Supporting long-term research
Annie Alexander supplied funding to establish the museum in 1908 and created an endowment in 1919. Its first director, Joseph Grinnell, promoted systematic surveys of vertebrates in western North America, especially California.
The museum’s research and teaching encompass fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Its history connects philanthropy, organized fieldwork and university education.
Specimens with environmental records
The MVZ links specimens or tissue samples with notebooks, maps, habitat photographs, sound recordings and other field information. A specimen thus documents life at a particular place and time as well as helping identify a species.
The same material may later support morphological, genetic or ecological studies. Its value depends on the connections between physical material, collecting information and curatorial records.
Field sites and laboratories
Museum research combines field studies with laboratory and analytical methods across systematics, ecology, behaviour, population biology and genomics. The MVZ also maintains research connections with Hastings Natural History Reservation in California.
This arrangement brings collections, field observations and experiments together. Biodiversity informatics helps researchers connect, query and reuse the resulting evidence.
References: [1]
Historical collections and environmental change
Uses described by the museum include comparisons of historical Californian animal communities and investigations of pollution and disease using preserved material. Bird eggs, for example, retain evidence about past eggshell conditions.
The Grinnell Resurvey Project uses earlier localities, notes and specimens for renewed field comparisons. Collections consequently provide baselines extending beyond the lifetime of an individual project.