DeKalb County Community Foundation gift to NIU museum is no small wonder

by Tom Parisi

Damaged by flooding this past summer, the NIU Anthropology Museum will reopen to the public sometime next semester, thanks to a $4,000 gift from the DeKalb County Community Foundation.

The 2,000-square-foot museum is housed in the north wing of the Stevens Building and contains a series of exhibits, including a special children's section called "Small Wonders." The museum attracts about 100 visitors each month and is a frequent field trip destination for local daycare and school groups.

In July, water leaked down the walls and onto the museum floor, soaking carpets and plywood scenery. The museum had to be closed.

"Our once colorful museum is an empty shell," said Ann Wright-Parsons, museum director. "The area most severely affected was the Small Wonders room, with our children's learning center."

With the gift from the DeKalb County Community Foundation, the Small Wonders exhibit will be repaired and expanded. One new display will feature clothing from different countries that children can try on for themselves.

"We're very grateful to the DeKalb County Community Foundation for making it possible to reopen the museum, which really is unique to our community," Wright-Parsons said. "The objective is to put the museum back together so we can open it to casual visitors and school groups as quickly as possible."

The Anthropology Museum has built its collection over the past 40 years. Exhibits in the adult section provide visual context to the research findings of NIU faculty members in anthropology. Their discoveries in recent years have graced the front pages of newspapers across the country, from the Chicago Sun-Times to the Washington Post to the New York Times.

The Small Wonders section of the museum is designed to be hands-on.

When the exhibit is once again open, children will be able to visit a cave where a model of early Homo sapiens is posed in the act of painting a picture on the cave wall. They will view the massive jaw of the mastodon found on the Vernon Johnson farm near Sycamore. And they will climb on a miniature pueblo, grind their own corn and examine stone tools and arrowheads.

"Our grants committee really liked the proposal to assist the Anthropology Museum because it will benefit local kids and local schools," said Jerry Smith, executive director of the DeKalb County Community Foundation. "It's a wonderful interface with the DeKalb area community."

The foundation provided two other generous gifts to NIU:

• $3,000 to the NIU Department of Communication for the purchase of digital cameras and recording devices. The equipment will be used to collect oral histories for a documentary on DeKalb County in the 1960s.
• $2,500 to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' Institute for Learning in Retirement, a member-directed group of retirement-age people who seek new learning experiences. The grant will allow for a special study group on the Underground Railroad in DeKalb County.

11/18/2002