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Carnegie Museum of Natural History

One of the Four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh

Before Powdermill Nature Reserve

By Bonnie Isaac

black and white photo of a dirt road and trees

While looking through some images in the archives in the section of Botany I came across this image from July 23, 1923 taken by Gus Link Jr. about 3 miles south of Rector, PA.  There is a good chance that this property later became part of our Powdermill Nature Reserve.

The museum began acquiring properties in 1956 to form Powdermill Nature Reserve. I wonder if the museum folks were out there surveying the area with a nature reserve in mind? What foresight the museum had to acquire properties that have over the past 60 plus years become a beautiful place for research.

In 1923 Gustav Link Jr. was an assistant preparator in Zoology for the natural history museum. Gus Link Jr. worked for the museum from 1912 to 1960.

Bonnie Isaac is the Collection Manager in the Section of Botany. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.