CMC Blog

The American mastodon (Mammut americanum) is the iconic “Ice Age” creature of the Pleistocene epoch (2.58 million to 11,700 years ago) for North America, and an example of its extinct megafauna.

So wrote John James Audubon, noted ornithologist and artist (and first official employee of our predecessor institution, the Western Museum), on the spring migration of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (Archilochus colubris).

Bob Genheimer, our George Rieveschl Curator of Archaeology, answers your questions about the job of a curator and archaeologist.

The daguerreotype was invented by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre and was introduced to the French Academy of Sciences on January 7, 1839. A silver-plated copper plate is polished on the silver side to a mirror-like sheen and exposed to iodine vapor.

One of the collections I get to manage is the Sound Recordings, and, as you can imagine, we hold a pretty diverse spectrum of recording technology.

James Antenen Stewart graduated from Hamilton High School in 1941 and the University of Cincinnati in 1945. He later served as the Chief Surgeon of a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M.A.SH.) near Seoul.

During the second week of last November, I spent a couple of days at the Museum Center’s Edge of Appalachia preserve looking for my newest study organism – the Allegheny woodrat (Neotoma magister).

Created using original and reproduction Lionel trains and accessories, Stuart’s layout has all the bells and whistles that our visitors, young and old, have come to expect at Museum Center during the holidays.

This slab is covered with complete and nearly complete specimens of one species of crinoid, Glyptocrinus decadactylus, and is one of the largest and most spectacular examples of fossil crinoid preservation ever found in the Cincinnatian Series (Late Ordovician Period, 450 million years ago).

The Queen City is built on a foundation of beer, wine and whiskey. At its peak in the 19th century, there were 36 breweries and more than 300 vineyards within a twenty-mile radius of the city.

Cincinnati Museum Center's Cincinnati History Library and Archives holds the Felix J. Koch Collection (SC 116). This treasure trove of 5,238 negatives document Cincinnati and the surrounding area between 1902 and 1933. The collection, which was donated by Felix's brother, Herbert F. Koch in 1968 and 1969, is arranged by subject.

One of the largest and longest-running citizen science programs in the country is the Christmas Bird Count (CBC).

Chances are, if you step into an old-enough house in Cincinnati, Ohio, it features Rookwood Pottery. Whether it’s a colorful pot passed down, a kitchen backsplash lined with avian tiles or a fireplace’s hearth, Rookwood Pottery has left its mark on Cincinnati’s – and the world’s – cupboards, homes and monuments.

Last week on October 18, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir accomplished the first-ever all-female spacewalk. For nearly eight hours, they worked outside the International Space Station to replace a broken power unit. It was Koch’s fourth spacewalk and Meir’s first.

In late 2016, Urban Artifact brewers collected yeast from Union Terminal grounds. A few months later, at a 21+ Curiocity (now Museum on Tap) event, they premiered a new, fruity brew, Union Terminal Bock, made from the National Historic Landmark's yeast! As a part of the event, we were asked in zoology to determine the yeast's species. This is how we did it.