Ohio Wesleyan University’s geological collection, which was amassed in Delaware, Ohio, USA, is among the oldest in America, but decades after those who assembled the collection retired and passed on, the collection fell into obscurity and its storage area was repurposed. Prof Loren Babcock, Director of the Orton Geological Museum at The Ohio State University, is leading a 3-year rescue project to stabilise, catalogue, and digitise more than 15,000 specimens. From rediscovered scientific-name-bearing type fossils to ethically sourced collections linked to abolitionist networks, the initiative promises not only to safeguard irreplaceable scientific material, but to revive a once overlooked foundation of American geology for future generations.

Significant Specimens

In the basement of Ohio Wesleyan University’s (OWU’s) science building, beneath decades of dust, sat one of the most extraordinary geological collections. More than 15,000 fossil, mineral, and rock specimens, many dating back 390 million years to the Devonian Period, have a unique history that is beginning to feel the strain of time. Primarily collected in the 1830s to 1860s, and now under the care of Dr Loren Babcock, Professor and Director of the Orton Geological Museum at The Ohio State University, OWU’s geological collection symbolises the infancy of palaeontology in America. However, almost two hundred years later, paper labels are crumbling, cardboard specimen trays are decomposing, and with them, crucial information about America’s earliest geological investigations is disappearing.

This isn’t just another forgotten university collection. Among these deteriorating specimens are fossil plants from Ohio and Illinois documented in America’s earliest geological reports, dinosaur tracks from Massachusetts, and many of the earliest-reported fish fossils from North America, which were long thought lost to science. The collection represents the work of some of America’s most eminent 19^th century geologists, ones who helped build the foundations of American geology during the Industrial Revolution, including William W. Mather, John Strong Newberry, Edward Orton, James Hall, Leo Lesquereux, Edward Hitchcock, James Dwight Dana, and Ferdinand V. Hayden. Some of the specimens were collected at the direction, or with the political backing, of US presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes.

Now, the Orton Geological Museum at The Ohio State University has received a comprehensive proposal to protect this collection. The 3-year project would transfer specimens from temporary storage and house them in proper archival conditions while cataloguing the entire collection, making it publicly accessible through digital databases and exhibitions. This project will not only rescue an irreplaceable scientific collection but transform it into a source of research, wonder, and public engagement. The work of researching the collection and applying it in teaching and outreach has begun already.

A 50-cm Devonian chondrichthyan (“shark”), Cladoselache fyleri, preserved in a carbonate concretion and showing a microbial “decay halo;” from the Cleveland Shale Member of the Ohio Shale (Devonian) in Cleveland, Ohio. This specimen was collected by Wiiliam Kepler between and 1860 and 1868. This fossil chondrichthyan was the centrepiece of an art/palaeontology exhibition entitled “Fossils and Halos,” organized by Camilla Querin. This exhibition featured original works of art by OWU faculty artists Kristina Bogdanov, Frank Hobbs, and Jeff Nilan that were inspired by the fossil.

Rediscovering Lost Treasures

Several distinctive features make this collection unlike many others. In palaeontology, type specimens are the original physical examples used to describe a new species. They’re essentially the gold standard, acting as the reference point against which all future identifications are made. For decades, numerous type specimens from John Strong Newberry’s seminal work on Devonian and Jurassic fishes were presumed lost. Newberry was a a leading 19th-century geologist who published fish fossil descriptions that represented some of the earliest work on ancient vertebrates in North America. Those “lost” specimens? They’ve been rediscovered in the OWU collection. This isn’t just historically interesting; these specimens remain scientifically relevant today, as researchers continue to refine our understanding of vertebrate evolution.

The challenge now is identifying all the type specimens in the collection before it’s too late. Some have paper labels or small tags glued to them indicating their scientific status, and others just have distinctive paint spots. But some have lost all associated details and can only be identified by painstakingly matching them to published illustrations and descriptions. It is important but time-consuming work, but with the paper information associated with the specimens crumbling and disappearing, time has become a precious commodity.

Ethically Sourced Specimens

There’s another element to this collection that makes it potentially unprecedented in museum history. Rev Dr Frederick Merrick, who was the second president of OWU and the museum’s founder, didn’t just collect specimens, he forged relationships with specific scientists, collectors, and politicians, all of whom shared a particular set of values. It appears that every major contributor to the OWU Geology Museum was connected to the abolitionist movement in the pre-Civil War era, and most continued as advocates for expanding civil rights afterward— a remarkable characteristic considering the prevailing attitudes of many leading scientists at the time.

This raises the fascinating possibility that the OWU Geology Museum collection may be one of the earliest instances of any natural history collection assembled with ethical considerations in mind, which is unfortunately seldom seen in today’s western world.

Left: Woodcut from J.S. Newberry (1853), a composite illustration showing two teeth of the lobe-fin fish Onychodus sigmoides. The larger tooth is the one illustrated on the right (image reversed in the woodcut). This is the lectotype of the species.
Right: Tooth of a giant lobe-finned fish, Onychodus sigmoides, from the Devonian of Delaware, Ohio. This species was illustrated in 1853 and described in 1857 by John Strong Newberry, based on this and one other tooth. This tooth is 5.5 cm long. Lobe-finned fishes are of evolutionary importance, as they gave rise to landdwelling vertebrate animals.

The Current Crisis

The collection has faced many threats over 150 years or more. After decades in Merrick Hall (1873–1970), it was shifted to basement storage as the museum slipped into obscurity. By the 1980s, some fossil fishes were sent to the American Museum of Natural History, and type specimens were thought lost.

Then, in 2023, OWU began preparing new laboratory and teaching spaces, and the collections came under imminent threat. Specimens were urgently transferred to the Orton Geological Museum between between 2023 and 2024. While this emergency relocation prevented the worst outcome, most of the collection materials now remain in interim storage, stacked in outdated drawers and continuing to deteriorate.

A condition assessment identified multiple critical issues. There’s no general catalogue of the collection and most specimens are unnumbered; if a catalogue ever existed, it’s now lost, making the determination of their geographic and stratigraphic provenance highly challenging. Paper labels made from sulphide-bearing materials are crumbling and actively damaging specimens through sulphuric acid formation, which is particularly problematic for carbonate rocks like limestone. Iron sulphide minerals in both specimens and storage materials are suffering from pyrite disease, causing specimens, labels, and trays to break down. Also, the interim storage lacks proper environmental controls.

The 3-Year Rescue Plan

Prof Babcock’s project is comprehensive and methodical. Year 1 focuses on refurbishing a large storage room in Orton Hall, which is Ohio State’s geological museum building, to house the specimens, hiring a curatorial assistant and student workers, and beginning to move specimens from temporary storage, while conserving and cataloguing them. This will involve studying comparative specimens in other museums such as the American Museum of Natural History. In the 19^th century, it was common practice to split fossils into part and counterpart slabs and place them in different collections, so some of the OWU specimens likely have matching halves in New York, assisting in their identification.

Year 2 continues the curation work and begins public engagement. Year 3 completes the curation, creates a digital catalogue for web access, continues public exhibitions and conference presentations, and deposits archival records at Ohio State, Ohio Wesleyan, and the Ohio Division of Geological Survey. This project will foster collaboration between these three institutions, as they maintained close connections in the 19^th century. Educational value is also built into the project, as students will develop research projects from the collection and learn museum curatorial procedures.

The budget combines federal and institutional support, covering archival materials, digital storage, and new specimen cabinets. The OWU collection will have dedicated cabinets, with all specimens rehoused in acid-free labels and trays. Original labels will be preserved in archival envelopes, and each specimen will be digitally photographed. This transformation of storage, documentation, and access will give the collection and its research potential a new lease on life.

No Time Like the Present

Collections like this are irreplaceable resources. They’re not just objects, but sources of scientific data that can be reanalysed with new techniques, such as modern imaging, geochemical analysis, and computational methods — answering questions that couldn’t even be imagined when the specimens were first collected. But quality science requires preserved specimens.

The Orton Geological Museum has the expertise, facilities and the institutional commitment to provide permanent, professional care for this collection. This project isn’t just about safekeeping old museum objects for academic research, it’s about preserving the material foundations of American science, recovering lost type specimens, and documenting what may be one of the earliest ethically-curated natural history collections in existence. It’s about making 15,000 specimens widely accessible so they do not become lost to science and history. The clock is ticking, but with adequate support, this remarkable collection can be saved, studied, and shared for generations to come.