Undercover Bird Man

When the Pink Palace opened its doors in 1930 as the Memphis Museum of Natural History and Industrial Arts, there were not a lot of objects in the collection. In fact, the museum opened on March 8, 1930 with little fanfare other than two small news articles. Only three rooms had partially finished exhibits. The “most interesting collections” were an Arctic wolf, Kodiak bear, Sonora grizzly, glacier grizzly, sea otter, California heads and a musk ox head. The commissioners said “It is the idea of the commissioners as well as the advisory board that the utmost care be taken in its acceptance and placing of exhibits in this museum…This care on the part of those in charge of the museum we hope the public will appreciate and by doing so thereby understand the small amount of space occupied at this time with exhibits.” In an effort to fill out the…