AN UNCERTAIN TIMELINE
Five of the ten departmental collections are slated to move underground—invertebrate paleontology, vertebrate paleontology, malacology, mammalogy, and ornithology, according to Hanken.
He said the museum’s “spirit collections” that preserve specimens in alcohol—invertebrate zoology, herpetology, and ichthyology—will not move because alcohol cannot be housed below grade, in accordance with fire regulations.
Hanken added that the MCZ relinquished ownership of the remaining space in the building on Oxford St. The Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology is rumored to fill the vacancy, with OEB Professor John R. Wakeley getting a small office in the space. What is certain is that the space will not be used for laboratories.
“I won’t doubt that other departments in FAS might look longingly at the space available,” said William Amaral, former preparation facility manager in the vertebrate paleontology collection, in an interview with The Crimson last year. Amaral has since retired from the University.
Amaral noted that the top floor of the building—which is currently occupied by the ornithology division—is prime property: “It’s a nice spot. I’d have to know what the museum was getting in return for giving up that space.”
The planners of the Northwest specifically earmarked basement space for MCZ during the design process, according to Hanken. Still, months passed before FAS gave its official approval for the move, leaving Hanken concerned before the decision was made formal.
Spaces are “real premium” at the University and generates “competing uses for space,” Amaral said.
“That’s why I’m very anxious to get the decision made,” Hanken said in an interview last year, adding that there was “always the chance” the allocated space could have ended up in the hands of a different University interest unless the current plan met definite approval.
SENTIMENTAL PROGRESS
The MCZ has called its building on Oxford St. its home since the edifice was established in 1859.
“I think there’s a bit sentimentality,” said Linda S. Ford, Director of Collections Operations. “Even with all the problems because this building’s age, all the people love this building.”
“It was designed and built as a zoology museum, and now it’s going to be split in half and other departments are moving in here—and that to me is really sad,” said curatorial associate Judith Chupasko in an interview last year. “I really love the space here...It bums me out.”
Chupasko, who believes that the mammology collection has space to grow after renovations, said she does not think the current MCZ building is necessarily impeding growth of the collections. “I don’t think it’s that,” she said regarding the primary reason for the move. “I think it’s bigger than me and what I’m informed about.”
“I get a little scared. Is it that ‘divide and conquer’ thing? They’re dividing it up so it’s easier to—I don’t know—feed me to the lions?” Chupasko added. “I think the main reason for the move is to store the collections better...but I don’t know what the bigger forces are behind the move.”
Amaral said that initially, the ornithology and mammology collections were “definitely slated” for a move into the basement space because of their liability with potential infestations, but “they kept adding more and more departments.”
“I suspect, as I see it, that the birds and mammals were the first concern, and as they got along with that plan, they realized how much space would be available when those departments moved,” Amaral said. “It snowballed to FAS or OEB saying, ‘Wow, look how much space we could get if this department and this department move.’”
—Staff writer Gautam S. Kumar can be reached at gkumar@college.harvard.edu.
—Esther I. Yi contributed to the reporting of this story.