For the best view

Visitors to the Yale Peabody Museum are immediately awed by its bright interior, colorful and unusually shaped minerals and gems, ancient Mesoamerican and Egyptian artifacts, reptile and plant fossils, and, of course, the dinosaurs! No detail is overlooked, and even the smallest invertebrate or uncut diamond sits or stands in some type of mount.

The exhibits fabrication team handcrafted many of these mounts in-house. This small, highly creative crew, which includes Lead Exhibition Preparator Stefan Hurlburt and his colleagues, Museum Technicians Maishe Dickman and Nick Pfaff, engineers and assembles supports, pedestals, and furnishings for all manner of museum displays.

In addition to new installations, they regularly maintain the galleries and current exhibitions. They make enhancements like adding leaves and branches for a diorama or tweaking a mount holding a mosasaur skull fossil in the Burke Hall of Dinosaurs. They also partnered with the Yale Wright Laboratory to design and build a motor to rotate the sixteenth-century Hartmann Astrolabe showcased in the History of Science and Technology Exhibition.

A somewhat daunting project entailed devising a wall mount for an 8-pound quartz epimorph. This crystalized salmon and coffee-colored quartz — oddly formed and layered — is extremely delicate.

Given the size, shape, and thin areas of the rock, the team devised a complicated structure made of brass and epoxy that is contoured to the piece. Certain points of the mount attach to the quartz where clips are placed for even weight distribution. When finally installed — in the museum’s extended lobby area — it will appear to float on the display case wall.

Mount Lab

The mount shop on the museum’s lower level is chock full of hand and electric tools used to build and assemble many one-of-a-kind supports. The neatly arranged space includes a tool wall, soldering benches, and a welding booth for large-scale jobs.

Some of their most frequently used tools include pliers, hand drills, hammers, sanders, and a large cast steel anvil. To get the many different projects done around the museum, Hurlburt, Dickman, and Pfaff have experience in welding, carpentry, taxidermy, and project management.

“The items we handle are unique in size, shape, and makeup,” said Hurlburt. “We often must form metal, mostly brass, through welding and grinding to contour the fixture to the object or specimen. This process removes the edges, making it more aesthetically pleasing and unobstructed. We also faux finish many of our mounts to match the object. The less you see of our assemblies the better,” he added.

Often working with delicate or complex shapes, the team takes time to plan for each mount. “Simplicity is key, and avoiding contact with the specimen as much as possible is a priority, while also providing safety and stability for each item,” remarks Hurlburt.

When selecting materials to use, the exhibits staff partners with the museum’s conservation team. “Materials must be approved before we can work with them,” said Hurlburt. “For instance, we would want to ensure paints don’t give off gases that may discolor or harm an item.”

It takes a village

Hurlburt and his colleagues work in tandem with the museum’s conservators, collections staff, and other exhibitions staff to prepare, plan, install, maintain, and remove permanent and temporary collections and exhibits. “It is a massive group effort here, and no two projects are alike,” said Hurlburt. “We spend a good deal of time mapping out the mount constructs, carefully measuring, problem-solving, and assessing the object or specimen and how it needs to hang or lay flat on a surface. Our collaborators afford us a tremendous amount of trust to work with some incredible pieces, many of which are one of a kind.”

While making the mounts is a significant priority, this tightknit team works year-round on gallery space upkeep, including painting or fixing walls, building platforms, adding lighting, or adjusting supports that may have come loose.

“The fun part my job is also the most challenging. Everything you touch is always different, from an ancient dinosaur fossil to an ancient ceramic vessel. Also, with shifting deadlines and evolving exhibits, no day is ever the same. It’s an incredible place to work, and I’m grateful to my colleagues who have helped me continue to grow my skills,” remarks Hurlburt.