PRESERVING 150 YEARS OF FOSSIL COLLECTING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA PALEONTOLOGY REPOSITORY

The University of Iowa Paleontology Repository is a focal point for research and educational activities of the Paleontology Program in the Department of Geoscience, and an important source of outreach to the scientific community and the public. The collection comprises over a million specimens and represents the fifth largest university fossil collection in North America. Celebrating 150 years, the University of Iowa Paleontology Repository is preserving the history of the fossil collectors who created this nationally recognized collection. Much of the collection was, and is, donated by Iowans who are not professional paleontologists, like Charles Belanski (1897-1929, Mason City), Frank Springer (1848-1927, Wapello), and more recently, Calvin Levorson (Riceville), Arthur Gerk (Clear Lake), Christina Strimple (Iowa City), Amel Priest (Peru), and Glenn Crossman (Riceville). A State Historical Society of Iowa grant is supporting undergraduate students to digitally and physically preserve historic labels, field notebooks and original specimen catalogs, develop the Paleontology Repository Archive, and research collector biographies for a website. The project encourages students to understand how paleontology collections are developed and become familiar with specialist techniques and standards in preservation, archives and the care and management of ancillary collections. Benefits of the project are increased access to, and use of, original collection documentation via digital format; enhanced historical information about the collection; dissemination of collector information to the scientific community and potential for increased access and use of the collection; and examples of historic handwriting for comparison in other collections. By sharing our collecting histories and the stories of the people who donated specimens, we hope to demonstrate the contributions made to paleontology by the public, increase public collaboration, and encourage responsible collecting.