It’s just over the border of New Hampshire, this sweet jewel of a museum tucked amongst the woods in Norwich, Vermont.
I visited Montshire Museum for the first time last summer to see an exhibit featuring a replica of Sue the T. rex from the Field Museum. Filled with interactive exhibits, it largely centers on children and families. Its drawers of fossils and fossil casts, however, kept me eagerly occupied. And–for the first time in my life–I was able to hold parts of a mammoth molar–one of the many fossils people could touch in a class taught by an engaging docent.
My reason for returning this summer was to see the Prehistoric Menagerie–an outdoor exhibit of sculptures. Life-sized replicas of extinct creatures that lived during the Cenozoic era created by artist Bob Shannahan.
Thanks to a number of people, I knew there was a woolly mammoth among them.
In order to get to the museum itself, one first has to drive down a long, windy path through the forest. I mention this because this is what I saw on my drive down:
Woolly mammoth sculpture by Bob Shannahan as seen through the trees on the way down into the parking lot of the Montshire Museum; image taken by the author
Knowing that it was a sculpture, rather than a living woolly mammoth, did not make it any less exciting for me. I immediately got goosebumps.
Quickly, I parked the car, got my ticket, and went straight outside to explore.
Sculpture of woolly mammoth by Bob Shannahan at the Montshire Museum; image courtesy of the Montshire Museum
These are no ordinary sculptures. That’s not actual hair on the mammoth: it’s a shaggy compilation of twigs and other natural plants and fibers.
According to the press release on this exhibit, the artist explained, “Once I choose the animal, I conduct my research, collect skeletal measurements, and make a small model out of wire and foil. Then I make a full-size drawing on cardboard and begin building the animal. The frame, made of steel rebar and aluminum screen, is used to depict the major muscle groups. It turns out that the autumn vegetation is perfect for the animals’ fur.”
Below, for example, is the entelodont–an artiodactyl that lived during the Eocene and Miocene. You can read more about this animal in this great post by Dr. Darren Naish (TetZoo, Scientific American).
Entelodont sculpture at the Montshire Museum; image taken by the author.
Close-up of the entelodont head; notice the plants behind the ear; image taken by the author.
Close-up of the entelodont mouth; the teeth are made of individual stones; image taken by the author.
Whether one sees them up-close or from a distance, these are impressive replicas. I marveled at their likenesses, awed that such detail and life could be constructed from plants.
“The vegetation he chooses for each sculpture has connections to that animal’s life,” explained Bob Raiselis, Exhibits Director at the museum, “[H]e’s using the materials of the natural world to create artistic works referencing creatures from that world that we can no longer see.”
American camel sculpture at the Montshire Museum; image taken by the author.
Sign at the museum with details about the sculpture and the plants used to create it; image taken by the author (it was a rainy day when I visited)
“They really do seem to come alive in David Goudy Science Park here at the Montshire,” Bob Raiselis wrote in an email, describing the outdoor area in which the sculptures were placed. “[W]e worked hard to place them in a way that might have made sense for each living creature. The animals in the exhibition wouldn’t all have been in one place at one time in history, but we think that there’s enough space in our outdoor landscape to include the creatures that Bob has created and their own time scales.”
By United States Geological Survey [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
“At the Montshire we like to point out the connections between what artists do and what scientists do – close observation, looking for connections, creative problem-solving, great use of imagination and visualization – and we’re pleased to have been able to show Bob Shannahan’s work here this summer,” wrote Bob Raiselis. “He’s an artist who has a deep interest in learning about the history of the creatures he models, and then he takes that history, the scientific facts available, and places his works in the context of where and how they lived. And he does it with such skill and sensitivity.”
Short-faced bear peering out above a hill at the Montshire Museum; image taken by the author.
Close-up of short-faced bear sculpture by Bob Shannahan at the Montshire Museum; courtesy of the Montshire Museum
Sculpture of Diatryma, an enormous bird that lived during the Eocene, at the Montshire Museum; the artist employed foam for the beak; image taken by the author.
“It was a long couple of days,” Bob Raiselis continued, “getting them moved onto the Museum grounds, placing them, moving them a bit, looking from different vantage points – but when we were done and that Wooly Mammoth was up on the hill in the middle of Science Park, it really was possible to imagine them living on the North American landscape.”
“It’s a very powerful thing, that kind of realization and engagement with what otherwise might be just a fact you heard somewhere about these creatures.”
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Many thanks to Bob Raiselis and Beth Krusi of the Montshire Museum!
The exhibit is available through September 7th, 2015.
Image of woolly mammoth sculpture by Bob Shannahan at the Montshire Museum; image courtesy of the Montshire Museum
