I picked a poor time to go to the Harvard Museum of Natural History—Sunday morning, which I learned is when the museum is free to all Massachusetts residents. Not only that, there also seemed to be some sort of dinosaur storytime happening in the paleontology wing, bringing in throngs of excited children and their less-excited (i.e. anxious and exhausted) parents.
Thankfully the exhibit I’d come to see was the quietest spot in the museum. In Search of Thoreau’s Flowers: An Exploration of Change and Loss is a special exhibit open through November.
Pitched as a “modern artistic interpretation of Henry David Thoreau’s preserved plants,” it includes some of Thoreau’s original pressed flowers and plant specimens from Walden Pond and the surrounding Concord area. The full collection is stored at the Harvard University Herbaria. Maybe not the most thrilling subject for MA families who’d rather see dinosaur bones. But as a Thoreauvian, it was something I didn’t want to miss.
To my surprise, Thoreau’s original physical plant pressings were tucked in glass cases against the walls, not the featured items at all. The focal pieces of the exhibit were the “artistic interpretations” mentioned in the description.
This included a video projection wall by Robin Vuchnich, made up of digitized plant pressings, moving and rotating with quotes and facts, including how nearly 30% of Thoreau’s documented species are now extinct, and 36% are in low population. This loss is despite little to no human interference in the protected places where Thoreau first gathered them. In other words, climate change is behind their demise.
There was also a large wallpaper display of Thoreau’s flowers using cyanotypes for data visualization. Plants against dark blue backgrounds are extinct. Medium blue, they’re endangered. Plants on white backgrounds are still alive, some even thriving. The wall, which one might imagine would lean more blue, was a solid mix, showcasing not just the loss of plant life, but the overall change caused by global warming.
My overall takeaway from the exhibit was the importance of historical preservation in studying the affects climate change. Which plants thrive and which die in this rapidly changing climate, and what can that tell us about the future of the planet? Without the record-keeping of Thoreau and other naturalists, answering these questions would be far more difficult.
Once I’d had my fill of flowers, I figured I’d explore the rest of the museum a bit. It’d been years since I’d last visited.
Skirting around the dinosaur storytime chaos, I walked through another new special exhibit all about sharks, displaying toothy jaws and watery blue light projections on the carpet.
I said a brief hello to the glass flowers and peeked into the rocks and minerals room. The Great Mammal Hall hasn’t changed at all, except some of the taxidermy animals are looking extra ragged. Surely Harvard has the budget for some fresh faux snouts?
“Kids (and Their Parents) Say the Darndest Things” Harvard Natural History Museum Edition:
“I want to take the big egg home!” “The big egg has to stay here in the museum, sweetie.” (cue meltdown)
“Daddy daddy daddy why are its bones like that?” “I don’t know, honey, but looks like it’s a [reads Latin name off museum label].” “But WHY are its bones like that?” “I don’t know.” “But WHY—” “I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT ITS BONES!”
“See? Those are all shark mouths.” “What happened to the rest of the shark?”
“This bird looks like it’s dead.”
“BYE BYE ANIMALS BYE BYE.”
The… ocean?