BYU’s Exhibition of Discovery exhibit to leave soon

PROVO, UT -- Any individual wanting to check out BYU’s Exhibitions of Discovery exhibit in the Harold B. Lee Library better act fast as the exhibit is scheduled to only run through the end of October.

The Harold B. Lee Library’s exhibit program is an important program for BYU. There have been many different exhibits on display throughout the years. Currently there are five different exhibits on display in the library.

In discussing the exhibits, the library’s website says, “The mission of the Harold B. Lee Library exhibit program complements the mission of BYU. All exhibits ‘assist individuals in their quest for perfection…[in that they] make their own contribution toward the balanced development of the total person.’ Exhibits are a wonderful part of the education process. They not only teach, but they help the viewer tangibly and intellectually connect with the past.”

Located on the third floor of the library, just past the security desks, the Exhibitions of Discovery exhibit gives information on various different exhibitions that BYU faculty and students have embarked on starting in 1900 and going throughout the century even up to exhibitions gone on recently.

The exhibit discusses origins of discovery at BYU as it quotes Karl G. Maeser’s 1898 book, School and Fireside, “While the Academy has quite a number of geological, mineralogical, botanical, and other specimens in the museum, it respectfully asks that its friends, especially the members and patrons of the school, make such donations and contributions to this department as their kindness and ability will permit.”

Prominent individuals that the exhibit talks about include former BYU president Franklin S. Harris, who went on an exhibition to Russia in the 1920’s; Dinosaur Jim, who helped develop BYU’s paleontology program; Dr. Vasco Tanner, who established BYU’s zoology and entomology department; and Wilmer W. Tanner, who was a curator of BYU’s Life Sciences Museum in the 1970s.

Other highlights of the exhibit include an Allosaurus jawbone from the BYU Museum of Paleontology, a collection of insects from the Monte L. Bean Museum and clay pots and figures from BYU’s Museum of Peoples and Cultures.

The exhibit was initially set up on May 12, 2014, having replaced the Orson Scott Card exhibit, which ran from October 2013 to March 2014.