Week 2: “Shake it, baby! Work it!”

Insect Zoo

At the beginning of this week, I was asked to assist the museum photographer in taking reference pictures of the animals in our saltwater tanks. These include four species of shrimp, and five species of crab. My supervisor gave me the list of creatures to be photographed. At nine o’clock on the morning of the shoot, I met with the photographer to see what he needed me to set up. The entire process was remarkably similar to an episode of America’s NextTop Model.

The display tanks the animals are normally kept in are not suitable for photographing, so an alternative set had to be assembled. I took one of our back-up tanks, cleaned the glass thoroughly, filled it with sand and gravel from the lab, and then added some saltwater from the tank in the back room. It soon became apparent that the sand and gravel had not been rinsed properly, as the water in my nice clean tankturned… murky brown. Several rinses and one new batch of saltwater later, I had the tank set and ready to go. The shoot took place in our lab, across the hall from the back room where the saltwater creatures are housed. I had assumed that this would simply involve setting the tank on ourlab bench and snapping a couple of shots. But when I walked into the lab I discovered that a set worthy of Tyra had been constructed, including proper lighting, backdrop, and light blocking equipment.

The photographers took multiple test shots and then asked me to bring in the animals one at a time, starting with the crabs. Which was when I discovered that both the Arrow Crab, and the Sally Light Foot Crab had died the week before, and the Green Emerald Crab appeared to have just been eaten by one of the more aggressive shrimp (said shrimp was given his own display tank later that day to prevent further incident.) Luckily, the Decorator Crab was still alive and well, covered in bits of old food and gravel (the Decorator Crab gets its name from its ability to decorate itself with objects found in its environment).

The animals being photographed were on display-- every time I had to retrieve one, museum visitors could see my hand, and only my hand, reaching into the tank to grab the next model. At least twice this resulted in horrified cries from small children, “Mommy! There’s a hand attacking that shrimp!” Despite the children’s concerns, the Decorator Crab was pulled for his close-up. The shoot lasted for almost an hour, during which time it was my job to prod the little guy with a glass rod in order to encourage him to pose more favorably for the camera. Once an acceptable shot had been obtained, I went to fetch the hermit crab (a particularly snippy and disagreeable model.) When his shoot was finally finished, I brought in the first shrimp-- and found out why the photographer had saved the shrimp for last. What fantastic models! I stood watching in amazement while the Skunk Shrimp, in particular, pranced around the tank from one fabulous pose to another as the photographer cried, “Shake it, baby! Work it!”

Anthropology

This week I also attended the interns’ orientation to the Forensic Anthropology Lab. On Saturday morning, we had a brief, behind-the-scenes osteology class given by one of the museum’s leading Forensic Anthropologists. Six tables were set out, each with a couple of boxes of human bones. We learned that these skeletons were part of the Terry Collection, gathered in the early 20^th century by a Dr. Terry, who catalogued the age, gender, ethnicity, medical history, and cause of death of each skeleton. There are about 1,700 skeletons in the collection, and they form the basis for the majority of forensic anthropology standards that we have today. The museum houses over 30,000 complete or partial skeletons.

We were each given about 15 minutes to articulate a skeleton as best we could, and then given a basic introduction to osteology. We discussed howto determine age, gender, and ancestry. At the end of the lesson, we were given specific information about our skeletons. Mine was that of a 28-year-old black male, who died in the 1920s or 30s. He had been a book seller and was hit by a train. There was visible trauma to his hip andshoulder blade, and he had multiple broken ribs. On another table there were the bones of a 20-year-old gunshot victim. As sad as these were, one of the most jarring, to me, was the skeleton of an 89-year-old black woman who had died in the 1920s. She had lived through slavery. Her femurs showed that she had broken her hips and they had healed on their own, an undoubtedly long and painful process. There were massive growths that made the bones almost unrecognizable. She also had such severe osteoporosis (hence the broken hips,) that her bones were only half the weight of normal specimens.

At the end of our lesson, we were shown the actual Forensic Lab, the lab behind the scenes (I will be working in the Public Education Lab.) On one side of the U-shaped lab bench, closest to us as we walked in, was a modern case. We were told that the skeleton in frontof us belonged to a 32-year-old mother of three, who had disappeared in 2002after speaking with her estranged husband. Her body was recovered earlier this year and sent to the Smithsonian for examination. The trauma to her spine, neck, and skull was obvious. There was one particularly upsetting puncture in her skull that clearly matched up to a hammer (also in the lab) recovered from the suspect’s home. The Forensic Anthropologist giving us the tour recommended that if we were interested in Forensic Anthropology, we not attempt to do modern casework alone. She reported that she has a great deal of difficulty processing too many of these cases at once, due to the emotional responses they often trigger.

On the bench immediately next tothe 32-year-old murder victim was a skeleton belonging to a young man from colonial Jamestown. It was an amazing thing to see—a working demonstration of the usefulness of forensic techniques in cases from the archaeological to the modern, laid out side by side. I am looking forward to starting in the lab next Friday.