Gunnison collected insects, mice, and worms-anything she could find outside or fish out of a trap. | Photo: Alexandra Charitan One collector’s visionĪs a child, Olive M. The Gunnison Collection includes several now-extinct birds. And this is just a tiny fraction of the curiosities that await you in the Olive Gunnison Natural History Museum. Visitors are encouraged to press a button that triggers a magic trick in a dimly-lit diorama, turning a plump snake instantly into a skeleton (a low-tech but impressive feat accomplished with mirrors). They were extinct entirely by 1914, when Martha, the last captive specimen, died at the Cincinnati Zoo. The case does indeed deliver on its promise by offering modern viewers a rare glimpse of the passenger pigeon, last seen in the wild in the 1890s. To your left is a case of curiosities-four of the felt letters from its “extinct birds” label are long gone, but their impressions remain. When you reach the bottom of a spiraling set of creaky, wooden stairs, the first thing you see is an entire case of colorful, taxidermied hummingbirds, lovingly posed on tiny twigs. The crown jewel of the library’s eclectic collection is easy to miss-you’ll have to descend into the basement (and go back about 70 years in the process) to see it. Ledgers from local business are fragile, but can be handled with care by request. Although the library’s thousands of books no longer circulate, its collection, including beautiful-but increasingly fragile-ledgers from local businesses, can be viewed and handled by request. The cornerstone for the library was laid in 1898, but it didn’t officially open until ten years later. Akin founded the The Akin Hall Association with other members of the Quaker Hill community in the service of “charity, literature, science and mutual improvement in religion.” The earliest settlers to the area, located in Dutchess County near the Connecticut border, were Quakers-the Oblong Friends Meetinghouse, built nearby in 1763, still stands today. | Photo: Alexandra Charitan Charity, literature, and science The first floor is home to thousands of books.

Chief architect library taxidermy