The Rarest of the Rare: Stories Behind the Treasures at the Harvard Museum of Natural History
Photographs by Mark Sloan

July 30, 2009 - March 11, 2010
National Academy of Sciences
2101 Constitution Ave., N.W., Upstairs Gallery

Open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Closed weekends and holidays.
Free.  Photo ID required.

 JD Talasek interviews Mark Sloan (mp3, 21 mins)

In 2003, Mark Sloan photographed the behind-the-scenes collections of Harvard’s Natural History Museum.  Enlisting the help of curators and department heads, he identified rare scientific specimens with fascinating histories.  Harvard’s natural history collections comprise some 21 million specimens -- animal, vegetable, and mineral -- from every imaginable part of the planet.

The museum's permanent exhibitions include the famous Glass Flowers, thousands of animals from around the world, and a beautiful hall of minerals.  Yet these public galleries offer only a glimpse.  Behind the scenes, there are scientists’ offices, research laboratories, and specimen storage areas.  Past one door lies the Egg Room, with some 30,000 glass-topped boxes containing birds’ nests and eggs.  Beyond another reside so many mollusk shells that no one has ever managed an exact count.  One room yields the world’s largest collection of ants, another holds hundreds of horns and tusks, still another reveals meteorites.  The specimens fill innumerable bottles, boxes, drawers, and cabinets.  They are the world, distilled.

For every specimen in this exhibition, there is a story.  These range from tales of wealthy explorers and obsessive collectors to those of visionary scientists.  The items come from the farthest reaches of the globe and the deepest depths of the sea.  Some are beautiful; others are intriguing; and others simply strange.  The Harvard Museum of Natural History is a place of science, and yet it also conveys for anyone drawn to adventure and discovery an undeniable romance.  Photographer Mark Sloan seeks to capture something of both in these images.

In addition to this series, Mark Sloan is known for his documentation of circus and sideshow history through photography and anecdote.  A photographer, author, curator, and arts administrator, he is the director and senior curator of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston, South Carolina.  He holds a B.A. in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Richmond and an M.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University.  His photographs have been exhibited at the Grand Palais in Paris, the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston Salem, North Carolina, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and the High Museum in Atlanta.

More information about the image:

Four of the birds pictured here belong to the genus Tangara. This is the largest tanager genus, with about 50 species. Sometimes called callistes from the Greek kalli, meaning “beautiful” they travel in small flocks through the forests. Even among the callistes, one species stands out for its extraordinary plumage. This is the seven-colored tanager, an endangered species. Two appear here: one in the top row, second from right, with the yellow patch; the other in the bottom row, first from left, with the blue and purple belly. Look closely, and you can detect all seven colors.

Exhibition based upon the book by Nancy Pick and Mark Sloan 

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