Have you tried the old 'puzzle map' type drawing on the side? Thats one
way to label everything without cluttering up the display. How about
little numbers on display pieces and corresponding #'s on the side?

On Sun, 29 Oct 1995, Fred R. Reenstjerna wrote:

> I apologize in advance for doing what I disapprove of in so
> many queries - going to email before searching the literature -
> but this just came up, so I thought I'd ask:
>
> Our Natural History Curator is developing an exhibit about
> life in a fallen log on the forest floor.  He's designing a
> series of window cut-outs, with various ants, beetles, termites,
> and whatever in situ [preserved specimens, not live] in
> lifelike moving/eating/whatever poses.  Classical entomological
> labeling practices for specimens in cabinets are to affix the
> label somewhat flag-like at the top of a pin through the insect
> and down into the foam base.
>
> In these log views, with lots of small specimens, labels on
> each one would obscure the view of the insects.  Are there any
> brilliant alternatives to a sketch-type illustration alongside
> the log with number codes showing which insects are where?  This
> would put the interpretive text in blocks, so visitors could
> look back & forth between the text & the log view.
>
> This raises a more general questions about labels in dioramas.
> Since every factor in the landscape - soil type, fungi, moss,
> invertebrates, and small vertebrates - is a significant component
> of the particular setting, what alternatives exist other than:
> a) labeling nothing - just having a general interpretive text
> b) labeling everything - so the diorama looks more like a
>         cemetery full of headstones than a living system;
> or the traditional
> c) labeling the "important" [i.e., biggest] items - so people
>         know that a Roosevelt elk lives among hemlocks, but they
>         don't know why all the ferns, voles, fungi, etc. are all
>         arond the big items.
>
> Any suggestions?
>
>
> Fred R. Reenstjerna
> Research Librarian
> Douglas County Museum of History and Natural History
> ROSEBURG, OR USA  97470
> [log in to unmask]
>
> --
>