Standing on the sidewalk, looking up a steep slope towards the home of Landscape Architect Keith Geller, you know you’re about to enter a special landscape. Over the past 30 years, Geller has transformed a bare, grassy slope into an forested urban haven. His yard has been featured in magazines, books and newspapers stories and [...]
Julie Feinstein is a Collection Manager at the American Museum of Natural History. She lives in New York City and writes about urban wildlife on her blog, Urban Wildlife Guide. She has recently published a fantastic book (which I’ll be reviewing soon) titled Field Guide to Urban Wildlife. You may remember her from her guest post about House Centipedes in the ‘On Being Misunderstood’ feature. She was good enough to answer some questions about her inspiration, experience and knowledge about urban wildlife.
What does a collections manager at a natural history museum do?
In addition to exhibits and educational displays, natural history museums maintain collections of specimens like meteors, pinned insects, animal skeletons, archeological artifacts, and more, behind the scenes. Scientists visit to study the collections, or request loans from them for study. Collection managers curate specimens in their care, arrange study visits, prepare loans, and catalog new acquisitions.
The collection I manage, the Ambrose Monell Collection for Molecular and Microbial Research, at the American Museum of Natural History, is an archive of frozen biopsy specimens and DNA from animals from all over the world that are used for genetic analyses. Continue reading »










