>Date:    Mon, 26 Apr 1999 16:03:08 -0500
>From:    "Sylvia S. Edwards" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Smithsonian
>
>http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559318638-b27
>
>See the above Associated Press article.  Part of it (above the Smithsonian)
>says:
>
>"Biologists, anthropologists and zoologists regularly visit the
> museum's storage center in Suitland, Md., a series of
> state-of-the-art warehouses whose alcoves, cabinets and open
> shelves cover the equivalent of 6{ football fields.
>     The rare outsider can wander past crates of giant squid, long
> rows of elephant skulls, stuffed alligators and enough elk and
> moose antlers to fill a score of trophy rooms. Next to a tank once
> used to melt whale flesh from bones is a freezer of frozen dolphins
> stacked like firewood."
>
>Which lucky members of our group have toured there?
>
>Sylvia S. Edwards
>Huntsville, Alabama
>[log in to unmask]
 
I went to the "Sorting Center" in Suitland, MD a few years back with a
colleague looking at freshwater fishes.  The smithsonian fish collection is
I believe the largest in the world and they were running out of room on the
mall so they moved the freshwater specimens out there.  It is an impressive
structure but really not as handy as visiting the "real" Smithsonian where
the mollusk collection is housed.  Worth a visit if you can get someone to
take you out there for a tour.  I'm not sure if it is open to the public.
 
Kevin
 
Kevin S. Cummings
Illinois Natural History Survey
607 E. Peabody Drive
Champaign, IL 61820
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http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/cbd/collections/mollusk.html