| University of Oregon Museum Natural History's visitors step into the past as the past comes to life. Visitors will see traditional items and learn the stories behind them. The Museum and its collections have grown with the university and the state, and are interwoven with the history of both. Our collections are focused on: archaeology, paleontology, and zoology. Our collections division is home to more than 500,000 documented objects, mainly from Oregon and Alaska, but also including a fine collection of western American Indian baskets and Papua-New Guinea artifacts. Following the creation of the Museum in the 1935, the University began to receive gifts of Oregon and Northwest ethnographic materials. Faculty members in anthropology and in geography have added similar material. The Museum now holds the largest and most important collection of archaeological materials from Oregon. Displayable ethnographic items from outside the United States include more than 900 from Africa, 700 from Asia, 600 from Oceania, 550 from Central America, and about 200 each from Philippines, Europe, and South America. The ethnographic textile catalog contains more than 200 total entries, with a series of complete costumes from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia as an important component. Collections worthy of display in terms of significance and condition (as opposed to collections purely of research value) are estimated to total about 30,000 items, although fewer than 5% of them are on display at any one time. The Museum holds the original 1000-item paleontological collection of Thomas Condon. This collection of Oregon's rich fossil heritage was acquired by the University in 1876 when Condon became Oregon's first geologist and one of the University of Oregon's first three faculty members. Materials collected more recently are held by the University's Department of Geological Sciences. These holdings are drawn on for displays as appropriate. The original collections were made by University scholars before and following World War I, as active zoological research included collecting of both mammals and birds in localities throughout Oregon. A major gift from a local resident, including both mounted specimens and additional skins, was added to this material. The study collection is now reasonably representative of the state in total holdings. It includes some 3,000 bird specimens, with 150 mounts, 1,000 egg sets, and 250 nests, as well as about 500 mammal specimens, including a dozen mounts. Most are from Oregon. This collection is now growing only through occasional gifts of specimens. |
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