The Bell Museum at the University of Minnesota
Was just rededicated in a new building this past weekend. My husband and his brothers, plus one of our nieces and her family attended - because my husband's great grandfather, Dr. Thomas Sadler Roberts was the first Director of the Bell Museum.
Dr.Roberts grew up in Minneapolis and in his teens he worked as a surveyor and explored much of the state of Minnesota. Even as he continued his education to be a physician, he kept his love of the wilderness and of birds. He was as much an ornithologist as a medical doctor, writing The Birds of Minnesota, a massive two volume compendium that exhaustively covered the birds of his home state.
One of his patients was James Ford Bell, the founder of General Mills and a dedicated conservationist. Bell donated the money to found the museum and enlisted his friend, T. S. Roberts, to organize it. As T.S Roberts traveled the state of Minnesota to collect specimens, he was upset to realize how much the environment had changed since he first explored the land. He had to go to other states to collect samples of some of the species.
The dioramas at the Bell are renowned for their natural depictions of the varied habitats of Minnesota. The specimens are put into settings that emulate their native areas. Those dioramas were the hardest part about moving the museum since the curators wanted to preserve not only the specimens but the murals that provided the background for each scene.
There is an hour and a half long video about moving the dioramas - I haven't watched it yet since my husband just told me about it today. he got home at four this morning so we are still catching up on his time in Minnesota. But I found it on YouTube:
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