How to draw a Tyrannosaurus rex!

Posted on June 23, 2020 by Adrienne Stroup

Like many of you, I’ve been working from home for the past 3+ months. At the Field Museum I work in the vertebrate paleontological collections, and am in charge of the loan program. Loans have screeched to a halt, with the exception of loans to preparators working on fossils from their dining room tables. So how have I been spending my time?

Educational outreach! Now that we basically live in ZOOM, outreach on social media is more important than ever. I’ve participated in a few live videos, one through Facebook Live discussing basic paleoart themes and using my favorite dinosaur, Troodon, as an example, and one through Instagram Live, hosting a draw-along-with-me Tully Monster tutorial.

Virtual Meet A Scientist

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Tully monster was an aquatic animal that lived about 300 million years ago. Geology Collections Assistant Adrienne Stroup shows us how to draw this wild-looking creature that has a special place in our heart.

A post shared by Field Museum (@fieldmuseum) on May 28, 2020 at 11:48am PDT

This type of outreach has always been a part of what do at the museum, and I bet it will only increase for the “foreseeable future” (a phrase I’m getting sick of, but its accurate.)

I also created this “How to Draw SUE the T. rex” for another institution, who decided not to use it (grumble grumble – I could spend a lot of time ranting but I won’t.) However I did spend a great deal of time on it, so please enjoy!

How to Draw SUE the T. rex!Download
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Facebook Live: Bringing the obscure fossil animals alive and into your home

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Adrienne Stroup

In 2017, as a part of #fossilfriday, once a month I chose a fossil specimen in our collections to render in chalk and discuss on the Field Museum’s Facebook page. This was an idea put forward by our social media team and I used this platform to really highlight some lesser-known animals in our vertebrate fossil collections (throwing a few dinosaur in there too, of course.) I tried to stay away from depicting really mainstream fossils in order to educate the audience about some equally amazing animals that just don’t get the coverage they deserve in the public eye or paleoart for that matter.

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Women in Science in Art at the Field

Posted on September 20, 2019 by Adrienne Stroup

Paleontology lends itself to being an ideal science for artists. My employer, the Field Museum has been proactive in celebrating not only women in science, but women artists in science. I thought I’d share some blog posts I’ve authored on the Field Museum’s site:

Picturing the Past Through Scientific Illustration

https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/picturing-past-through-scientific-illustration

Bill Turnbull’s Eocene was a piece I created for my friend and colleague Susumu Tomiya, as a farewell present and to honor the completion of a huge NSF-funded collections improvement project, cataloguing the bulk of Dr. Turnbull’s backlog of fossils recovered from the Washakie Basin in Wyoming. This piece was then the focus of the blog post linked above, and its publication led to some delightful connections made. I received a message from Bill’s granddaughter, she was looking through the Field Museum’s website, planning a trip with her boyfriend, and stumbled upon my artwork. This led to a collections visit where I had the pleasure to meet both of them and give them a tour of Dr. Turnbull’s vast collection. Later I was also privileged to meet Hedy Turnbull, Bill’s widow and present to her a print of the drawing, which was well received. Art can truly be a wonderful way to connect with people and share passion for science, discovery and our natural world.

Women in Art

https://www.fieldmuseum.org/blog/women-art-adrienne-stroup-geology-collections-assistant

Here is a short interview I did with our social media team. It’s pretty astounding to know how many women at the Field are both scientists and artists – its a positive community of which to be a part.

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Scientific Illustration as a tool for education

Posted on September 7, 2014 by Adrienne Stroup

Working at The Field Museum doesn’t just entail collections care.  Another aspect of museum work is, of course, education.  It’s not only important to help preserve these specimens, but also to inform the public about why we collect, why preservation is important, and generally just give people an idea of what happens behind the scenes.  I’ve participated in a few outreach programs here: Members Nights, Meet a Scientist, and most recently gave tours through the Fossil Mammal Range with my boss, Susumu Tomiya, as a part of the iDigBio “Careers and Graduate Study in the Biological Sciences” workshop.

When we show the fossils in our collection, I believe it’s very helpful to include illustrations, especially for unusual animals like Uintatheres and Brontotheres.  When working with these animals, its easy to take for granted what we are looking at.  “Well, obviously, its a Uintathere skull…”  It may not be so obvious to the general public, and its important to address this.  Museums are perfect for bridging the gap between scientists and the public through illustrations, exhibits, tours and other types of informal education.

Here are some examples of illustrations I created for the events listed above:

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Collections Care at The Field Museum

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Adrienne Stroup

I’ve been working at The Field Museum in Chicago since November, 2013.  Initially hired as an intern, my appointment was extended and now I’m a Collections Assistant.  I started off making Ethafoam lined trays for the non-mammalian synapsid collection.

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 This significant collection was historically housed with fossil reptiles and amphibians, as The Field organizes its fossil collections taxonomically.  Though synapsids, such as Dimetrodon, are often mistaken for dinosaurs, these animals are more closely related to mammals than reptiles.

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Thus, the next step for this project was to move all 1100 specimens from the Fossil Reptile Range to the Fossil Mammal Range.  Finally this collection will be reorganized stratigraphically, after the specimens are updated with new taxonomic information.  Ethafoam tray liners and cradles, and archival sleeves for original documents will help preserve this collection for decades to come. The new location, organizational scheme, and identification info for this collection will aid researchers in accessing this collection.  The two most important aspects of collections management are accessibility and preservation of the collection, and it was great to be able to help The Field Museum meet these goals.

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Ashfall Interpretive Illustrations

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Adrienne Stroup

In 2013, I worked at Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park for a second summer and was asked to stay into the fall to redesign some outdated displays for the Visitor Center.  Here are a few pictures of the newly installed permanent exhibit.  For a better look at the illustrations, check them out here.

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Topics in Paleobiology

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Adrienne Stroup

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I took this course as an elective for my museum degree.  Topics ranged from the PETM to the ongoing Evolution vs. Creationism debate.  I also got some experience working with data from the Paleobiology Database.  The course was set up like a round table discussion, and each week the students would take turns teaching a different topic.  Our final was a research project and presentation on a topic of our choice.  I explored the complexities of horse evolution and the relationship between these ungulates and the changing landscape of what is now the North American Great Plains.

After taking this class and returning to Ashfall Fossil Beds for another summer, it was especially amazing that two beautifully preserved horse skeletons were uncovered.  The horses, displayed above are from two different genera, on the left is a Pliohippus and on the right is a Neohipparion.  The Pliohippus was a fun detailing project, I spent many weeks working on excavating this gorgeous animal.    

 

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Preservation of Library and Archival Collections

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Adrienne Stroup

Besides my general interest in the subject, Preservation of Library and Archive Collections contained a lab component, which was the highlight of the course.  I learned the basics of book repair, paper conservation, and preservation.  Reading about repair techniques, seeing the demonstrations in class, then having the opportunity to practice what we learned was a really effective way to solidify the course material.  Not only that, it was fun!  We chose a book on which to practice the techniques during the lab sessions.  Basically, I tore it apart over the course of the semester and used my new skills to repair it.  Below are some photos of the finished repaired book, with new end papers and spine.  Having worked in the library and archives at Hartwick College, it was really interesting to learn about a different aspect of working with these types of collections.

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A research paper on a topic of our choosing was also required. I explored a different aspect of preservation – the preservation of natural history collections within the National Park Service.

Preservation Cover

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Museums & Contemporary Practice

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Adrienne Stroup

This class was an intensive, week long walking tour of our nation’s capital, focusing on it’s rich and diverse array of museums, historic sites, and parks.  The course included insightful visits from many SU museum studies alumni, and “behind-the-scenes” tours of the institutions at which they now work. Probably my favorite speakers were Ann Drumheller, former head registrar of the National Museum of the American Indian, Joan Bacharach, of the National Park Service’s Museum Management Program, and Michael Skalka, conservation administrator at the National Gallery of Art, who also gave us a tour of the conservation labs.

The class was structured around these visits, some in-class discussion sessions, free time to explore institutions on our own, and was concluded by a paper on a topic of our choice.  After having recently visited the Utica Zoo, and Syracuse’s own Rosamond Gifford Zoo, I thought a comparison study between the two and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo would be interesting.

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Organization and Manangement of Archive Collections

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Adrienne Stroup

This online course covered modern theory and organizational strategy of archival collections. The class takes a look at the major aspects of archiving: survey and selection, appraisal, acquision and accession, arrangement, description, as well as digitization, audiovisual collections, public access, and preservation.  Similar to Collections Management, the final project was to create an archive collection, with the detailed plans to house and care for the collection.  My collection consisted of photos, letters and 3D objects pertaining to my maternal grandparents.  In addition to the portfolio, a PowerPoint presentation was made to highlight specifics of the collection and its management policy.  An EAD (Electronic Archival Description) finding aid was created for the collection as well.

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