The Elephant Museum

As I walk down 14th and Vine in downtown Lincoln, I was looking for one thing: the big elephant in front of the museum. As I drew nearer to my destination, the beautiful gray statue came into view. An outstretched elephant, with its tusks reaching to the street and its paw stopped in midair, filled my eyes with a sight almost too large to take in with one look. The elephant greeted me with a smile, and wide eyes, as if to prompt me inside to look at what other interesting creatures I might come across in Morrill Hall. If I would tell someone in Nebraska to go visit the Elephant Museum, a number of people would know that I am talking about the museum in Lincoln. But if I told them to visit Morrill Hall, I am guessing more people would recognize elephant museum than Morrill Hall. Unfortunately, I am one that only knows the museum as the elephant museum.

Walking up the many concrete steps to the door, avoiding cigarette butts and gum smashes beneath my feet, I entered Morrill Hall to see my first skeleton. In front of the skeleton was a tag in all capital letters the bore the name: two-horned Rhinoceros. The creature’s body stood tall upon an uneven clayed surface, flawlessly reconstructed from its original form. It's brown brittle bones rightly shaped, with its slightly curved ribs perfectly contoured back to its original masterpiece. It was in a case along with many other creatures that extended down a long carpeted hallway. Paralleling with the case of skeletal creatures was a timeline, with miniature descriptions of fossils of teeth and heads. I slowly grazed by, my feet shuffling and echoing off the empty walls of the hallway. There was not a soul in sight to disrupt my admiration of what I was to see next.

I entered what was titled Mesozoic Gallery. I had heared the word mention several times in science, but for my lack of interest in the field of study, I couldn’t quite remember what time period that meant. As I entered the dimly lit section, it was evident that this room was set off and different for a reason. It was like entering a movie theatre just before the previews are about to start. The room was cold, and the air conditioner was the only sound buzzing around. As I take one step in, a massive dinosaur stares straight into my eyes. I immediately recount the dinosaur from the children movie “The Land before Time.” It was Sarah, the fierce dinosaur that always wanted to fight; only this one was a bit larger. As often called a “three horn,” this dinosaur would catch anyone’s eye instantly. As you look at its face, you can see its empty eye sockets and razor sharp nose place in the middle of its head. Its skull stretches back until it branches off into three separate bones, two on the outside shaped as horns. They connect together in the middle to form a T, creating the creature’s signature skull. Its long body and forever stretching, bony tail makes wonder how something could grow to be that large, and be made of that many different bones. I also have to question what it would be like if this dinosaur had never become extinct, and it wandered around our cities and prairies.



After my awe of the three horn, I continue on and immediately notice what is under my feet. Not only is half of my size 6 foot on carpet, but the other half of it is on a glass case. I pick up my foot to see a glass display of a fish cemented in rock. As I continue to look down and walk forward, I see more cases of tooth sharks, stomach stones, and shark teeth. I look up to discover a large fish skeleton on the wall. Ranging about 7 feet long, the first thing I notice it is tail fin. It has to be 3 feet wide, and forms the shape of a V. I follow the bones of the body to the head where I am mystified by the razor sharp teeth. As I look around at all the other fossils of small fish, I can’t help but wonder if this fish itself fed on the species of fish beneath my shoes? Did this fish maybe contribute to the fish extinction? These questions will never be answered, but sometimes thinking about these things make you realize the true beauty of seeing something that will never be seen in life form again.

I carry on through the museum halls glancing at the mini displays layering the hallway walls until I catch a glimpse of a skeleton as I am passing by the room. Curiosity getting the best of me, I veer right into the room and am presented with a skeleton I recognize. I see a camel, of all creatures. I approach the camel, an animal that I have personally seen up close and personal, except the one I saw was alive, and this was a skeleton. Like all the other skeletons, the bones were a shade of brown and the camel was put back together again like a 1000 piece puzzle. It was strung up to the ceiling for support, although how it manages to stay upright is beyond my understanding. It toes sink into what ironically is sand, which seems appropriate since most camels live in the sandy desert. As I read the descriptions on the case surround the camel, I learn that camel skeletons are often found around Nebraska, this being one of them.

In the room of the camel, I come across my most disturbing skeletons yet. In a case stretching from wall to wall, are multiple skeletons of Nebraska farm life animals.. Horses, chickens, goats, sheep, geese, ducks are the one we are used to seeing. But a disturbing sight was the skeleton of a dog As I looked at it, a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach emerged. For some reason, seeing an animal that I have as a pet in skeletal form didn’t rest to easy with me. That should have been my cue to exit but I then came across a cat skeleton chasing a tiny mouse. If I thought seeing the dog was worse, it suddenly occured to me that this display was a little immoral. It is odd that I care if I see a cat or a dog as a skeleton but seeing a mammoth, rhinoceros, or dinosaur doesn’t have a major affect? Is it because I know these aren’t extinct? But then I remind myself that I also saw a camel, an animal that I have actually ridden, but yet that has no affect on me. It’s funny how our minds perceive different things. I come to realize that although I may think of the cat and dog as an immoral display, there may be a time when they become extinct, and the only way for the future generation to know what they look like is by having a skeleton of them in a museum.

In my rush out of the room, I was abruptly stopped by another towering image of an enormous elephant. On my left were several structures of the largest elephants and mammoths this world could behold. Each of them had thick tusks the reached out far past their bodies, and trunks that I envisioned made sounds louder than any trumpet man could create. As I pass each elephant, I take the time to read the little descriptions beneath. It was when I reached the mammoths that I read about their extinction. Out of all the skeletons in that gallery, only two of the 20 or so elephants are not yet extinct. They are gone forever, the only thing that is left is their skeletons. I understand that this fact is true about all dinosaurs, but it struck another nerve that extinction is irreversible, and cannot be changed. So many things from our past, our history are gone forever, because humans did not take care of what we have. We take nature and its beautiful creatures for granted, and we are ignorant of the future costs.
On my exiting of the building, I came across a mother and two children. The little girl was dressed in a brown dress and pink stockings, the boy in a husker jersey for the game later in the night. “Mom look at the elephant! Mom look at the elephant!” The little girl kept repeating until her mother finally acknowledged her. “Yes sweetie, it’s very big.” They then make their way into the gift shop to look at the multicolored stuffed animals and figurines. I guess understanding the true beauty of the museum comes with age. Some day, when they are 18, like myself, and they revisit the museum, they will understand the meaning of extinction. They will realize that these animals will never been seen again in actual real life form. The only thing that is left is their bones. But until then, the gift shop will just have to do.

Thinking about the museum, it is hard for me to understand why anyone would not want to visit this remarkable place. It is history, proof that animals of that size and dinosaurs really existed. It is hard to imagine what our world would be like if we still had flying dinosaurs, or large mammoths roaming through our cities and land. We can't envision it and we never will, because they are gone, forever. But part of them still live on, in our museums, in glass display cases so adults and children can admire their large beauty. Most people don’t name Morrill Hall when they speak of things significant to Nebraska, but I bet if you walked up to the museum, you would be greeted with the same welcoming smile as I did from that elephant, and curiosity would take you where you may at one time, never considered going.