The Discovery of the Historic Herbarium in 1999























































































An Article by Hillsdale College Professor, Daniel M. Fisk From the Hillsdale Herald of
March 20, 1879

The Hillsdale College Museum:  Its History, Donors, Growth,
Present Condition and Outlook (Hillsdale Herald, 1879)

The Old Cabinet

It was a frequent remark at the time of the college fire [1873] that the burning of the
"cabinet" was one of the most serious losses, be¬cause the collections could not be
replaced.  The remark had much of truth in it.  A museum, like a library, grows slowly,
espe¬cially when accumulated chiefly by donation.

So far as we know, there was no "catalogue" of the old cabinet collections, so the
number of specimens burned is not known.  The specimens were arranged in some
eight or nine double cases in a long room in West Hall, lower floor.  They were uniformly
mounted on black cherry blocks, about 3 x 3 inches, sustaining yellow card labels.  
There must have been several hundred simple minerals, and the collection was
particularly rich in foreign ores of iron and polished agates.  The number of
paleontological specimens was very meager, although there were a few good Ward
casts of the larger fossil animals.  The herbarium numbered some hundred plants,
mounted on all sizes of paper, and named in no uniform manner.  There were few
"curiosities":  a set of inferior physiological charts, and a magnificent, articulated
skeleton.

Just previous to the fire a vigorous effort was being made to in¬crease the Natural
History collections.  Dr. E. K. Abbott of California had brought back to his Alma Mater a
fine box of mis¬cellaneous specimens.  Three hundred bird skins had been prepared
for mounting by Rev. D. D. Mitchell, the students, and the in¬structor of the department.  
Alcoholic specimens were being added, and the whole cabinet was in process of
removal to more commodious quarters, when the 6th of March burned all that was
combustible and buried the rest in the ashes and bricks of old West Hall.

After The Fire

In answer to appeals for specimens, sent out by Prof. Fowler, as chairman of a faculty
committee, several valuable boxes were soon received.  Mr. H. C. Baggerly of the class
of '64, Corunna, Michigan, was the first to respond to the misfortune of the col¬lege and
shared with it his private collection.  Messrs, Tuttle and Harwood, of Lincoln, Nebraska,
followed with a valuable dona¬tion.  Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, gave 69
ores, etc., and during the summer following the fire there were selected from the Brown
University museum about 100 minerals and 300 named and classified shells.  Prof.
Alexander Agassiz sent 13 sharks from his father's captures in the Hassler expedition,
and Vice Chancellor Dawson of Mcgill College, Montreal, donated an inter¬esting suit of
Psylophyta and allied Devonian plants from Gaspé.

These collections were stored for a while in No. 38 East Hall, on temporary shelves.  
When this was invaded by the cutting off of the building for the east wall of the new
college hall, they were removed and boxed up.  Subsequently most were used before a
class in No. 1 basement of College Hall, previous to the completion of Knowlton Hall.

Several people made the interesting discovery that Hillsdale College was poor after the
fire, but nowhere was this more appar¬ent than to the homeless new museum.  The
college had no money for cases, and none were built till four years after the fire.  The
unavoidable injury done the specimens during this time is not a pleasant subject to
recall.

Growth

Despite the unfortunate condition of the collections in 1876-7 the museum still persisted
in growing.  Miss Libbie Cilley, foreign missionary, who had been a faithful worker in the
"bird and insect campaign" of 1873, on the return of Rev. James L. Phillips from India
sent to the college two large boxes of India specimens as the result of Rev. Mr.
Marshall's, Dr. Bacheler's and her own col¬lecting.  The department instructor visited the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan with the legislative excursion party of 1875 and made a
somewhat extensive collection of copper and iron specimens, with the surrounding
rocks.  Rev. L. D. Boynton brought back a valuable lithological collection from East
Tennessee, and the Smithsonian Institute donated 256 species of fresh water mollusks.
 The names of a large number of individual donors appear on the catalogue, including
repeated donations by Prof. Mauck of reptiles, Ohio fos¬sils, iron ores, etc., New York
fossils by C. E. Mitchell of '75, minerals by Hermon E. Cook, J. T. Eggers, O. G. Augir, '77,
F. H. Bailey, '73, Edith Walbridge, '78, Prof. A. C. Rideout, C. C. Durgin, '80, J. A. Weitz, '76,
R. L. Stillman, '76, C. C. McDermid, '65, D. Beckwith and others.

Hon. Henry Hall, on removing from the city left for the museum a suite of thirty or more
beautiful lavas from the Sandwich Islands, illustrating the stalagmitic forms of dropping
and cooling lava, native sulphur, etc.  The Amphictyon and Union societies donated also
their specimens that survived the fire, which, though not nu¬merous, were quite
valuable.  Mr. Cassius Winsor gave a very con¬siderable collection of Trenton fossils,
the gathers of his school days, and Col. Fowler of the board of trustees, secured, while
in Missouri, a good collection of Joplin galenite and the country rock that carries the lead.

Less than a dozen specimens were worth preserving of the cabinet that went down in
the fire, although more than a hundred were dug out from the ruins in the hope of finding
some ores that were not discolored.

The New Museum

The room assigned to the Natural History collections in Knowlton Hall is 48 x 30 x 20 and
is on the ground floor.  A gallery goes entirely around the room, giving virtually two stories
for wall cases.  The room is lighted by eight windows and entered from the hall on about
the level of the gallery floor.  

The first wall case was built June, 1878, at the expense of Prof. Bruce Hunting, '73, of
Berea College, Kentucky.  The second case was put up at the expense of Hon. J. C.
Patterson, '64, Marshall, and the three following from the proceeds of the lecture of Prof.
Collier, '64, arranged for by L. P. Reynolds.

The glazed sashes of the Amphictyon book-cases were saved at the time of the fire, and
in June, '78, donated to the museum, as also were so many of the Alpha sashes as
were saved.  Small gifts of money from many graduates, in answer to an appeal for the
museum, enabled the curator to have several cases finished, to which these sashes
were hung; so that Commencement of 1878 there were eight gallery cases completed,
covered by eighteen glass doors, and one temporary case, 30 x 6 feet, below, without
glass, beside the herbarium.



Recent Donations

The mineralogy class of 1877-8 set a good example to their succes¬sors by purchasing
a $50 collection of rocks, covering almost the entire list of primitive rocks of the United
States, selected by Prof. C. H. Hitchcock of the New Hampshire state geological sur¬vey.

The summer vacation of '78 was chiefly devoted by the curator in collecting for the
museum in New Hampshire, Canada and New York.

Rev. A. A. Myers of this city, an assiduous student of nature, has added one of the richest
collections as the result of his Kentucky geologizing - an extensive suit of quartz geodes
and calcareous incrustations, stalactites, fossil animals and plants.  Were all the friends
of the college as faithful, as fortunate and as gener¬ous as Mr. Myers, the museum
would soon be full.

On the death of Mr. H. C. Baggerly, at the suggestion of the fac¬ulty of the college, his
father made a further donation to the "Baggerly Collection" of several valuable additions,
including the head of an Egyptian mummy and the skeleton of a Chinaman.

Dr. Daniel Beebe, who has always been greatly interested in the growth of the museum,
has several times made contributions, the latest of which is a brace of excellently
preserved flint-lock holster pistols.

Mr. Richard Lawrence of India has solved the difficulty of sending specimens to the
museum by repeatedly forwarding by mail the skins of venomous snakes - the cobra di
capello, etc.

The elegant butternut and cherry Union Hall book and cabinet case that has stood
useless for five years was, in December, generously given to the college by the society.  
The original cost is said to have been $250, and the case has been put up bodily in the
north gallery with a loss of only the base, for want of height, afford¬ing seven sections
and furnishing the most ornamental and best lighted case in the room.  Credit is due
Messrs, J. S. Pulsifer and H. B. Mead of this city for their donation of work in putting up
this latest and best addition to the museum.

Lee E. Brown

No historical sketch of the growth of the museum would be complete without the
recognition of the large donations of Lee E. Brown, Paleontologist, of the class of '75,
West Bethany, N.Y.  More than two-thirds of the paleontological collections now
belonging to the college are either directly the collection of, or secured by Mr. Brown, and
all have the benefit of his naming.  Mr. Brown, follow¬ing his graduation, was two years
or more with Prof. James Hall, state geologist of New York, and both while with him and
much more since has never forgotten his Alma Mater.  It is perhaps not to much to say
that Mr. Brown has given one year's time to collecting and naming specimens for the
museum since his graduation, and that gratuitously.  The fossils bearing the "credit" of
"Lee E. Brown Collection" are now more than four times as numerous as all the
paleontolgocal specimens of the old college cabinet.  And with gratitude we are able to
write, "The end is not yet."  If one alumnus shows so much loyalty, will not all the rest of
the alumni show a little?


The Museum As It Is

In judging of the museum it should be borne in mind that five years ago there was
neither specimen, shelf nor room, and that the college has sever spent one dollar for the
purchase of specimens since the fire, nor but a small amount for the furnishing of cases
and paying of freights.  The specimens have all been donated ei¬ther by
undergraduates, alumni and patrons, or collected by the instructor.  It is a matter of
surprise and congratulations, on the part of returning absentees, to see a collection fully
twice the size of the former cabinet, built up in five short years out of nothing.  It speaks
well for the graduates of the college to observe that the names of the donors are chiefly
alumni.

On entering the museum, the Bruce Hunting case stands at the left, sections 2111 and
2121.  (The sections are numbered for use, of the four figures, e.g., 2864, the 2 locates
the specimen in the gallery in distinction from a floor case (1).  The 8 refers to case eight,
"Union case," the 6 to the section of that case, and 4 to the shelf, counting from the
bottom.  The serial catalogue num¬bers are always in King's yellow or Emerald green
paint, upon the specimen.  This case contains the Smithsonian contribution of fresh
water gasteropids, and the Brown University Lamellibranchs, etc., in all about 550
entries, all named and recorded.  The next case, 2211-6, "Laurentian," contains eighty
three excellent speci¬mens from the Laurentian rocks, chiefly from New Hampshire.  It is
interesting to think, while looking at the "rough and half-mixed gneisses" of this section,
that these are the oldest rocks known to science, existing substantially as they now are,
ages before Alps or Himalayas were lifted into existence.  The interesting study of the
eozoic rocks has only within a very few years taken its place along with the consideration
of the later rocks, and Hillsdale students are now able to "go to nature" as it was in this
far-off day when the earth was young.

Case 2221-6, "Montalban," contains a good selection of the highly metamorphoric rocks
of this ancient period, 94 in number.  The most interesting series is the graphite-bearing
rocks that give us the hint of an extinct fossil vegetation of which no trace remains save
this "greasy blackness," the extreme stage of carbon metamor¬phism.  A single
specimen of especial interest is the rough, tem¬pest-gnawed "top-stone" of Mr.
Washington, N. H., secured by Rev. Milo J. Coldren, '75, and Prof. J. H. Butler.

Case 2311-6 and 2321-6 contain the principal part of the mineral¬ogy class collection
from the New Hampshire state geological sur¬vey, 190 specimens, "Labrador Huronian"
and later rocks.  This gift is worth far more to the college than the $50 that it cost.  A
printed catalogue of all the New Hampshire specimens accompanies the collection.

Section 2331-6 holds the beginnings (136 specimens) of a collec¬tion of Silurian
fossils.  There are many friends of the college whose homes are on Silurian country
rock, who should at once see to it that this case becomes too small for this important
age of paleozoic history.  The case numbers several valuable species from the private
cabinet of Prof. James Hall; they are from the lower Helderberg formation of New York.

Devonian Fossils

Cases 2411 to 2431 contain much of the Lee Brown collections of the Corniferous,
Hamilton, Chemung and Catskill periods - 424 en¬tries.  Two excellent specimens of
the cauda galli fucoid appear on the upper "corniferous" shelf (2416) and the general
collection is rich in some rare devonian plants from Quebec, the gift of Principal Dawson
of Montreal.  Excellent trilobites of the Hamilton shales present all that could be desired
of the external appearance of these early articulates.  Prof Hall has also added to the
richness of this case by many specimens.  This is one of the most valuable cases in the
room.

The southwest corner case, 2511-6, contains a part of the car¬boniferous fossils and
rocks, seventy-five specimens.  Two magnif¬icent slabs of fern impressions, belonging
here, the gifts of Miss Lillie Weldon, will be found in case 2931.  The carboniferous
col¬lection over and above the calamite shales of Mr. Brown (exhaustive and very perfect)
is much too small.  There are many graduates in localities that will enable them to
remedy this de¬fect.

The "mesozoic" shelves hold but 12 specimens.  It is to be hoped that someone will
come to the just conclusion that this number is a trifle small for a whole geological era.

The structural case 2621 has now 138 entries, but this number will soon be largely
increased from specimens now on hand that are in process of labeling, numbering and
recording.

The case of Indian implements numbers 130 entries, not including the very recent gift of
Miss Nellie Phillips, '75.

Union Case

Passing to the Union case, the first section, 2811, contains mostly 223 "silicates."  There
are many very beautiful specimens, but, like all collections that have "come together"
unsystemati¬cally, there are gaps in the scientific completeness that the min¬eralogy
classes of each year feel sorely.

In general it may be said that there are no specimens in the mu¬seum that are not used
in class work.  They are not merely pretty stones to be looked at through glass, but actual
objects of study and individual handling.  Every topic touched upon by textbook or lecture
that has no material illustration to appeal to in the cabi¬net is so much loss to the pupil.  
A collection of 275 minerals, covering the entire ground gone over by the mineralogy
class each year, is purchasable of S. Stadtmueller, New Haven, Ct., for $100, under the
approval of Profs. Dana and Brush, - (there are special terms to this museum in
consideration of the college misfortune.)  It is earnestly hoped that some friend of the
college will honor himself and help the college by the purchase of this collection before
another year.

Section 2821 holds a worthy collection (172) of copper, zinc, lead and iron ores.  These
are all good and leave little to be desired in this especial field.  The upper shelves are
well worth careful study by the visitor to the museum.

Section 2831 is wholly filled with the "Rev. A. A. Myers collec¬tion."

Any college museum might be proud of these 87 geodes and calcites.  There was
nothing in the former cabinet that surpassed these in beauty.

The open section next in order is being filled with alcoholic preparations of reptiles,
fishes, etc.  The collection is small, and feels quite as keenly as other departments the
need of money for the purchase of jars and alcohol.

The Agassiz selachians, Miss Cilley's scorpions, centipedes and deadly snakes of
Hindostan will be found here, as also Prof. Mauck's reptilian collection.  The mummy's
head of the "Baggerly collection is in an excellent state of preservation, being still
wrapped in 'mummy shred.'"  The splendid panther skin from California, presented by
Rev. Henry E. Whipple, along with many valuable Pacific shells, echinoderms, etc., will
be found here.  The row of skulls on shelf 2845 are four Hindoo, one mound builder, one
Chinese, and one Irish, presented by Miss Cilley, Mr. Roscius Whipple and Mr. Hermon
E. Cook.

Section 2851-7 is devoted to a general zoological collection, which before the 1879
Commencement will greatly outgrow its case room.  The jaws of a Bengal shark, the
elaborately embroidered skunk skin used by chief "Spotted Tail" as a tobacco pouch,
four cobra skins, the curous insects of India, two fine Venus fans from Florida (R. L.
Stillman), and rare star fishes from the Pacific, a crocodile, walrus tooth, gar pike, are of
especial interest.

Section 2861 is filled with very interesting miscellaneous archeo¬logical collection from
Hindostan, California, Africa and other countries.  The ear, nose and neck ornaments,
the anklets and bracelets are from India.  The bow and arrows are Indian.  The rice
huller, spinning wheel, specimens of Hindoo writing, sacred shasters, etc., are the gift of
the Hillsdale College students now missionaries.  The shells and weapons in the
bottom of the case were mostly Amphictyon and Union property.

The last section of Union case 2871, finely displays Hon. Mr. Hall's Hawaii lavas, sixty in
number, also specimens of native sulphur, and some interesting allotropic forms of
carbon.

Case 2911-2931 contains unclassified, large size specimens in¬sects, etc., but is to be
devoted to ornithology, and it is hoped the zeal and perseverance of the present class in
practical biol¬ogy will vouch for its filling during the spring months.  Birds, eggs, etc.,
solicited; next, also which absolutely identified as to species of bird which used them.

The hand-rail around the gallery is to be economised, as in most museums, by a
shallow show case for shells, birds eggs and in¬sects, reaching entirely around the
room.  This case will be built when the museum's ship comes in, and it is to be hoped
that some of the carpenters of the city will hasten that arrival by greatly needed donation
of a few days work.

The Museum Floor

There are but two cases below, although there is the same amount of room as above for
wall cases, and the center of the room for table cases.  The Herbarium case, 13 x 6,
containing 192 compart¬ments was mostly built previous to the fire, but had not been put
in West Hall; it now occupies the southwest corner and when com¬pleted (doors are
wanting) will be a case good enough and large enough for fifty years to come.  There are
probably from two to three hundred pressed plants ready for mounting on herbarium
pa¬per.  These are in part the gift of Miss Libbie Cilley, (India flora), the instructor of
botany (Swiss flora), (these European plants were named at the British museum), Miss
Jenkins (Wisconsin flora), and student work in Michigan plants.  It is a matter of serious
regret that the department has not the means to make these valuable collections
available for class use.

There are also in the museum fourteen large photographs con¬tributed by Prof. Hayden,
U.S. geologist, illustrating the cañons of Colorado, geysers, etc.  From the same source
the department has just received the splendid geological atlas of Colorado.

The museum is also supplied with more than a hundred colored anatomical drawings of
great excellence.  Prof. Garner's work is represented in the museum by the very excellent
oil paintings - four of:  the azoic age, the age of coal plants, the age of rep¬tiles, the
mammalian age, and six oil sketches of fossils.  A geo¬logical map, 13 x 6, after
Hitchcock and Blake, occupies the north wall beneath the gallery.

The museum without doubt now contains not less than 3000 separate entries, 2700
serial numbers being booked on the catalogue.  The work of classifying, naming,
mounting and arranging the balance is being pushed as fast as possible, but it will be
remembered that this work, that makes so little show when accomplished, is after all
very laborious and goes slowly single handed.

Donors to the museum can rest assured that the department is now fully able to protect
by glass all contributions for the immediate future, and it cannot be true that, where so
much has been accom¬plished with so narrow means, there will not arise friends to the
work who will give what the museum so gravely needs and frankly expects - money to
add cases below, to purchase specimens to more perfectly preserve collections now on
hand.

During the vacation just closing, the museum has been tinted and painted, the cases
lettered and numbered, many hundred specimens unboxed, labelled, and the whole
classified and rearranged.

What Can Be Done?

No friend of the college is powerless to aid the museum in some way or other, by rocks,
animals, minerals, eggs, insects, things curious and things useful - especially money.  
All heavy specimens should come long or short distances by freight, and not by
ex¬press.  Bird skins and many valuable single mineral specimens can be sent by mail.  
If every one interested in the successful in¬struction of the college would only feel that a
good library is worth an additional professor, and a good museum worth another, they
would certainly do their small or large part to endow these silent chairs.  That the present
museum is very creditable to the college, "considering" is not a subject of dispute.  Why
is it too much to expect that this summer there shall be a movement all along the line?  
that each alumnus will do what he can, students and patrons ditto?

Contributions are promised in the immediate future by Mr. J. E. Williams, '75, Galion, O.,
Dr. E. K. Abbot, '69, Salinas, Cal., Rev. H. E. Whipple, Kibesillah, Cal., Dr. O. R. Bacheler,
India and L. E. Brown always.  Let the roll increase and if nothing else suggests
commute your sentence in the current coin of the realm.

Those who would like to contribute, but are not certain what to do or how specimens are
to be prepared are invited to correspond with the curator.  Mineral specimens ought to be
4 x 4 x 1 or 3 x 3 x 1 - better larger than smaller; rocks the same.  The name of the
lo¬cality is often a very important item in the value of a specimen, but not always.  
Duplicates, or even a larger number of one kind of good specimens are often just as
valuable as different kinds, since they are in constant demand in exchange.  Twenty
first-class specimens of one kind are not necessarily too many.
Established 1873;  Dr. Anthony L. Swinehart, Curator
An 1880's photograph of the
Hillsdale College Museum as it
was in Knowlton Hall.  The
students posed for the photo
and are "responding" to the
bobcat specimen.  A fox
specimen is visible inside the
cabinets in the rear.  Click on
any image for a larger view.
An 1880's photograph of the
historic Hillsdale College
Museum in Knowlton Hall,
showing one of the display
cabinets.  Many of the
specimens shown, including
the crocodilian skulls and
birds,have survived and are
housed in the new museum in
the Strosacker Science Center.  
Click on any image for a larger
view.
The Daniel M. Fisk Museum of Natural History at Hillsdale College
The Hillsdale College Museum is one of the
oldest museums in the state of Michigan.  It
was established in 1873 and re-named the
Daniel M. Fisk Museum of Natural History in
2008, in honor of its first known curator.  
The museum must have been well regarded
in the late 1800's, as after a devastating fire
that destroyed much of the old museum in
1874, many institutions, including the
Smithsonian, McGill and Brown
Universities, and Wabash College, came to
Hillsdale's aid by donating specimens to
rebuild the collections.  After Professor
Fisk's careful stewardship ended, the
museum fell into disarray and many
specimens were lost or given away.  In
1998, Dr. Anthony Swinehart, began to
reassemble the collections, which were
scattered across campus, until 2008 when
Dr. Frank Steiner, Chair of Biology
designated a large room in the Strosacker
Science Center as space for the revitalized
museum.
Professor Daniel M. Fisk of
Hillsdale College in the late
1800's.  He was hired in
1872.
The Hillsdale College Museum – Rediscovered!

  Historic Knowlton Hall yielded one last
contribution to the sciences at Hillsdale College
before it fell to the wrecking ball in 1999. Deep in
the recesses of the upper level, in a remote space
in the ceiling rafters, nearly 1,500 invaluable plant
specimens dating back to the 1840s were
discovered in a chaotic pile among volumes of old
scientific journals and four cobra snake skins.
These specimens, from 16 states and several
foreign countries and collected by world-famous
scientists, including George Vasey of the USDA and
founder of the United States National Museum,
composed part of the Hillsdale College Museum,
probably began in the 1840s. Originally housed in
East Hall, the museum collections were assumed
to have been destroyed in the 1874 fire that ruined
the building. Most of the collection did burn in the
fire, but a small portion of the plant specimens was
apparently salvaged after the fire and moved to
Knowlton Hall, eventually making their way to the
dusty rafters via a small door near the ceiling.
Thanks to the efforts of members of the biology
faculty and students, these discoveries helped to
fill in some gaps in the biology department’s past,
and prompted the re-establishment of the Hillsdale
College Museum.
  Shortly before the 1874 fire, a vigorous effort was
underway to increase the Natural History
collections of the College. Professor Daniel M. Fisk,
new to the College, found himself in a rudimentary
laboratory sorely lacking biology equipment. Full of
fresh ideas, he set out to establish a departmental
collection. Several hundred "simple minerals,
foreign ores of iron and agate, plants, animals, a
few paleontological specimens and a human
skeleton made up the bulk of the museum." No
catalog of the specimens existed, so no one ever
really knew how much was burned.
  What remained of the museum was moved to the
top floor of the then brand-new Knowlton Hall after
the fire. A faculty appeal went out for donations of
specimens to re-establish the collection. Friends of
Hillsdale and faculty from other colleges and
institutions such as the Smithsonian, responded
generously, donating everything from Upper
Peninsula copper and iron specimens, to 256
specimens of fresh water mollusks, to over 30
beautiful lavas from the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).
A herbarium case included plants from India,
Africa, Europe and the United States. An American
geologist donated 14 large photographs illustrating
the canyons and geysers of Colorado, and over 100
colored anatomical drawings. Six oil sketches of
fossils and four oil paintings of the geological eras
complemented the specimen collections.
  Not much more is known about the fate of
Hillsdale’s museum once it lost the careful and
faithful stewardship of Professor Fisk. Space
limitations and the need for more teaching and

















   Several scientific journals, packaged in
envelopes bearing his name, were nestled among
the plant specimens. The most recent newspapers
associated with the journals bear the date of 1931.
The herbarium collection must have made its way
to the upper reaches of Knowlton Hall around that
time.
   Biology professor Dr. Don Toczek recommended
that the recesses of Knowlton be searched days
before the building came down.  When Professors
Toczek and Swinehart climbed a ladder and
peered through a dark, dusty crawlspace some 70
years after Professor Barber last tread there, the
botanical time capsule revealed the secrets of the
Hillsdale College Museum
  Biology students and professors are now in the
process of re-establishing the Hillsdale College
Museum, re-named the Daniel M. Fisk Museum of
Natural History,  in the Strosacker Science
Building. The historic zoology collections,
scattered throughout the science buildings, have
been thoroughly cleaned after suffering much
In 1999, world-class hunter, Mr.
Dale Wolff (top) donated a large
collection of North American,
Indian, and African animal
specimens to the Fisk Museum.
Hillsdale College students are
assembling a horse skeleton,
donated by Mrs. Cindy Hoard,
for display in the new Fisk
Museum.
Historic Knowlton Hall in the
late 1800's
Historic Knowlton Hall prior
to its demolition in 1999.
The red arrow in this photo
points to the tiny door at the
very top of Knowlton Hall
where the 1,404 plant
specimens and other
artifacts were found.
Dr. Anthony Swinehart, left, and Dr. Donald
Toczek, right, marvel at the find of vaulable
specimens in the attic of Knowlton Hall.
office space surely resulted in the
dismantling of the museum. Many
specimens seen as useful for
teaching were scattered
throughout the various science
laboratories. Rumor has it that in
the late 1960s, a large component
of the museum was laid out on
Knowlton lawn, free for the taking
by interested students and
by-passers.
  The survival of the plant collection
can probably be attributed to
Professor Bertram Barber, the
professor behind the creation of
Slayton Arboretum.
Dr. Swinehart's students
carry many stacks of folders
bearing valuable plant
specimens from the 1800's
out of condemned Knowlton
Hall, to their new home in the
Strosacker Science Center.
neglect over the years. The newly
discovered herbarium materials
have been restored and dedicated
as the Daniel M. Fisk Herbarium,
after its founder.
 Dr. Swinehart, Curator of the re-
vitalized museum said, “An active
natural history museum at
Hillsdale College will be an
invaluable asset to students and
faculty as a resource for both
teaching and research. And it is
rather appropriate that an
institution such as Hillsdale that
values tradition and promotes the
liberal arts takes a renewed
interest in natural history and
taxonomy, when there is currently
an unfounded disappearance of
such disciplines in many other
colleges and universities.”
A photo of Knowlton Hall during demolition in
1999.  The red arrow indicated the door to
the space where the herbarium and other
artifacts of the old museum were discovered.
Click on any image for a larger view
Dr. Swinehart and biology student
Erin Mason examine specimens
from the Fisk Herbarium.
Several special collections in
the Fisk Museum include
numerous beautiful bird mounts
(above) and a large collection of
Pleistocene mollusk fossils
from Florida (below).
Counter
Current Events
Assembly of a horse
skeleton by biology majors
James Howard and Jeremy
Davis is complete.
The Scrivens Mastodont
Display has been
completed and includes
a 30 minute video of the
excavation and research.
A 16-ft mural of an
Amazonian aquatic scene,
painted by Dr. Swinehart in
1993.
Virtual Museum
Columns exhibiting fossils
from earths geologic time
periods are being
constructed.