Donors Rally to Restore University of Iowa Museum’s Historic Exhibit
PHOTO: JOHN EMIGH
The UI Museum of Natural History’s rare Laysan Island cyclorama is one of many areas of campus that have benefited from One Day for Iowa, the UI’s annual online giving day.
When former Iowa zoology professor Charles Nutting (1896BPh) visited Laysan Island on a 1902 expedition, the wildlife he encountered inspired him to write, “Try as we may; this scene cannot be described.”
Before him, a vast swell of birds swooped, soared, and strutted across the shoreline on the remote Pacific atoll, which today is part of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. “No one,” he wrote, “could possibly contemplate this assemblage of avian life without being profoundly moved.”
Nutting returned to his work as curator of the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History, wanting to replicate the Laysan Island ecosystem in a cyclorama, an immersive 360-degree exhibit style that was popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Throughout the next 10 years, he shared his story with friends and colleagues, securing enough donations to fund a second Laysan expedition. That research team returned to Iowa with a scene and a story so compelling it would inspire others to invest in their UI Museum of Natural History exhibit for decades to come.
Over a century later, Nutting’s vision lives on through Pentacrest Museums Director Liz Crooks (08BLS), whose own passion for preserving the cyclorama has inspired a new generation of donors—including through One Day for Iowa, the university’s annual online giving day. The Laysan Island exhibit, which first opened in 1914, is one of the many campus programs and initiatives that have benefited from donor support on One Day for Iowa.
“This is the power of storytelling.” —Jessica Smith
Last year, more than 5,000 alumni and friends helped raise $2.6 million for their favorite UI causes during the 24-hour event, which returns this month. That included 80 donors who helped Pentacrest Museums raise $4,788 for the cyclorama’s restoration.
With an estimated 30 cycloramas left globally, Crooks says the UI Museum of Natural History’s Laysan Island exhibit is important “not just to our campus but to the world,” making it critical to protect it for the future. Working with Travis Foss (07BA), a director of development at the UI Center for Advancement, and Jessica Smith (14BA), communications and engagement coordinator for Pentacrest Museums, Crooks has shared Nutting’s stories with donors during a fundraising campaign that’s collected over $500,000 for the cyclorama’s conservation.
It’s a wonder the cyclorama ended up in Iowa, thousands of miles away from the island it depicts, tucked in the heart of a campus museum. Even more wondrous for the museum team is that more than 100 years later, the story of the cyclorama continues to inspire donors and connect staff with a network of cyclorama and panoramic scholars around the globe.
“This is the power of storytelling,” says Smith. “It’s what can actually move the needle for people.”
