Expeditions 2025

The Bell Museum is more than our regular exhibits, programs, and planetarium shows — we’re also home to a collection of roughly a million specimens that are used by researchers across the world. But how are these collections created?

Melody Truong shows study skins and wings to students

In August, we hosted our annual event, Expeditions. During this week-long event, Bell scientists gather at the Bell to demonstrate how to prepare natural history specimens. This process looks different if you’re preparing a red-wing blackbird versus a dandelion specimen, and the researchers are there to demonstrate the nuances and answer questions. One of the goals of this event is to highlight that the Bell is a thriving research museum.

This year, the team of curatorial staff and students prepared many specimens collected from the Salvage Wildlife project. Salvage Wildlife, funded by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF), aims to recover deceased birds and mammals across Minnesota to support research and education on environmental health, ecology, and conservation. 

The team of curatorial staff and students demonstrates how to prepare specimens for a group of students. From left to right: Keith Barker, Sushma Reddy, Clare Tan, Diego Guevara, Brady Fisher, Sharon Jansa, Sean Barker, and Anya Auerbach

This year, the team: 

• Prepared 45 bird specimens
• Prepared 35 mammal specimens
• Preserved 29 bird gastrointestinal tracts
• Preserved 1 set of mouse embryos
• Preserved 23 vials of ectoparasites

A few highlights from this year include a river otter prepared by Brady Fisher and Diego Guevara, a swan prepared by Simone Maddox and Melody Truong, and a fisher (that’s a mammal species, not a human who fishes!) by Brie Ilarde and Zheng ‘Oz’ Oong that was collected at Camp Ripley. There were many smaller — yet equally important — specimens. Sharon Jansa worked on a southern flying squirrel and eastern mole brought in by the Salvage Wildlife partner, Carpenter Nature Center. Dakota Rowsey, from the Science Museum of Minnesota — the co-lead institution in the Salvage Wildlife project — prepared an opossum collected in Roseville earlier this year.

In addition to animal specimens, Herbarium Manager Tim Whitfeld and undergraduate students Hazel Powers and Thomas Russo demonstrated how to prepare herbarium specimens. Visitors were even encouraged to create their own pressed plants!

Tim Whitfeld (left) and Thomas Russo (right) demonstrate how to prepare plant specimens

Faith Kelly and Brian Whelan joined to represent the Ichthyology collection. While there were no fish specimens prepared on site, they did demonstrate how to handle and identify fish specimens.

Brady Fisher and Diego Guevara represented the Carcass Crew, a group of undergraduate students working with the Salvage Wildlife project. This was their first year joining Expeditions, and they were excited to connect with curious visitors and staff.

Diego Guevara (left) and Michael Chiappone (right) show a wing to a museum visitor.

“At first, I was nervous to see the public’s reaction to our work, but surprisingly, a lot of people found it to be quite fascinating. It’s not every day that folks get to see behind-the-scenes work for museums. Expeditions provided the opportunity to connect with other undergraduate peers at the Bell Museum. While our roles may be different, our goals to further natural history education are alike,” shared Guevara.

Melody Truong (left) and Brady Fisher (right)

“I wasn’t sure what Expeditions would be like, and since I had never participated in an outreach event before, I felt nervous about whether I’d be able to connect with the community. However, once it began, my worries quickly faded as my passion for museums and wildlife took over. It became an incredible opportunity to engage with the public and share why this work is so important,” Fisher added.

The team as a whole included many curators and students from across the Bell. In addition to those listed above, this included Keith Barker, Sushma Reddy, Jayna Makovicky, Clare Tan, Sean Barker, Michael Chiappone, and Anya Auerbach. Big props to Curatorial Research Associate Sam Getty, who coordinated the data collection and oversaw the whole program.

Thank you to everyone who visited us for this year’s Expeditions — we hope to see you next year!