Two Lesser-Known Labs of the Smithsonian can be a great benefit auction item
Impressive bones specimens and a popular beetle box can be found at the Osteology Lab.
Although securing a private behind-the-scenes tour of any of the Smithsonian Museums is a fascinating benefit auction item, the Smithsonian Institution has two lesser-known research facilities that make for unusual auction item donations.
These work great in the silent auction or possibly the live auction.
(I’ve written before about the popularity of research-related benefit auction items.)
The Feather Identification Lab (jokingly called “CSI for Birds”) of The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is one facility.
This group analyzes feathers and body material found after “bird-strikes,” the term used when birds collide with aircraft. For instance, when US Airways Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009, it was the Feather Identification Lab which identified the birds as a flock of Canada Geese.
The Feather Identification Lab has thousands of birds.
The Osteology Lab of the Smithsonian Institution’s Natural History Museum is another unusual benefit auction item.
The most exciting part of the tour is often said to be watching the Dermistid beetle colony. The colony is used to prepare bone specimens. Dead mammals and birds go into the tank, and the beetles swarm over the specimen, naturally cleaning the bones of all flesh. This allows the specimen to be ‘skeletized.’
Certainly neither of these labs will be common-place to most guests attending your benefit auction, so if you are reaching out to the Smithsonian Institution, consider asking for a tour of one of these facilities. Someone in your audience is bound to find the behind-the-scenes access interesting!
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Comments
I’m pretty sure that since it is a federal institution that the Smithsonian can’t offer up tours as part of a fund raising event. Those photos are from Zoofari, which is a National Zoo event, which is part of the Institution. They would be prohibited from doing that for an outside organization.
Good news – they are! I’ve sold these types of things at other events, too. Oftentimes they are offered by employees.
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