Connecticut has two seasons: blistering cold winters and suffocating humid summers. On occasion, we are treated to the rare year when the seasons transform gracefully and we are gifted with Spring and Autumn. New England winters are rough, they are long, cold, and bleak; I spend most of the winter complaining and welcome the heat of summer. Summer is a time made for adventure, but sometimes the New England heat forces one indoors for an afternoon.
Several weeks ago, New England plunged to its first heat wave of the season, and like many, I sought an entertaining way to escape the sun. Always interested in the new and exciting, I jumped at my sister Molly’s suggestion to visit the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, MA. Pittsfield is just over an hour from my home, a place I have never given much thought to explore. It’s a town that I’ve only passed through on my way to somewhere else, the only point of interest being a life sized stegosaurus sculpture outside of the Berkshire Museum. That dinosaur has always peaked my interest. Molly, my mother, and I planned our adventure: we would hit the museum, grab lunch (food is a must when adventuring), and then check out a nearby state park.
Museums have always been a favorite place to explore, some of my fondest childhood memories are of wandering the Yale Peabody Museum. They are dark, cool, and quiet: the perfect place to spend an ninety-plus degree day. They also appeal to my sense of morbid curiosity, the promise of taxidermy and pickled specimens nearly impossible to turn down.
The Berkshire Museum was founded in 1903 by Zenas Crane, owner of Crane & Company paper company. The art, history, and natural history museum was meant to be a “window to the world.” Today the museum is home to a small aquarium, some 40,000 objects ranging from natural history specimens to modern art, and a cinema. What this museum lacks in quantity, it more than makes up for with the quality and diversity of its exhibits.
With the goal of avoiding a large crowd of noisy summer campers, we made our way to the basement aquarium. Two rooms housed a number of habitats home to a menagerie of creatures. My favorites were the poison dart frogs and the coral reef tank. There were also several snakes, various turtles, and a tarantula I could not quite bring myself to photograph.
We next made our way to the Tiny Titans: Dinosaur Eggs and Babies exhibit. Here we were given an interesting glimpse at what dinosaur embryos may have looked like, the chance to touch actual dinosaur bone, and a once in a lifetime opportunity to dress up as a dinosaur. Sadly, there is no photographic evidence of my jurassic fashion show. I hit myself in the face with my camera while donning my dino garb and promptly ended dino dressup time. I guess now I have a solid reason to return: I need that photo.
The Crane Room is a light drenched art deco space where nineteenth century Italian sculpture is juxtaposed with the work of contemporary installation artist, Robert Hite. I absolutely fell in love with this space. The light was so beautiful, the the contrast of classical and modern sculpture perfect. I have somewhat of an overactive imagination, it’s part of what makes me, me; this room made my mind run wild. I couldn’t help but imagine it being the perfect setting for an episode of Doctor Who (secret’s out, I’m a geek); those sculptures look a little too much like Weeping Angels.
My absolute favorite section of the museum, Window on the World, houses the museum’s permanent collection. Several halls hold artifacts from the ancient world, a notable art collection, and enough framed insects and taxidermy to make my inner Victorian swoon. Unlike the American Museum Of Natural History in Manhattan or Washington D.C’s Smithsonian Institute, the Berkshire Museum has embraced the museum layout of yesteryear forgoing detailed dioramas in favor of a more straight forward display of specimens. This museum is like a window in time to the cabinets of curiosities of the past, when specimens were displayed as wonders just as much as for their scientific significance. The collection is displayed amongst large wooden crates giving the intentional impression that you have stumbled into an area that is off limits, like getting a day pass to explore the warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The World of Miniature, another unique exhibit, houses fourteen dioramas in one tenth scale depicting scenes of habitats from around the world. The miniatures are the work of renowned sculptor and taxidermist, Louis Paul Jonas, who’s work you may recognize from the American Museum of Natural History. (That herd of elephants in the Hall of African Mammals? That’s him) He also created the stegosaurus outside of the museum (lovingly known as Wally), originally displayed at the 1964 World’s Fair. The miniatures are amazingly detailed, and great fun to photograph.
We rounded out our visit with a stop in the gift shop. I’m a child at heart and find it difficult to pass up a gift shop. I left with two buttons, yes that is a zombie stegosaurus.
If you ever find yourself in the Pittsfield area with a couple of hours to spare, I highly recommend checking out this museum. It is time capsule of a not so distant time when ancient mummies and stuffed wildlife were still a novelty.
Stay tuned for part two of our Pittsfield adventure: lunch and a visit to Balancing Rock State Park.
Greasy to Gilded 