History of the NHC

Origins of the Biology Department's Natural History Collection

The origin of Radford University museum specimens is quite varied - students and faculty continue to build up our collection with contemporary plants and animals, but our specimens date back to 1881. Indeeed, >80 specimens were collected before 1900, and an additional 100 individuals are pre-1950. Most of these older specimens are taxidermied birds.

Although the sources of many of our specimens are yet unknown, class and independent research projects have explored the history of some of the older collections. Through these projects, we are beginning to form a more complete picture of the history of our collection.

Students Researching the History of RU's Collection

Since 2008, a number of students have tackled independent projects, seeking to learn more about some of the oldest specimens in the collection or about some of the more common contemporary collectors.

• Willard Treat, the collector of some of the oldest bird specimens in our collection
• Bird collectors from pre-1900 specimens - Beecher S. Bowdish, W.W. Worthington, and John I. Northrop
• Dr. Paul Randolph Burch, a collector of numerous gastropods
• Origin of the taxdermied birds on display in the Reed/Curie hallway
• 1960s herpetile collections of P.B. Dunnigan and G.C. Packard
• Radford College Farm, a local site of many collections through the 1970s