How do you build an interpretive exhibit for the 17,500-year-old mammoth (nicknamed Benny) who was found buried near Rackham Court in 1999 and, 在他壮年的时候, would have measured about 11 脚 tall at the shoulder and weighed approximately six tons? Students recently learned the answer—you get your hands very dirty with plaster of Paris, petroleum jelly, and other building materials and bring plenty of patience and attention to detail to the job!
Working alongside professionals from Chase Studio, which is known internationally for building dioramas and habitat reconstruction displays, a dozen geology minors helped create a permanent, museum-quality exhibit for Benny in the Science Center atrium. “Chase director, 特里追逐, is as interested in education as in his design and construction work, so he readily engaged Principia students with instructions and trusted them to do the job,” explained geology professor, Dr. Janis Treworgy (C’76). Confirming this, junior Nathalie Parker added enthusiastically, “The Chase team even . . . incorporated some of our suggestions into the display.”
Creating the exhibit took considerable effort, including the removal of a non-load-bearing wall so that Benny’s skull block could be maneuvered into place. Bones in plaster jackets were then put on steel mesh, with the help of petroleum jelly to keep the plaster from sticking to the bones. The next stage was the messiest—draping burlap strips dipped in tinted plaster of Paris over the steel mesh.
The exhibit depicts the excavation site, with the skull, 象牙, 椎骨, 肋骨, 脚, and leg bones oriented in approximate anatomical position, emerging from the loess (wind-blown silt). The finishing touches will soon be added—signage and a flat-screen monitor with photos and videos of the excavation and lab work over the 12-year course of the project. A floor-to-ceiling mural illustrating the natural setting of the Elsah area during the Ice Age will cover the wall opposite the display.
Science Center architect John Guenther couldn’t have predicted how beautifully this interpretive exhibit would fit in the space. As Treworgy explains, “Guenther intended to have examples of [native] species displayed . . . , but that never happened. Now we have a prehistoric native species—Mammuthus jeffersonii—displayed there, and it looks like the space was designed just for it!”