AMNH-IP-Columbia University Collection

  

Curation and Conservation of Columbia University Fossil Invertebrate Collection at the AMNH, Summer 2024 (A Pilot Project)





Columbia University Collection - Curation and Conservation - 2024

Week 6 - Final Week

We said goodbye to Mac last Friday and adjusted our workflow to accommodate our remaining three interns this week. While this is sadly our last blog post, we will be working through next Wednesday before heading to Colorado for the beginning of the semester.

This week we began working with fossil marine invertebrates from the Silurian Period, which is super exciting to us because there are no fossil specimens from this period in Colorado. It was great to work with specimens from a period we have little exposure to at Colorado College!


We also took a tour of AMNH's exhibition department and were lucky enough to get a super special glimpse into exhibits coming to the museum in the next few years! We cannot share details, but we got to explore retired exhibit pieces and learn about the artists that make the museum come to life. We got exposure to a career as a scientific illustrator and learned of the value of a biology degree in accurately capturing animals of the past in illustrative artwork!


One of the things we have enjoyed most about New York City this summer has been the food! Below are some of our best bites from this trip:



1) Apollo Bagels
2) Clinton St. Baking Co.
3.) Taqueria Ramirez
4.) Gnoccheria East Village


On the left: Elizabeth, Corra, and Makena before opening at AMNH.
On the right: Eugene, Niko, Makena, and Elizabeth - Colorado College alums and current students all in NYC for the summer!

As our internship comes to an end at AMNH, we thought we might introduce you to the two incredible people who we absolutely could not have done this without.

First, Dr. Hilary Ketchum. Hilary is the Curatorial Associate of Invertebrate Paleontology at AMNH. At AMNH, she coordinates and supervises the management of the invertebrate paleontology collection, which comprises over 5 million specimens from across the world. Hilary is from England and earned her Bachelor of Arts in Biological Sciences from the highly esteemed University of Oxford. She went on to earn her Ph.D. in Paleontology from the University of Cambridge and Natural History Museum, as well as her Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester. Hilary’s Ph.D. research focused on the anatomy, taxonomy, and systematics of plesiosaurs, although her expertise has widened to include extinct bivalves, gastropods, Pleistocene mammals, and fossil plants, and invertebrates since starting her career at AMNH. Hilary has a passion for the history of collections, and on multiple occasions has stolen us away from our work conserving and cataloging specimens to regale us with tales of historic artifacts. Hilary’s husband, Dr. Roger Benson, also works at AMNH. Hilary and Roger made the move from England when Roger was offered a job at AMNH in 2023 as Curator-in-Charge of fossil amphibians, reptiles, birds, and fossil plants in the Division of Paleontology. 

Our work with the Columbia University Collection has been made possible under the guidance and mentorship given to us so generously by Hilary. Hilary is hugely solution-oriented and approaches problems with flexibility and fluidity that makes forward movement easy and exciting for those she is directing. Hilary has a passion for her work that is truly contagious and has a drive that is unmatched in the Invertebrate Paleontology Division of AMNH. We are endlessly lucky to have spent the summer working with her.

Second, Bushra Hussaini. Bushra is the Senior Museum Specialist of Fossil Invertebrates at AMNH. She is from Pakistan, where she overcame biases against women in the late1970s, earning her Bachelor of Science with Honors in Geology from the University of Karachi. Bushra began work at the Royal Dutch Shell Company B.V. as a Geophysical Assistant mapping subsurface Isopach's and Isochrones of the Salt Range of Pakistan, becoming the second professional female geologist to ever work in Pakistan. Later, Bushra gained a position at Columbia University’s LDEO's Oceanography department, mapping bathymetry data received from the research vessel R.V. Conrad. Bushra went on to teach at Queens College as an adjunct lecturer, in New York, while simultaneously earning a master’s degree in Earth and Environmental Sciences. She began her career at AMNH nearly 30 years ago in 1997 and has since managed the curation, conservation and digitization of fossil invertebrates, hoping to make them available online to scientists around the world when the museum KE Emu database goes live next year. Bushra is also passionate about her work. We are so beyond lucky to have had this opportunity to intern at AMNH this summer under the supervision of these two mentors.

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