In his February 2020 letter, MSU Museum Director Mark Auslander shares reflections on landscape and memory, emerging out of his historical research on enslaved and free families of color in Washington, D.C. before the Civil War. Recently, he has been able to connect with the living descendants of one of

What “gifts” do we receive from the natural world, and how do we reciprocate this daily bounty? In his January 2020 letter, MSU Museum Director Mark Auslander reflects on the retirement of James Harding, one of the longest-serving staff members in the Museum’s history. For decades, Jim has been an

In his December 2019 letter, MSU Museum Director Mark Auslander ponders the ways in which Science On a Sphere, the Museum’s newly installed technological marvel, helps illuminate the dynamics of the approaching winter solstice. As we enter the darkest period of the year, Science On a Sphere is a powerful

In his November 2019 letter, MSU Museum director Mark Auslander reflects on varied ways in which the Museum works to nurture creative connections with public stakeholders across the arts and sciences. These partnerships allow us, together, to tell challenging and thought-provoking stories about where we have been and where we

In his October 2019 letter, MSU Museum Director Mark Auslander reflects on the Museum’s new curator of history, Dr. Julian Chambliss, a specialist in black superheroes, and on the museum’s recent award of an important Federal grant, allowing for the rehousing of thousands of animal specimens in our Natural Sciences

In his September 2019 letter, Museum Director Mark Auslander ponders the imminent arrival at the Museum of an articulated skeleton of an elephant bird, the largest bird ever known to exist. What lessons about evolution and adaptation might this gargantuan flightless bird help us learn? Why did these birds become

In his August 2019 letter, MSU Museum Director Mark Auslander reflects on how works of art may simultaneously dramatize a void of great loss while also serving as staging grounds for re-imagining productive futures. His examples are drawn from the Museum’s current exhibitions of Chilean arpilleras, highlighting the tumultuous era

In his July 2019 letter, MSU Museum Director Mark Auslander reflects on the MSU Museum team’s recent visit to the annual Smithsonian Affiliations conference, a gathering of the nation’s many museums affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian has declared 2020 to be the year of “Earth Optimism,” dedicated to

In his June 2019 letter, MSU Museum director Mark Auslander reflects on the Museum’s display of a dire wolf, a powerful predator here in North America that became extinct around 9,000 years ago. In recent years, the image of the “direwolf” has seized the global imagination, thanks to the novels

In his May 2019 letter, MSU Museum Director Mark Auslander reflects on some of the unexpected instances of creativity inspired by the Museum’s new exhibition, “Finding our Voice: Sister Survivors Speak.” Although chronicling a history of human rights violation and institutional failures, the exhibit is already proving to be a