Sloth Volunteers,
There will be a special program featuring the Tarkio Valley sloths kicking off the 150th anniversary of the Museum of Natural History, University of Iowa during the afternoon and evening of Thursday, May 7.
First, there will be an open house in the Paleontological Repository, where the University’s paleontological collection is housed, from 3:00-5:00 PM. This is informal and you can visit as you wish. Staff will be present to answer questions. This will be held in Trowbridge Hall which is one building north of the Pentacrest (Old Capitol area) and next to the Union parking ramp.
At 5:00, our featured speaker- Greg McDonald will spend most of this time in the Museum Lab (Room 12) on the ground floor of Macbride. This show-and-tell will be for sloth volunteers, their families and their special guests only. RSVP if you plan to attend. Sarah will have name tags for you and these will get you into the Museum lab for a personal visit with Greg and to view of the bones that you have collected.
At 6:00 PM, there will be an public open house in Iowa Hall the entrance gallery (first floor) of the Museum of Natural History in Macbride Hall. Macbride is on the north east corner of the Pentacrest. Enjoy refreshments, exhibits (including a temporary exhibit on the Tarkio Valley sloths) and visit with friends. At 7:00, Greg will present ‘The Museum and the Megalonyx: A History of Great Aspirations and Sloths in Iowa’ in the auditorium of Macbride Hall. This is on the second floor. Greg has devoted his research life to Ice-Age ground sloths and associated, large, extinct mammals. He will tie this into the Tarkio Valley project. It will be exciting. You can find more about Greg and the program at http://www.news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/April/042409sloth_talk.html
We recommend that you park in either the Iowa Memorial Union Ramp or the one just south of the Old Capitol Mall. You can find a map for the former at: http://www.uiowa.edu/~maps/m/mh1.htm. There are lots of restaurants in the block across the street from the Museum.
Pam, Sarah, Dave and Holmes especially hope that you can attend.
Sloth on!
Holmes