Sorry, folks, I'm having a bad day. Noisy neighbors who played loud music
starting at 11 last night, and still going strong when I left for work in
the morning. I apologize for being a little cranky about my fellow man.
 
Other than the bit about the museum being in a former railway station, what
I said could apply to more than one museum of natural history  in America.
It's quite a trend. That's why there was no point in singling out any one
museum for criticism.
 
Some clarification: When I said that the main part of a museum of natural
history should be for adults, I should have said "adults and supervised or
well-mannered children." I like children.* I was a child myself once. Some
of my best childhood memories are from the American Museum of Natural
History and other major museums.
 
Some children are better behaved than others, obviously. The 5-year-old who
spent 2 hours selecting the right shell comes to mind.
 
And I believe strongly in the kind of children's nature center that some
museums have set up, e.g., the National Museum of Natural History (which is
one museum of the 20 or 30 that make up the Smithsonian Institution in
Washington, DC), and the Florida Museum of Natural History (Gainesville).
In these museums, a separate room is devoted to specimens that visitors
(primarily children) can touch. There are lots of cabinets made of
warm-colored wood, not cold metal, with curved edges, and they are low to
the ground. The cabinets are filled with specimens of plants, animals,
fossils, rocks, etc.--good ones, but ones that can be replaced if lost or
destroyed. They are accompanied by identification books written at various
levels of understanding. There are chairs or benches for people of all
sizes, and areas where chairs can be circled for discussion. There are
plenty of supervisors, too. The idea is that you can bring a specimen and
have a fair chance of identifying it yourself by comparison with other
objects and with information in books. I would have loved these rooms as a
child, and it probably would have taken a crowbar for my parents to extract
me.
 
Having a separate area for supervised children can make the whole museum
experience more civilized again. Extensive information on how to set up one
of these rooms is available from the Smithsonian. I don't have names or
phone numbers, but it should be possible to find out through their Web
site.
 
Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama
 
*In fact, I am reminded of W. C. Fields, who said aptly, "I like children.
Boiled."