In May, Vanessa Bateman traveled to the US for a research trip to several archives in the US, including the University of Minnesota, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, and the American Heritage Centre at the University of Wyoming. Vanessa was researching histories of migratory animals and their visual representations, including the representation of migration in natural history museum dioramas, and wildlife documentary films that were used to educate the public about environmental concerns, including habitat loss.

Images:
Above: Opening title to Walter Breckenridge’s film Migration Mysteries (1966).

Diorama of Snow Geese migration at Lake Traverse (1942) at the Bell Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Historical photograph from 1950s and the diorama today.

Finding traces of animals in the archive, U of Minnesota: