like that.
**Emily:** Gotcha! So this is a rhodonite abacus. Again, this is one we got in 1894.
**Emily:** Okay. And how does an abacus work?
**Jim:** I have no idea!
**Emily:** But other than knowing that this is an abacus, we don’t know much about where it’s from?
**Jim:** Well, I know where the materials came from actually. The rhodonite is actually mined in the Ural Mountains of Russia.
**Emily:** Ooh! Wait a second! But this kind of looks like a letter opener!
**Jim:** Or a seal again, right?
**Emily:** Oh yeah, that’s what I meant! It looks like a seal, but it has a hole in it. It has a holder…thingy. I don’t know what this is?
**Jim:** This is an end of a walking stick.
**Emily:** Oh really!
**Jim:** Yes!
**Emily:** Oh, that’s a really thin walking stick!
**Jim:** Elementary, my dear Graslie!
**Emily:** So you would hold on to this top?
**Jim:** That’s right!
**Emily:** [Hold on to] your fancy walking stick top…
**Jim:** With your pipe and you’re walking to the Opera!
**Emily:** Oh yes, yes.
**Jim:** Here, walk.
**Emily:** Here we go! You ready for this?
**Jim:** Yeah, this is exciting! What is this? Oh, aww! My goodness! It’s a little dog!
**Jim:** A little dog!
**Emily:** It’s a little Scottish dog!
**Jim:** It’s made out of rose quartz.
**Emily:** Yeah, he’s so cute!
**Jim:** In the late 1800s, this was purchased in a gift shop in Mexico.
**Emily:** I feel like you can still buy these sorts of things today.
**Jim:** Yeah, honestly.
**Emily:** Do you have a name for him?
**Jim:** Yeah!
**Emily:** What is it?
**Jim:** Chuck!
**Emily:** This is Chuck? It’s Chuck the little Scottie dog! He’s so cute; I love him! I would buy this today because it’s adorable.
**Jim:** Would you put it in the museum though?
**Emily:** Yes, because I love dogs.
**Jim:** The Emily Graslie Museum of Pink Scottie Dogs!
**Emily:** Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I get where you’re coming from. Without knowing that this quartz is of scientific importance, it sort of becomes like this curious item. But I like the idea that scientists and scholars today will continue to determine where these objects fit within a museum collection and assign them their own particular value.
**Jim:** Right!
**Emily:** Moving on, what do you think that is?
**Jim:** Let’s look at the one in your left hand first.
**Emily:** This one, okay.
**Jim:** Apparently, everyone smoked back then because that’s a cigarette holder.
**Emily:** This is a cigarette holder? How do you smoke out of it?
**Jim:** It might have been decorative.
**Emily:** So, it’s for the person who wants to look fancy while smoking, but they actually don’t want to smoke?
**Jim:** Yes.
**Emily:** Oh, okay.
**Jim:** Again, we go to the internet hordes for an answer for that one.
**Emily:** Yeah, if you have any ideas, let us know in the comments below!
**Jim:** And please don’t smoke!
**Emily:** Don’t smoke. And this one? This is for picking your tiny boogers?
**Jim:** Haha! Well, we found out what it was from a tour I gave. That is a buttonhook.
**Emily:** A buttonhook?
**Jim:** Yeah! Our talented research staff here at the Museum looked up what a buttonhook is. So, “old-timey” lady boots had these buttons along the side and a leather flap to hold it together. You couldn’t push these buttons through easily. You need the help of a tool like this to actually go through the hole, grab the button, hook it, and pull it through.
**Emily:** I like how my mind goes to the grossest thing imaginable.
**Jim:** Yeah, and thanks for that!
**Emily:** You’re welcome!
**Jim:** We’re down to the objects that we don’t know, well not necessarily what they are, but how they were used.
**Emily:** Gotcha.
**Jim:** We’re going to rely on your audience to fill it in.
**Emily:** Viewers at home!
**Jim:** Alright, so get your magnifying glass!
**Emily:** Mehh!
**Jim:** What was that “mehh”? Are you The Penguin?
**Emily:** I don’t know!
**Jim:** [in The Penguin voice] “Batman, I’m gonna get you Batman!”
**Emily:** Let’s start with these guys! So this is listed in our catalog as “beads.” What kind of bead is that? So imagine like a string going through it and wearing that. How does that work? I think of two things: maybe our catalog got it wrong from the get-go, that the description of it being beads is wrong, and so that’s a possibility.
**Emily:** Are they beads or are they not beads? Or are they early…
**Jim:** Oh my god, no!
**Emily:** …like jewel knuckles? I’m not advocating for violence. So, if you know what these are at home, let us know.
**Jim:** And this is listed in our catalog as a jade fob. So what’s interesting about it is that it has a little ring at the bottom, and the ring, and the whole fob in general, were carved together.
**Emily:** And this is jade?
**Jim:** Yes, it’s made out of jade. And jade is really easy to carve, relative to other minerals.
**Emily:** But, it’s a pretty hard mineral. It has a little flower on this end. See? The flower looks like one of the flowers from “Breath of the Wild” from the Zelda game.
**Jim:** And this last piece…
**Emily:** Okay, well, that looks like a necklace!
**Jim:** But in our catalog, it’s listed as a “watch fob.”
**Emily:** A watch fob! Oh, you know what? Yeah, my dad has one of these!
**Jim:** Okay, good! How does it work?
**Emily:** I don’t exactly know, but the idea is that you can somehow attach your watch and then string it through your jacket.
**Jim:** That’s what I want to know!
**Emily:** Well, because this part would go to the watch, and then…It’s been linked together somehow. This is weird!
**Jim:** Isn’t that weird?
**Emily:** Yeah! Oh, this comes, no, this opens.
**Jim:** Wait, you got that?
**Emily:** Yeah, this goes right here, and you can get that out like that. So, that solves one thing.
**Jim:** Yes!
**Emily:** And so then you would put this through the watch.
**Jim:** So, that goes on the watch?
**Emily:** I think so…
**Jim:** Because the watch…
**Emily:** …has like a little ring on top.
**Jim:** So you put it through the ring, all the way, then you kind of hook it on.
**Emily:** And this is weighted on this side. So, your watch hangs in your coat, and then you can attach this to your other pocket thing-y.
**Emily:** There’s a lot going on here!
**Jim:** A lot going on! That’s a lot of bling for a watch!
**Emily:** Yeah, I’d wear it! Cool!
**Jim:** Well, mystery semi-solved.
**Emily:** Yeah, so Jim, this was an interesting exploration today!
**Jim:** It’s a lot of random stuff we looked at today. Thank you for sharing this with your public, and I hope we get some good comments, and I want everyone to say goodbye to…
**Both:** Chuck!
**Jim:** …the Scottie!
**Emily:** Goodbye Chuck!
**Jim:** Bye, Chuck!
**Emily:** I hope it’s not the last time we meet!
**Jim:** “arf!”
**Emily:** It still has some remnants on it.
Museum – A building or place where objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited. – The science museum had an impressive display of dinosaur fossils that fascinated all the students.
Treasures – Valuable or precious objects, often of historical or cultural significance. – The ancient tomb was filled with treasures that provided insight into the civilization’s way of life.
Objects – Things that can be seen and touched, often used in scientific or historical contexts to learn about the past. – The archaeologists carefully examined the objects they found at the excavation site to learn more about the ancient culture.
Quartz – A hard, crystalline mineral composed of silicon and oxygen atoms, often found in rocks and used in various scientific applications. – The geologist explained how quartz crystals are used in watches to keep accurate time.
Art – The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, often in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, appreciated for its beauty or emotional power. – The art exhibit showcased paintings that depicted significant events in history.
History – The study of past events, particularly in human affairs. – In history class, we learned about the major events that led to the American Revolution.
Tools – Devices or implements used to carry out a particular function, often in scientific or historical contexts. – The early humans used stone tools to hunt and prepare their food.
Exploration – The action of traveling in or through an unfamiliar area in order to learn about it, often leading to new discoveries. – The exploration of space has led to many technological advancements that benefit our daily lives.
Minerals – Natural, inorganic substances with a definite chemical composition and structure, often found in the Earth’s crust. – The science teacher showed us different types of minerals and explained how they are formed.
Discoveries – Acts of finding or learning something for the first time, often leading to new knowledge or understanding. – The discovery of penicillin revolutionized medicine and saved countless lives.
