Auburn's Natural History Museum hosted its first open house, Saturday, Oct. 12.
Jason Bond, director of the museum, said the previous location did not allow for the museum to be open to the public for many reasons, one being for safety issues.
The museum's new biodiversity center, located at the corner of Mell Street and Samford Avenue, finished construction in April.
Bond said the museum's open house timing coincided with the new building.
"We just moved into the building over the summer. Construction was completed in April and this homecoming seemed like a good weekend. People will be kind of relaxed about the game and they will be tailgating early," Bond said. "Our intentions are, particularly during football season, to have the museum open at least a couple of times over the course of the fall. We may not achieve that this year but we definitely will next year."
Auburn's Natural History Museum offers a multitude of specimens. The open house showcased many of the exotic specimens and even brought live ones to display. Bond said the live collection are held in Funchess Hall.
"There (were) tarantulas, snakes, big lizards, frogs and those sorts of things. We (pulled) a lot of stuff out and we (had) a lot of curators and collection managers here to answer questions about specimens and biodiversity in the Southeast."
Students and faculty members responded positively to the new building and being able to plan visits.
"I love animals and history," Lauren Romano, sophomore in pre-elementary education.It would appeal to people of all ages in the community."
Jake Hoffman, junior in chemical engineer, agreed with Lauren's statement.
"I am definitely interested and plan to go to one of the open houses this year," Hoffman said.
Bond said the museum's hope is to bring in more school groups and other people for tours.
Because the museum offers such a wide range of different specimens, the time and effort it takes to accumulate them all doesn't just happen over night.
Bond offered insight into how they manage all the specimens they have gathered.
Bond said there are a number of curators in the department of biological science, who have appointments in the museum.
"Many of them do specimen-based research, which means they use specimens they have collected daily in their research projects," Bond said.
Craig Guyer is the curator of amphibians and reptiles.
John Armbruster is the curator of fishes. Goertzen is the curator for plants. Geoffrey Hill is the curator for birds.
"There have been facility members before them who were here 25 to 50 years ago, so our specimens go back 75 years or more," Bond said. "Things that were collected a long time and things that are more recent."
Bond said he just returned from two and a half weeks in southern Africa and Dominica where he collected specimens such as beetles and spiders. He said those specimens are on display as well.
The open house provided a chance for the Auburn community to support the new Biodiversity Center.
"The open house is really a unique opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes, see the collections, meet the curators, and to get an idea of what's here and what sort of resources we have available," Bond said.
Those who missed Saturday's open house are encouraged to attend future open houses this fall.
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