Museum trustee documents 'orphan' natural-history collections at UVA, urges updated agreements

The Virginia Museum of Natural History board heard a 20‑minute presentation May 17 from former museum director Noel Boas documenting extensive historical natural‑history collections that originated in the Brooks Museum and are now dispersed across University of Virginia (UVA) buildings and state agencies. Boas told trustees the collections were accepted for the Commonwealth by a joint resolution in 1877 and that VMNH’s 1989 enabling statute charged the museum with serving as the permanent repository of Virginia’s natural heritage.

Boas said the collections include mammal and invertebrate fossils, a large rock and mineral assemblage and historically significant photo‑micrographs of Mesozoic paleo‑flora. He told the board the material is currently split among UVA locations, the Virginia Division of Geology and Mineral Resources (part of the Department of Energy), the Department of Forestry and loans to external institutions, and that some items are stored without…