We're at Clemson University at the Bob and Betsy Campbell
Museum of Natural History. I'm with Melissa Fuentes who's the
curator here. And tell us what this museum's all about. So this
museum is geared towards what it looks like, a vertebrate
collections. So we have many animals from around the world
specifically to cater to students and researchers at
want to come in and look at animals that they wouldn't be
able to see in the wild otherwise. And fortunately since
of course professors are always getting and collecting things,
she had several professors who had amassed fairly large
collections. I believe Doctor Wourms was a fish specialist.
Oh yes! Yes! He specialized in the study of
embryology in fish. So whenever he would study a certain
species he would collect the animals that he studied and he
would donate them to the universities. So we have about
close to twenty thousand or more specimens he alone donated
to the collection. And then there's someone who's still very
active in collecting. That's right. Doctor Blob. He's also
without him this Museum wouldn't be what it is today.
He's helped us immensely in gathering and housing and
storing most of the specimens that you will see. Another
person important to the history of this museum was Stanlee. That
was his first name. Miller who became the curator but he
himself went out and collected all the time. Oh yes.
Vast. He focused mostly on some songbirds and warblers but he
would reach out to zoos and other universities and museums
and they, we acquired so many specimens thanks to him. And the
one that was just an amazing occurrence was when he talked
to the York County museum. Yes the York County museum and us
are in very good standing, really good relationship with
them. They donated about ninety percent of the animals mounted
or specimen wise that we have. So to give back we are now
donating animals that we've recently done native to
the Piedmont in South Carolina area. Oh yes. That is their new
focus. So we are giving back to them animals that they
wouldn't be able to have otherwise. And
you have many many of those animals that would be found in
this area but the backbone of
their collection came from the Mellon family of great wealth.
And so this collection includes things from every continent,
every square foot of the world. Exactly right! Yes and many of
them are mounted which is good for the students and
researchers that come in. So they can see what they look
like alive instead of having them just in a flat skin. But
there are different ways of preserving things. Let's talk
about some of those ways. So there are study skins which are
animals filled with cotton batting. Then there are
taxidermy mounts. So it's typically what you see
your parents or your grandparents
having hung on the wall. So a whitetail deer hung
or any animal that's been stuffed with foam.
And they'll have little glass eyes. Right. Really realistic.
Absolutely right. And then we have simple
skins just a flat hide that doesn't really have any
physical characteristics but you can see what the animal is.
The pattern what the hair texture was. Exactly right!
And then skeletons are also very important. Also. Yes. We have
a colony of domestic beetles, which are flesh-eating beetles.
So everything that we do we do in-house. We press. We preserve.
We can serve. We restore. We beetle clean. And we repair.
Mercy! And you yourself are a taxidermist. Yes.
That's right I've been doing it for about nine years now.
And you explained to me that when we look at something
I see the veins in the neck. You often get a mount that's
just kind of the bare bones of what the animal was like and
everything else has to be reproduced by you acting as
a sculptor. And fortunately you had a background in art. I do.
I have a background in art with a major in sculpting so every
muscle, every vein, every little wrinkle and fold has to be put
in by hand. And that's done right here. Yes that is. As one
of the wonderful things is in your relationship with some of
the other institutions with whom you have trading back and forth
and reciprocity you can sometimes help them if they
don't have that. Absolutely and most of the time we are grateful
that we do have these facilities many other places don't.
So we offer our hand and help.
They help us. We help them. They get to help
their students and anyone else that benefits from
having these kinds of animals there. We benefit because I now
have volunteers that I'm training to become conservators
and preparators. And could you use more volunteers? Absolutely!
I think I'd like to talk a
little bit about Mister Campbell because I think it's
such an interesting story. He was a South Carolinian who
graduated from Clemson went off to the war and then started a
very important mining company and became a very wealthy. And
he and his wife wanted to show their appreciation of Clemson.
The geology museum is named for Mister Campbell. But this museum
is named for both. And why is that? Misses Campbell
was very adamant about women's rights, women's rights
to attend universities, to have higher paying jobs, to be able
to afford things that they couldn't otherwise. So when it
came to naming this museum it's not the Bob Campbell museum it's
the Bob and Betsy Campbell Museum of Natural History.
Now you work with professors here on campus but you work with
groups in other places too. Apparently we have a wonderful
ability to share and let people learn from these specimens in
other places. That's right. We not only deal with
University students. We also deal with elementary kids, high
school kids, any age group and even families that want to come
in and have a private tour of the museum.
So if we get called out on assignment we pack up as
many specimens as we can focusing on what the students
are focusing on. So if they're learning food webs we take
animals that are relative to that.
And we take the museum to them. And in many cases you've got
you have the animal that's been taxidermied. You may have the
skin. You may have some of the bones
from the animal. And in the case of birds you may have
the eggs. Oh yes absolutely! We have
several specimens that are here throughout the museum with
eggs inside or eggs on the side of them so you can see
the relationship between egg and how it fits inside the body
of the bird. Well and how that kiwi gets that egg out is a
great mystery to me. I'm so glad that I don't have to see it in
action. Definitely. I just think we are so very fortunate
and of course many of the things are not on display and
many of the things need to be updated.
And there's just a great task and I think we are
so fortunate that you're here. And also within this facility
you've got a wonderful companion Dixie Damrel who's in charge of
the Herbarium. Yes. Exactly right. We are grateful
to have her. The Herbarium is one of the
largest in South Carolina. So it's a wonderful research tool
actively used by anyone in the state or out-of-state that they
can come and research plants and see where plants have been
found and if any new species have been found as well. And
this is well worth the drive. And y'all apparently are
so accommodating and welcoming to people when they come.
So if people want to come and visit with you
what's the best way to get in touch with you?
The best way would be through email.
So it would be my email Fuente the number two at clemson.edu.
And if not, look us up in our catalog. It would be under
biological sciences. We're all there. Give us
Give us your information and we'll book a tour.
Well and the next time I get an animal that's very interesting
I'm going to put it in the freezer
and bring it right up to you. Please do.
(laughs)
You can't get enough. Can not. Thank you so much for an
amazing visit. Thank you and come again please.
(guitar strumming)