Sneak Peek at a New World Class Museum Opening Soon

     The Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg area of Florida is blessed to have some really spectacular museums like The Dali, the James Museum of Western Art, The Florida Holocaust Museum, the Ringling Museum of Art, and the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, just to name a few. Within a year, hopefully their ranks will be joined by MAPS - the Museum of Archaeology, Paleontology, and Science.

    The Museum's exhibits are currently housed in a very cramped building on a Pasco County Schools campus in New Port Richey, but a new and larger location is in the works. Right now, probably 90 % or more of the museum's collections are in storage, but staff and volunteers have staged a few exhibits and opened up for Sunday afternoon docent-led tours so that visitors can get a small taste of what's to come.

    Much of the museum's holdings have come from a couple of older museums that have closed, and they represent every area of the world. The Central and South American Pre-Columbian collection is one of the largest in the world, and, in and of itself, would make for a spectacular Pre-Columbian Museum. But wait there's more! There are large Native American, African and Asian collections as well. Ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt are also featured. Paleontological specimens come from around the world, but there is a large collection of fossils representing Florida's prehistoric flora and fauna, and an exhibit representing underwater archaeology including artifacts from Spanish shipwrecks off Florida's coast.

    The Museum also has working relationships with many other museums and archaeological and paleontological digs around the world. 

    The Executive Director of the Museum, Charles Zidar, led our tour, and his enthusiasm and expertise were phenomenal. I have no doubt that history and museum lovers in the area will be wowed very soon.

For more info, here's the website: https://www.mapsmuseum.org/ And a few pictures. Remember, only a very small part of their collection is out of storage. There's much more to come once the museum is in its own larger space.

 

Day Trip: Thermopolis, Wyoming

By Jeff Burns

Thermopolis Wyoming is the county seat of Hot Springs County, with a population around 3,000.  The name Thermopolis is Greek for “Hot City”, in reference to the numerous hot springs which have drawn tourists to the area since the 19^th century.

The Hot Springs State Park is located in Thermopolis, and you can bathe in thermal mineral pools, with a temperature around 104 degrees (F), for free.  There are also two water concessions in the park, Teepee Pools and Star Plunge, where you can pay to enjoy water slides and other pool fun.  Once out of the pool, be sure to drive around the park and see the Wyoming state buffalo herd.

The Hot Springs County Museum is a must-see, with a great collection of artifacts from the 19^th and early 20^th century.  One great exhibit consists of a simulated raised wooden sidewalk that takes you down a street of the Old West, allowing you to see inside the storefronts.  Across the street, there are several buildings housing special collections, including an old schoolhouse and a caboose.

Interested in ancient history? Technically, pre-history?  East Thermopolis is home to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center.  Wyoming is rich in fossils of all kinds, and the museum proudly displays many Wyoming finds, as well as specimens from around the world.  You can see the only Archaeopteryx fossil in North America, and you can even go out to an active dig site.

Enjoy a day in Thermopolis, one of the few you places you can relax in a mineral spring and learn about millions of years of history.

Short Time in the Big Apple: Uptown

By Jeff Burns

My wife and I made a quick trip to New York City during winter break, and since it was February, we decided to make it as indoors as possible, concentrating on museum visits. We got a good deal on a hotel on 7^th Avenue, near Times Square and conveniently located near several subway stops.   We packed so much into our few days that we were exhausted; we needed a vacation from our vacation.  There’s just so much for history lovers to do and to see!

So, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, and the American Folk Art Museum will just have to wait until a future trip, but we did spend a Morning at the Museum – the American Museum of Natural History. Like most museums in NYC, it opens late, 10 AM, but my advice is to get there early.  When the doors opened this day, there were probably a hundred people gathered at the door and lines going down the street in both directions.  As the morning passed, it got extremely crowded. 

 

While none of the exhibits came to life while we were there, there is so much life to see in he museum that you could spend days if you wanted.  There are the dinosaurs, of course, including the brand new titanosaur. There are the halls and halls of animal, plant, and mineral specimens.  There are the anthropological and archaeological collections that represent cultures from around the globe.  It’s always a thrill for a teacher to see objects up close that they’ve seen in textbooks. While it’s true that most of the exhibits and spaces look they haven’t changed in a hundred years, the AMNH is a classic.

 

The afternoon was for MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art again, crowded.  Is there any place in NYC that’s not? We’re not generally modern art fans, so we made a quick trip through the most current exhibition, the highlight of which was a video look of recent transgender Eurovision song contest winner  Conchita Wurst gesturing slowly and looking into the camera. However, MOMA has one of the greatest collections of works representing the late 19^th century and 20^th century:  impressionism, post impressionism, expressionism, abstract, surrealism, cubism, dada etc.  If you know works by Dali, Picasso, Chagall, Duchamp, Kandinsky, Miro, Van Gogh, Monet, Warhol, or Brancusi, chances are that they are from the permanent collection of MOMA. I incorporate a lot of art in my history classes, and art is a major area of study for my quiz bowl team, so it’s a real thrill for me to see these great works in person.

Traveling with History: Wyoming, Part 2

By Margaret Duncan, Ed.D.

Sleeping Indian--Outside Jackson Hole

Do you like to travel?  Do you like History?  Do you like combining both?  One of the places to visit with an eye towards history is Wyoming— a state where you can walk in the steps of pioneers or dinosaurs, visit Ghost Towns or battlefields, see museums or a rodeo, or just soak in the beauty of nature.  Wyoming is home to all these things, as well as Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, and Devils Tower National Monument. It is also the home to the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes.  It is a great destination for anyone who loves to travel with a mind to history and nature.   

Some great sites to see:

Yellowstone National Park-- the most famous part of park is Old Faithful, which is a predictable geyser erupting roughly every 90 minutes.  The park is on the Continental Divide which wanders around through the Caldera.  The Shoshone Lake is the largest lake in continental US.  One of the things we learned in the park was that weather is unpredictable--because this is where weather begins.  









Grand Teton National Park--This is a breathtaking area.  The first Europeans to visit the area were Mountain Men who were beaver trappers.  They would bring pelts to trade at the end of July.  Within the park, Jenny Lake is a glacier carved lake and much of the rocks that you can trip on while hiking are smooth because of the glaciers. 





Triangle X Ranch and Float Trip-- No trip to Wyoming would be complete without a trip to a Dude Ranch.  We visited the Triangle X Ranch which was made into a dude ranch when the owners  realized it was too difficult to herd animals.  Simply put, a dude is a visitor from the east.  A female dude is called a dudess or dudine.   The Snake River  got its name through misinterpretation – supposedly Indians said the name was Weaver River…but it was misinterpreted as Snake River.  As you float along the river, you will see Otter, Mother and Baby Moose, Bald Eagle, Red Tailed Hawk, Pelicans, Cut Throat Trout.  Be warned though, the water will be cold and can be felt through the raft. 




Jackson Hole-- this city was a resort town and is in the Valley--thus Hole.  Originally animals ran loose in the area because the land was used for grazing cattle and horses.  The town was isolated by its surrounding mountains and had such a harsh climate – it was one of the last areas to be settled.  One of the neatest sights in town are the Elk Antler Arches, first created in 1960.  They are made from elk from the National Elk Refuge. We were told 7,500 elk spend each winter on the refuge; bulls shed their antlers in the spring.  They are then picked up by Boy Scouts and sold by public auction in the square each May.



These are just some of the highlights to see if you head to Wyoming to experience history and nature. What would you include in your historical tour of Wyoming?

Traveling with History: Montana

By Margaret Duncan, Ed.D.

Do you like to travel?  Do you like History?  Do you like combining both?  One of the places to visit with an eye towards history is Montana—a state where you can walk in the steps of Lewis & Clark or dinosaurs, visit Ghost Towns or battlefields, or just soak in the beauty of nature.  Montana is home to all these things, as well as Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks. It is also the home of several Indian Nations like the Crow, Blackfeet, and Sioux.  It is a great destination for anyone who loves to travel with a mind to history and nature. 

Some great sites to see:
Billings, Montana-- Montana’s largest city was founded in 1882 and named for Frederick Billings, the president of the Northern Pacific Railroad.  As such, Billings was a transportation hub.  I found Billings to be a nice quaint city.  It was smaller than cities I am used to but certainly was an introduction to how cities in the west are. 

 

Crow Agency—To the East of Billings is Crow country, and while visiting there I was very excited to witness a PowWow and listen to Vietnam Veteran, Carson Walks Over Ice discuss traditional dances, and another elder educate us as to how a Teepee is set up.  We were also treated to dinner--traditional Indian Taco followed by the powwow program.  The only downside was that it was held indoors because of bad weather.  We were also educated about the Sun Dance which was abolished by government and missionaries because of fear in 1875.  Sun Dance is a way of prayer--Height of Apex of Sun.  Participants go without food and water for 3 days and pray for the 3 days.  Pray for sickness, suffering, soldiers, etc…  In 1941, the Sun Dance was revived.  A Sun Dance is held every August and the older generations teach to the younger the dances and songs.  During the Powwow we saw a number of examples of traditional dress:  such as use of birds, fur bearing animals, shiny things, moccasins, bones, moose teeth, bells, beaded bands for wrists, head and arms, paint on face, colorful – Blended with modern things such as Sponge Bob, flip flops, tennis shoes, basketball shorts, cell phones, etc.

Little Big Horn Battlefield—This is an immense battlefield and I was shocked to see how big this area really is.  This area was changed once gold was discovered in the Black Hills.  Yellow Hair--George Armstrong Custer was sent to take the Black Hills from the Indians.  His opponent was Sitting Bull.  This was the last armed effort of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their ancestral way of life.  The Army sent 3 columns of soldiers to create a trap for Indians in the middle which included Custer.  The Calvary was supposed to find the enemy and infantry was supposed to fight, the scouts came across an Indian village camped along Little Big Horn River--Crow’s nest--the largest teepee camp in North America had been formed and was larger than city of Los Angeles.  The scouts described the horses as a brown carpet on the open prairie.  The fight only lasted about 20 minutes and very few Indians were actually killed, Custer was one of the first to die.

Lewis & Clark—Dinosaurs are not the only ones to have left a trail to follow.  On April 25, 1805, Lewis & Clarks’ Corps of Discovery camped by what would become Fort Union.  They hoped they were only weeks away from the Pacific, via the never to be found Northwest Passage. The group rested and celebrated their arrival at the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. The expedition journals noted the spot's potential as a trade location.  Entering what would become Montana but at the time was the land of the Blackfeet.

Dinosaur Trail--The Montana Dinosaur Trail features some of the greatest paleontological finds of the last century. T-rex, Miaisaur, Hadrasaur--these are just a few of the interesting dinosaurs you'll find along Montana's Dinosaur Trail. All of them are dug out from the earth by some of the most prominent paleontologists around.

These are just some of the highlights to see if you head to Montana to experience history and nature.  What would you include in your historical tour of Montana?

Visit a Natural History Museum

By Nina Kendall

Want to get your kids hooked on history? Planning a trip with friends or family who isn’t as excited about history as you? Then it is time put a visit to a Natural History Museum on your calendar. From Mastodons to precious gems, a Natural History Museum has exhibits that appeal to all ages.

I love Natural History Museums. They are adventures and learning combined. Who hasn’t stood in awe in front of the Hope Diamond or marveled at the skeleton of an Argentinosaurus? My little brother fell in love with museums spending time in front of dinosaur skeletons and placing his hands inside fossil impressions. The exhibits from the natural world with a focus on change over time are the perfect blend of science and history to intrigue anyone.

 Inside a Natural History Museum, you can learn the history of DNA and stand in the shadow of a Giant Snake.  The movie Night in a Museum was based on the exhibits in the American Museum of Natural History. Some exhibits highlighted how different cultures around the world interact with the environment or other showed the exploration of the American frontier.  Special exhibits in Natural History Museums have given me the chance to pet a hissing cockroach, see the treasures of King Tut's tomb, and trace the travels of Marco Polo and Genghis Khan. 

Below are a few Natural History Museums you should consider as destinations. I recommend you do a little planning before you go. Each of these museums has theaters and expansive exhibits. You may want to look at the special events or activities planned for the day you plan to visit.

1.  American Museum of Natural History -New York, New York
2.  Field Museum – Chicago, Illinois
3.  Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History  - Washington, DC
4.  Fernbank Museum of Natural History - Atlanta, Georgia