TUESDAY, AUGUST i4,1965
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
PAnV V
TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 1965 fl A rii~' ~'W~TI~'
rti3au ri Ev5
Museums
Feature Art, Music, Minerals, Zoology
Nearly 100,000 persons visited
University museums last year to
see exhibits ranging from an-
cient bones to a model of a
large part of the moon's surface.
For those who have never looked
into the threatening Jaws of a
mastodon or a water shrew, the
University Museum is the place
to go.
Occupying two floors and a
balcony, the museum contains
a variety of displays.
The "Hall of Evolution," situ-
ated on the second floor, presents
the plants and animals of past
geological eras.
A skeleton of a "Duckbilled"
dinosaur has a scull weighing 250
pounds and attracts quite a bit
of attention.
Preserved Mastodon
A mastodon, the best preserved
and most complete ever found in
Michigan, sits wearily on its
haunches waiting for visitors to
come up to it on the second
floor. Mounted proudly on the
right wall is ' a pterodactyl, an
extinct flying reptile, with a wing
span of almost 14 feet.
On the balcony, there is a
synoptic series of Michigan plants
and animals.
Environmental influences af-
fecting the life and growth of
plants and animals are shown on
the fourth floor displays. There
are also displays on anthropology,
geology and astronomy along
with a planetarium.
New minerology displays have
been set up this year. The mu-
seum has also done much work
on a new ecology exhibit.
Other Museums
The University museum is not
the only one on campus which
has public displays.
The Kelsey Museum of Archae-
ology contains an extensive col-
lection from the Mediterranean
world and from the Near East.
Most of the relics on display
are from expeditions run by the
University. Seven expeditions were,
sponsored by the University in
the first quarter of this century.
between 1925 and 1936 two major
expeditions worked at Karanis in
Egypt and Seleucia in Iraq.
The exhibit shows artifacts,
photographs and models of these
expeditions,
'U' Expedition
Since the end of the war, an ex-
pedition from the museum has
been working at St. Catherine's
Monastery at Mt. Sinai in Egypt.
The monastery, built around 550
A.D. by Emperor Justinian, is of
particular importance because it
houses the only known icons that
survived the eighth and ninth
century iconoclast heresy. The
expedition is involved in photo-
graphic work which when de-
veloped will be put on exhibition
in Ann Arbor.
During the past two years, an
expedition from the University
has been working in Egypt at
Karanis.
These expeditions supply the
Kelsey Museum with its extensive
displays. Jewelry, artwork, food-
stuffs, coins, glass, pottery and
writing materials can be found
throughout the two floors of the
museum.
Art
The University also has many
displays of art which will greet
new and returning students this
fall.
A large variety of periods and
styles in art has been featured in
both special displays and the per-
manent collection at the Uni-
versity art museum.
This spring, 100 Contemporary
American Drawings, an exhibition
sponsored by the University,
The Stearns Collection of Mu-
sical Instruments shows musical
instruments as an art form.
The collection, housed on the
second floor of Hill Aud., shows
instruments of Renaissance Eu-
rope and the Far East when they
had more than just a functional
use.
The collection includes colorful
ancestors of guitars with many
layers of woodcarvings, highly
decorated and ornate instruments
of 17th and 18th century France
and Italy and strange instruments
of the Far East.
Hard to Find
"Some instruments in the col-
lection are hard to find in their
native countries today," collec-
tion curator Prof. Robert Warner
of the music school notes.
"We use some of the instru-
ments in our concerts," William
Hettrick, assistant curator, adds.
The concerts, directed by Prof.
Warner, are presented by faculty
and students who play medieval
and Renaissance melodies. Their
compositions use viols and voice,
the viols being six- and seven-
stringed instruments shaped like
violins, but not
to them.
closely related
An 18th century Italian viol-
the Viola d'Amore-is on display.
Hettrick notes its "tremendous
resonance" made possible by
strings that vibrate when other
strings are played.
Also shown are several tiny
violins used by dancing masters of
the 17th century. The master
would take the tiny violin out of
his pocket and use it in conduct-
ing an orchestra.
In former centuries, there were
many freak instruments, Hettrick
remarks. One such instrument on
display is a 19th century cane
clarinet. The idea was that a man.
taking a walk might get an urge to
play a tune. If he had his cane
clarinet, he could stop and play.
A French violin on display has
a carved head of a man with a
handsome beard. Some of the in-
struments have had painting and
many have intricate design work.
Tuba Ancestor
Among the instruments is a
French musical serpent, an an-
cestor of the tuba, used first in
churches. An ophicheide from
Spain is serpent-headed and was
used for its terrifying aspect.
An old French horn on display
has a movable mouthpiece. By
changing the location of the
mouthpiece, the musician would
get different effects.
Beetle-shaped lutes of great
craftsmanship as the terobo of
17th Century Italy are also on
display.
Graphics
In the lobby of the Undergrad-
uate Library a small area is laid
aside as a museum. Lithographs,
photographs, e n g r a v i n g s and
drawings are continually dis-
played.
The exhibit is usually changed
every few weeks. The better ex-
hibits last year included graphic
works by such masters as Auguste
Renoir, Eduoard Degas, Pablo Pi-
casso, Ben Shahn and Henri
Matisse.
The graphic works come from
the University collections as well
as from Cranbrook Institute of
Arts and other museums in the
Ann Arbor area.
Picturesque and Interesting-Kelsey Museum
brought to the students examples
of varied approaches to this
twentieth century art expression.
The art museum also holds ex-
change programs with Cranbrook
Academy of Art in which well-
known modern painting and sculp-
ture are displayed.
Its permanent collection con-
tains samples from Byzantine
bronzework to the rich and de-
tailed works of the Flemish mas-
ters. Modern pieces such as Picas-
so's "Horse" and sculptures by
Jean Arp are also a part of the
collection.
T h e University's collections
began with a former acting presi-
dent, Harry S. Frieze, who served
as curator of the collections until
his death in 1889. On a Euro-
pean trip he purchased a collec-
tion of engravings, photographs
to illustrate his lectures an the
and copies of classical sculpture
Arts of Classical Antiquity.
First Donation
The first important original work
was donated to the University by
alumni in 1862. It was a sculp-
ture entitled "Nydia," by the
American sculptor Randolph.
Rogers, who spent his youth in
America and who later became
one of the leading figures in the
Classical Revival.
The University collections moved
from one building on campus to
another, until they were finally
established in Alumni Memorial
Hall on its completion in 1910.
In the meantime, almost 500
paintings by European artists of
the 19th century had been re-
quested by the University by Hen-
ry C. Lewis of Coldwater.
Collections of Egyptian antiqui-
ties of the first to third centuries
after Christ were expanded by
archaeological expeditions of Prof.
Francis W. Kelsey. They were the
beginnings of the Kelsey Museum
of Archaeology.
In 1946, the Museum of Art
became an administrative unit,
and the University embarked on
an acquisition program. The Mar-
garet Watson Parker bequest
provided for over 600 items to be
given to the University. This is
"the most important single col-
lection of works of art acquired
by the University to date," Prof.
Charles H. Sawyer, director of the
art museum says.
Recently, the museum's acquisi-
tion program was extended to in-
clude early Western art since the
Sixth Century A.D., Near and Far
Eastern art including India, but
with emphasis on Japan and
China.
Make WAHR'S your
headquarters
for all your textbook
and college supplies
SERVING U OF M STUDENTS SINCE 1883
S
I
Be a
Goatfooted Lame Balloonman
come running to-
ACTItI 2 SDAY
Tired of booking?
Tired of wasting time?
Just plain bored?
Then come to
and learn about clubs and
activities at Michigan!