Desktop Diaries

[DinoToyForum]

I'm surprised to see more dinosaur paraphernalia than marine reptile.

The marine reptiles and most of my collection is at home The Invictas in my office belong to the museum btw.

[Gwangi]

I'm surprised to see more dinosaur paraphernalia than marine reptile.

The marine reptiles and most of my collection is at home The Invictas in my office belong to the museum btw.

Yeah, I've seen your home collection. The marine reptiles seem to take priority there, as I would expect.

[suspsy]

This is all there is to my "office" at the dining room table. I used to do reviews at the kitchen counter, but I didn't like how the surface reflected things in the background.



Hopefully when we get a house, there'll be a place to set up a proper den.

[Doug Watson]

Here's my office space. It is actually pretty tidy at the moment.

Looks like you have a "real" office as opposed to the open concept cubicles that CMN went to just before my departure. Lots of cool stuff in there to spark my interest.
1. One thing I loved about working in a museum was the cultural history of the institution and often that would be reflected in the furniture. That wooden cabinet looks like it has some history behind it. Has it been handed down by your predecessors? The last taxidermist at CMN when I was there was a rather unique Welshman who had been there since 1967 and he still sat on an old wooden stool that belonged to Clyde Patch who I believe was the first taxidermist when the museum broke away from the geological survey and became the national museum of nature. I have wondered what happened to that stool when he got the heave hoe at the same time as me. I fear it may have ended up in a dumpster.
2. Do you have to check the radioactivity of fossils, I see something that looks like a geiger counter on top of one of your cabinets?
3. Lastly, do you know anything about that archaeopteryx model next to the Invictas? It looks very familiar to me, I am wondering if I have seen it in one of my older books.

[Libraraptor]

At least we have new insights! I love these pictures! And hey, Dr.Admin, that´s really a tidy office I think. Over the window left of the Invictas, is that an Archaeopteryx?!

[DinoToyForum]

Here's my office space. It is actually pretty tidy at the moment.

Looks like you have a "real" office as opposed to the open concept cubicles that CMN went to just before my departure. Lots of cool stuff in there to spark my interest.
1. One thing I loved about working in a museum was the cultural history of the institution and often that would be reflected in the furniture. That wooden cabinet looks like it has some history behind it. Has it been handed down by your predecessors? The last taxidermist at CMN when I was there was a rather unique Welshman who had been there since 1967 and he still sat on an old wooden stool that belonged to Clyde Patch who I believe was the first taxidermist when the museum broke away from the geological survey and became the national museum of nature. I have wondered what happened to that stool when he got the heave hoe at the same time as me. I fear it may have ended up in a dumpster.
2. Do you have to check the radioactivity of fossils, I see something that looks like a geiger counter on top of one of your cabinets?
3. Lastly, do you know anything about that archaeopteryx model next to the Invictas? It looks very familiar to me, I am wondering if I have seen it in one of my older books.

One of the benefits of being based in a grade 1 listed Elizabethan Mansion and stable block (the offices are in the stable block) is that we don't have to suffer the horror of large shared office spaces. I do share my office with my job-share colleague but there's a division formed by tall cabinets.

1. That's the museum's geological map cabinet. It must be rather old but I don't know its history.
2. Yes, it is a geiger counter. We have radioactive minerals in our collection.
3. I found the Archaeopteryx in our handling collection and I salvaged it because I was worried it might get damaged. It isn't on our museum database. I presumed it was bespoke. Is made out of plaster (I think) and the feet and hand claws seem to be taken from a real bird. However, if you know otherwise, do let me know!

By the way, next door to my office is our taxidermy conservation workshop. There are pictures on the museum Facebook page, which I share here:

[Patrx]

Interesting! Do you happen to have any more images of the Archaeopteryx?

[DinoToyForum]

Interesting! Do you happen to have any more images of the Archaeopteryx?

I will take some next time I'm in the office and will post them in the identification thread.

[suspsy]

Did you have a lot of interaction with Dale Russell back when he was a curator at the CMN, Doug? What was he like?

[Doug Watson]

3. I found the Archaeopteryx in our handling collection and I salvaged it because I was worried it might get damaged. It isn't on our museum database. I presumed it was bespoke. Is made out of plaster (I think) and the feet and hand claws seem to be taken from a real bird. However, if you know otherwise, do let me know!

By the way, next door to my office is our taxidermy conservation workshop. There are pictures on the museum Facebook page, which I share here:

It just looks very familiar to me, I either saw a cast of the same sculpture at my museum, an image in a book or an illustration that the model is based on. I'll go through my older books.

Wonderful that you still have a taxidermist. So sad that our Canadian Museum of Nature no longer has a taxidermist, mammalogist or ornithologist for that matter.
(no more model makers/sculptors either  )

[DinoToyForum]

3. I found the Archaeopteryx in our handling collection and I salvaged it because I was worried it might get damaged. It isn't on our museum database. I presumed it was bespoke. Is made out of plaster (I think) and the feet and hand claws seem to be taken from a real bird. However, if you know otherwise, do let me know!

By the way, next door to my office is our taxidermy conservation workshop. There are pictures on the museum Facebook page, which I share here:

It just looks very familiar to me, I either saw a cast of the same sculpture at my museum, an image in a book or an illustration that the model is based on. I'll go through my older books.

Wonderful that you still have a taxidermist. So sad that our Canadian Museum of Nature no longer has a taxidermist, mammalogist or ornithologist for that matter.
(no more model makers/sculptors either  )

Oh, we don't have a taxidermist any more either. The workshop is used by our go-to freelance conservator (who was trained by the last museum taxidermist).

Maybe our Archaeopteryx is a cast that had bits added to it by the taxidermists back in the day.

[Doug Watson]

Did you have a lot of interaction with Dale Russell back when he was a curator at the CMN, Doug? What was he like?

Yes I did, I was very excited to finally meet a dinosaur expert of his stature and really looked forward to discussing dinosaurs with him. It was a big let down. Once I went to him for advice when I wanted to do a 1/24 scale sculpture of a T rex for myself. He was polite and talked to me for a while in his office and then he instructed his research assistant Rick Day to get me what I needed from the Sternberg Library. Dale didn't express any interest in seeing it when it was done. A while later when I was loaned to the paleo division to sculpt the mammoth group I tried a couple times to talk dinosaurs but while he was polite it was obvious he would rather be doing something else. He was totally different from the other scientists that I had contact with at CMN. If I asked any of them about something in their field they were all more than willing to share their knowledge. At the time I thought he must have thought I wasn't his intellectual equal but in retrospect it could have been the fact that my main interest was what dinosaurs looked like and did, Dale on the other hand was more interested at the time in extinction theories. I think if we had worked on a project together it might have been different but I will never know. At break times he was very engaging if we were talking about subjects other than dinosaurs and he could be very funny. It was a lot of fun when Dr. Peter Dodson was visiting from Philadelphia doing research for his book on horned dinosaurs. First of all he was the type of person I wish Dale was. I got to talk horned dinosaurs with him and he was very generous with his time, but things would really spice up at break because Peter took great pleasure in baiting Dale into a debate about mass extinction theories. It was hilarious. My best experience at Paleo was working with Dr. Dick Harington who supervised me in the sculpting of the mammoth group. Dick was a great field palaeontologist as well as a researcher and I spent hours and hours picking his brain and listening to his stories about collecting quaternary fossils and also studying polar bears in the field before his time with the museum.
After Dale left the museum I had great experiences with Dr. Steve Cumbaa, Dr. Robert Holmes and Dr. Michael Caldwell working on the Pteranodons that I did and then later on Dr. Holmes and I worked on my restoration of the holotype skull of Vagaceratops for CMN. Again they were all very willing to share their knowledge with me when I had questions. Dr. Cumbaa, Dr. Holmes and Dr. Harington have all helped me on projects for Safari Ltd since I left the museum. Dale on the other hand did not reply to an e-mail I sent him at his new post in the states so again not the greatest experience. He did sign my copy of his book. 

[Doug Watson]

Oh, we don't have a taxidermist any more either. The workshop is used by our go-to freelance conservator (who was trained by the last museum taxidermist).

It seems display technicians like me and museum taxidermists are becoming extinct. It is easier for museums to contract that type of work out.

[Takama]

This is where i spend most of my day.   YEs im a Computer Addict

[Dinomike]

Here's where I do my creative stuff - drawing,  sculpting etc. Currently I'm repainting a Star Wars Black Edition Rey figure.

[Doug Watson]

Here's where I do my creative stuff - drawing,  sculpting etc. Currently I'm repainting a Star Wars Black Edition Rey figure.

I highly recommend clicking on this image and viewing Dinomike's other images on Photobucket. Great shots of your scratch built dinos Dinomike! In this shot are those original Horizon T rexes or are they recasts? I was hoping for close ups of those on Photobucket but there weren't any.

[suspsy]

Did you have a lot of interaction with Dale Russell back when he was a curator at the CMN, Doug? What was he like?

Yes I did, I was very excited to finally meet a dinosaur expert of his stature and really looked forward to discussing dinosaurs with him. It was a big let down. Once I went to him for advice when I wanted to do a 1/24 scale sculpture of a T rex for myself. He was polite and talked to me for a while in his office and then he instructed his research assistant Rick Day to get me what I needed from the Sternberg Library. Dale didn't express any interest in seeing it when it was done. A while later when I was loaned to the paleo division to sculpt the mammoth group I tried a couple times to talk dinosaurs but while he was polite it was obvious he would rather be doing something else. He was totally different from the other scientists that I had contact with at CMN. If I asked any of them about something in their field they were all more than willing to share their knowledge. At the time I thought he must have thought I wasn't his intellectual equal but in retrospect it could have been the fact that my main interest was what dinosaurs looked like and did, Dale on the other hand was more interested at the time in extinction theories. I think if we had worked on a project together it might have been different but I will never know. At break times he was very engaging if we were talking about subjects other than dinosaurs and he could be very funny. It was a lot of fun when Dr. Peter Dodson was visiting from Philadelphia doing research for his book on horned dinosaurs. First of all he was the type of person I wish Dale was. I got to talk horned dinosaurs with him and he was very generous with his time, but things would really spice up at break because Peter took great pleasure in baiting Dale into a debate about mass extinction theories. It was hilarious. My best experience at Paleo was working with Dr. Dick Harington who supervised me in the sculpting of the mammoth group. Dick was a great field palaeontologist as well as a researcher and I spent hours and hours picking his brain and listening to his stories about collecting quaternary fossils and also studying polar bears in the field before his time with the museum.
After Dale left the museum I had great experiences with Dr. Steve Cumbaa, Dr. Robert Holmes and Dr. Michael Caldwell working on the Pteranodons that I did and then later on Dr. Holmes and I worked on my restoration of the holotype skull of Vagaceratops for CMN. Again they were all very willing to share their knowledge with me when I had questions. Dr. Cumbaa, Dr. Holmes and Dr. Harington have all helped me on projects for Safari Ltd since I left the museum. Dale on the other hand did not reply to an e-mail I sent him at his new post in the states so again not the greatest experience. He did sign my copy of his book. 

That's interesting, Doug, because I had a similar experience with Russell when I was a kid. My school went on a field trip to the CMN and he gave a presentation and fielded questions in the auditorium. Like you, I had been very excited at first, but I ended up being profoundly disappointed by the end. He talked mostly about extinction and said almost nothing about dinosaur appearance or behaviour. I remember one of my classmates asked him which dinosaur he would choose to be if he had the choice, and he responded that he would never want to be a dinosaur. He sounded totally dispassionate and unimaginative, and many of the kids in the audience were bored.

I also never liked his Dinosauroid theory. And he claimed in Louie Psihoyos' book, "Hunting Dinosaurs," that dinosaur skeletons are "so crude" compared to "beautiful" mammal skeletons, as though he thought evolution was a linear, progressive process. I have no idea if he still thinks along those lines, but he remains the most disappointing paleontologist I ever met.

[Doug Watson]

That's interesting, Doug, because I had a similar experience with Russell when I was a kid. My school went on a field trip to the CMN and he gave a presentation and fielded questions in the auditorium. Like you, I had been very excited at first, but I ended up being profoundly disappointed by the end. He talked mostly about extinction and said almost nothing about dinosaur appearance or behaviour. I remember one of my classmates asked him which dinosaur he would choose to be if he had the choice, and he responded that he would never want to be a dinosaur. He sounded totally dispassionate and unimaginative, and many of the kids in the audience were bored.

I also never liked his Dinosauroid theory. And he claimed in Louie Psihoyos' book, "Hunting Dinosaurs," that dinosaur skeletons are "so crude" compared to "beautiful" mammal skeletons, as though he thought evolution was a linear, progressive process. I have no idea if he still thinks along those lines, but he remains the most disappointing paleontologist I ever met.

Glad to know it wasn't just me, mind you it is sad that he missed a chance to inspire some kids. If you ever have a chance to attend a talk by those other men that I mentioned I wouldn't hesitate because one thing they all shared was a passion for the animals they were studying. I haven't heard them talk to groups but one on one you know you are talking to a kindred spirit.

[Gwangi]

I had a similar experience when I met Greg Paul (not surprising). Now Scott Sampson on the other hand...

[Doug Watson]

I had a similar experience when I met Greg Paul (not surprising). Now Scott Sampson on the other hand...

Scott has helped me out a couple times with Safari pieces, a good Canadian boy eh? I have never had the "pleasure" of meeting Paul.