In 1991, with the assistance of Garrison-Lull, LLC, the Yale Peabody
Museum conducted a general conservation assessment survey by recording
the environmental conditions in each of the 60 storerooms and 5
buildings (Kline Geology Laboratory, Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory,
Osborn Memorial Laboratory, 175 Whitney Avenue and the Museum itself)
that then housed the collections from its 11 divisions. The general
storage situation of each collection—mainly unsatisfactory, with some
under desperate conditions—was documented, and the causes of observed
deterioration were analyzed.
The results of this
assessment formed the basis for the Peabody Museum’s long-range
Conservation Plan, which addresses both the need for environmental
improvements and for collections-based projects. Reviewed and updated
regularly, the Conservation Plan was implemented with the assistance of
9 major conservation grants, including support from the National
Science Foundation and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
As a result of this long-range plan, a $35 million environmental
sciences facility was built on Science Hill adjacent to the Peabody
Museum of Natural History on the former site of the Bingham
Oceanographic Laboratory. The Class of 1954 Environmental Science
Center (ESC) brings together faculty from different University
departments and schools who share an interest in understanding the
earth’s environmental history and future. Opened in 2001, the ESC
houses research in the earth and environmental sciences, and provides
expanded space for collections of the adjoining Peabody Museum of
Natural History. At the interface between the collections at the
building’s core and the investigators and students surrounding it are
the Peabody divisions’ collections managers, whose job it is to
facilitate access to the collections while organizing and protecting
these materials for future generations.
The
3-story, 98,000-square-foot brick and limestone-trim structure is a
modern rendition of the Collegiate Gothic style, designed to complement
the French Gothic architecture of the current Peabody Museum building,
dedicated in 1925. The design architect for the project is David M.
Schwarz of David M. Schwarz Architectural Services, Inc., Washington,
D.C., and the architect of record is GSI Architects, Inc., Cleveland,
Ohio. A corner entry tower rises 6 stories and faces Sachem Street. The
building connects on all main floors to the Yale Peabody Museum, and on
the second floor with the C. Mahon Kline Geology Laboratory. It forms
an interior courtyard with the Yale Peabody Museum. The ESC replaces
the Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory, which was razed in 1999.
Construction of the building was made possible by a gift from the Class
of 1954, for whom it was named, and from Edward P. Bass, Yale College
’68), who also gave funds to establish the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies (created in 1991), also housed in the ESC.
In addition to the Yale Peabody Museum and YIBS, the new facility also serves the Yale departments of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Geology & Geophysics, and Anthropology, and the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
The demolition of the Bingham Lab—itself dedicated 40 years ago to
house the Museum’s marine and ornithology collections and research
facilities—facilitated and accelerated the move and reorganization of a
major portion of the Peabody’s 11 million objects and specimens. Among
these are the fossils of the divisions of Invertebrate Paleontology and Paleobotany; the Yale Herbarium specimens of the Division of Botany; the pinned insects of the Entomology Division; the wet and dry specimens of the Division of Invertebrate Zoology; and the Division of Vertebrate Zoology’s wet collections and osteology collections of birds, fish and mammals.
Coordinated and supervised by the Peabody’s collections managers and a
small army of volunteers and professional movers, this massive effort
was completed on schedule in the summer of 1999.
With
the construction of the ESC, the gradual but inexorable destruction of
specimens due to the stress created by annual swings of heat and
moisture, as well as the inevitable leaks of a building three-quarters
of a century old, has been halted. Almost half of the ESC houses
Peabody materials, assuring the integrity of those collections so that
future generations may learn from them in the classroom, laboratory and
exhibition hall.
Even so, many of our most
distinguished collections—including O.C. Marsh’s vertebrate
paleontology fossils and Hiram Bingham’s Machu Picchu artifacts—will
have to remain elsewhere in inferior conditions due to the lack of
space in the new building.
As stressed by then Peabody Museum Director Richard L. Burger at the
May 12, 1999 groundbreaking ceremony for the new building, the value of
the Yale Peabody Museum’s collections is not innate, but rather
something to be extracted through continual study, components in a
dynamic process, rather than passive resources. As Professor Burger
stated that day, “We can predict with confidence that if the
collections are merely left in storage, no matter how excellent the
environmental conditions, absolutely nothing will be learned. It is
this fundamental observation that justifies both the Peabody’s
existence and the ESF’s creation.”
Architect of Record
GSI Architects, Inc.
Structural Engineer
Spiegel Zamecnik & Shah, Inc.
Architect
David M. Schwarz Architectural Services, Inc.
Mechanical/Electrical Engineer
Vanderweil Engineers
Construction Manager
Linbeck Construction Corporation
Classrooms and Labs | Facilities Information
Yale Peabody Museum Collections | Natural History Art Exhibition
The Yale Peabody Museum’s collections are available to legitimate
researchers for scholarly use. Loans are issued to responsible
individuals at established institutions. Loans and access to the
collection can be arranged through the Collections Manager of the appropriate Division.
Volunteer Opportunities | Support the Peabody
