Oakes Museum of Natural History Centennial Exhibits
Bygone Times and Bedrock
The Oakes Museum of Natural History is pleased to present Bygone Times and Bedrock (October 3, 2009 鈥� July 15, 2010), two special exhibits for the Centennial Celebration at Messiah College.听 Thematically, these exhibits are designed to show how Messiah鈥檚 campus has changed over the decades, introduce some fascinating artifacts, and provide little known facts about the rock formations beneath Messiah College.
Bygone Times
This exhibit is an eclectic collection of facts, maps, pictures and artifacts depicting the history of Messiah College.听 Extraordinary among the artifacts is S.R. Smith鈥檚 telescope.听 Dr. Morris Sider notes in his book, Messiah College, A History, that 鈥淪mith had a deep interest in science and astronomy.听 By 1871, he had, in the words of his journal, 鈥榯he idea of inventing an instrument admitting the revolving heavens containing the sun and the eight primary planets with their secondaries revolving around them constituting a system of 20 secondary and eight primary planets all at once performing their revolution around the sun ..鈥欌��
Along with Smith鈥檚 telescope are eighteen photographs telling the story of Messiah鈥檚 history through old photos, aerial shots of the campus as it grew, and enrollment growth.
Also featured, is Old Zeke.听 Zeke is a human skeleton that was willed to the Messiah Orphanage Home from the estate of Benjamin Gish.听 Mr. Gish was a teacher 鈥渋n hygiene and studied the human body considerably in his life time.鈥澨� Zeke has been used in Messiah classes from 1909 through the Fall of 1998. 听听Old Zeke will be in the Oakes Museum just hanging around waiting for everyone to stop in to say hello.
Bedrock
Is Messiah College built on the proverbial firm foundation? 听Former geology professor, Mark Wolgemuth, found that Messiah College is built upon six different rock formations.听听 The Oakes Museum鈥檚 Curator of Geology, Ed Charles says, 鈥渕ost colleges across the state may be built on two or three different rock layers, but to be on top of six layers is amazing.听 The college community can rest easy, assured that the college is built on a firm foundation in two ways!鈥澨� Central to the new exhibit is the geology map of campus Mark Wolgemuth drew in the early 1960s.听 All six types of rock are on display.听
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