Details of our Institution:
My Name: Dr Michael A Raath (Curator)
Museum Name: Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological
Research
Affiliated University: University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa
Student population: approx 20 000 students in the university
Estimated Annual visitorship: We don't keep figures, but it would be
approx 12 800 p.a.
Year Established: 1945, by the Governing Committee of the Institute
Accredited?: No
Staff: Director, four Research Officers, one Curator, one
Technician, one Secretary, seven Preparators, varying Student
helpers.
Purpose of Museum / Institute: to collect, research, interpret and
present the palaeontological heritage of South Africa to all the
people of the country and to visitors from elsewhere.
Type(s) of collections: Systematic Collections of Fossils:
Vertebrates, Invertebrates, Plants, Trace Fossils, Microfossils,
Palynomorphs.
Founding Collection?: No. The BPI was in fact established
specifically to collect fossils, because so many were being lost to
natural processes.
Still collect in same area?: Originally the BPI was established to
collect vertebrate fossils from the Karoo deposits (Permian -
Jurassic) of South Africa. It has subsequently expanded its area of
interest enormously to encompass the whole of geological time, and
the whole of the history of life on earth.
Est. size of collections: Difficult to say, but certainly running
into several hundred thousand specimens.
Donations/purchases?: No. Virtually everything in the
collections has been deliberately collected by Institute staff or
students as part of field work programmes or for specific research
projects.
Collecting policy? Our policy is to make representative collections
of South African fossils (and from other areas where they can
contribute to answering research questions in South Africa) as
primary research resources, and to maintain these collections as
research and heritage resources of both national and international
significance.
Specific purchase budget?: Not as such. Our annual budget makes
provision for field work to collect fossils on an ongoing basis. Most
of our operating money comes from the University, and our programmes
are therefore to some extent subject to their approval. The
University's interests are safeguarded through a Board of Control',
which essentially functions as the Institute's Board of Trustees',
with full power to make decisions which are binding on the
University.
Est. % on perm. display: Very small (less than 1%). Because ours
are mainly systematic' collections, we have very large series of
similar things in our collections, and there would be no point in
displaying them all. Our displays are narrative, in that they tell
aspects of the story of evolution as evidenced by fossils. We do not
have systematic/ taxonomic displays of row upon row of serried ranks'
of the same thing. We have one large display hall within the
Institute building, which serves as our museum.
Travelling exhibitions?: Yes, if they are relevant to
palaeontology and to the interpretation of the themes covered by our
Institute, and if we can fit them into our space.
Is University Admin involved in our exhibit planning, etc?: Only to
the extent that proposals need to be approved by the Board of
Control, but their interest is more one of support than of
resistance. The University also has a general Museums Board of
Control', on which most of the specific Curators of university
collections serve, and this committee is responsible for making
recommendations to the University Senate (the highest academic body)
on matters of general policy for the University's various museums.
This Board is separate from the Board of Control of this Institute,
and there is no clear hierarchy of seniority' between the two.
Do we collaborate with university faculty in exhibition research?:
Not specifically. Where such questions would be likely to arise would
be at the Museums Board of Control' mentioned earlier. At these
meetings people from a very wide variety of departments confer
together on matters of mutual interest and concern - Fine Art, Art
History, Medicine, Natural and Earth Sciences, Anthropology,
Sociology, etc.
Do we run internships in the Museum?: Not specifically in the Museum,
but students certainly become involved in museum aspects as part of
their graduate work in the Institute.
Do we offer hands-on work experiences for students?: Not in the
museum, but on museum related things - e.g. preparation and curation
of fossils; design of displays and posters interpreting their
research, etc.
Do we offer programmes to the general public?: Yes: public lectures,
open days', radio and television presentations, public access to the
museum displays, sale of accurate replicas of fossils, etc.
Do we use volunteers to assist in museum operations?: Yes, especially
in sorting and cataloguing collection backlogs.
How do we solicit new volunteers?: Informally, usually by word of
mouth amongst our own students.
Do we offer membership of our museum to the public?: Yes, through a
"Friends of the BPI organisation".
Comments: The museums on this university campus (of which there are
16) vary enormously in the extent to which they are accessible to and
used by the general public. The museum of the BPI is one of the most
accessible of them all, and the University's Public Liaison
Department makes regular use of it in its contacts with the general
public, prospective students, etc. The displays themselves are used
for undergraduate teaching to a limited extent - mainly our own
students and those from geology - but schools use the museum quite
extensively. We expect that use by schools will increase in the
future, as evolutionary studies become a more integrated part of the
school curriculum in South African schools .
I trust this gives you the information you need.
Yours sincerely,
Mike Raath
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Dr Michael A. Raath
Bernard Price Institute (Palaeontology), University of the Witwatersrand
Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa
Phone: (+27) 011 716-2715; Fax: (+27) 011 403-1423
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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