Museum / Art Gallery

The next chapter for the EMS Museum is less about adding more activity and more about making the museum easier to use. A student should be able to find a specimen and build a project around it. A researcher should be able to discover what we hold before planning a visit. A teacher should be able to turn to the museum for objects and ideas that bring a lesson to life. Visitors to the gallery should find it a gateway to the vibrant community of the college who are engaged in work vital to addressing social and environmental issues.

The 2025-2030 strategic plan gives us a map for getting there. Some of the work is visible, such as new exhibitions, student projects, and public programs. Some of it happens behind the scenes, in catalog records, storage rooms, databases, and building systems. Both matter. A museum works best when good ideas are backed by reliable collections care, staff and students.

The next step is to turn this activity into lasting capacity. That means building systems that make the museum easier to use, care for, and support. In FY2026-27 and beyond, we will focus on practical priorities already underway: improving collections documentation, reducing facilities and storage risks, strengthening staff and student support, expanding digital access, and tracking our impact more consistently. Each priority helps the museum serve students, faculty, researchers, schools, community partners, donors, and visitors more effectively.

The goals are practical, but the possibilities are wide open. Better records can spark a research project. A safer storage space can keep an irreplaceable object available for the next class. A student job can become the first step toward a career. An exhibition can give someone a new way to see Pennsylvania’s landscapes and industries. That is the future we are working toward: a museum that is relevant, curious, welcoming, and ready for what comes next.

Museum Staff

Chris Widga (Director) and Patti Wood Finkle (Curator)

Advisory Board

Jonathan Mathews (Chair); Allen Kimel; Amara Solari; Chip Steidle; Chris Brida; Dave Glick; Elliott Rose; James Doyle; James Guyton; Jennifer Baka; John Simmons; Julianne Snider; Karen Pham; Lori Fisher; Maureen Feineman; Patti Wood Finkle; Patty Craig; Kevin Haworth; Marisa Ferger; Tanya Furman

Research Associates 

Julianne Snider, John Simmons, Derek Jurestovsky, Michael Deak

Gallery Attendants

Braden Amspacher; Zoee Gray; Clark Cushing; Joshua Contorchick; Katie Talis; Jamie Madden

Collections Assistants

Lael Mazzone, Sherry Shang, Sydney Siegel, Lily Sharp, Clark Cushing

Museum Interns

Alex Tuinstra; Lexi Woodring; Gabriella Heidorn; Lily Sharp; Abby Weiner; Tori Fokin; Katie Major; Gennaro DelPreore; Aidan Raczka

Volunteers in Collections

Nick Gilchenok; Jaimie Madden; Alex Miller, Chace Theodori, Kendall Thomas

Volunteers in Education and Outreach

Fall fourth-grade visits: Liz Tofte, Ava Parella, Zach Baran, Kelly Bennett, Evangal Basnet, Aidan Ross, Tsunami Sharmba, Benjamin Kilian, Nathan Vesel; Haunted-U: Denali Kinkaid, Miranda Lawrence, Lillian Miller, Ash Keenan, Kelly Bennett, Zach Baran; Earth Science Week: Zach Baran, Ash Keenan, Liz Tofte, Denali Kinkaid, Nisa Downey, Kaylee Neat; NMS Junior Education Day: Zach Baran, Sam Williams

The EMS Museum’s education and outreach work begins with a simple idea: collections matter most when people can use them. A fossil can open a conversation about deep time. A mineral specimen can introduce a child to earth science. A painting can reveal how industry changed Pennsylvania’s landscape. Through these encounters, the museum makes the work of the College more visible and easier to understand.

That work reached well beyond the gallery. During FY2025-26, the museum welcomed organized groups on campus and carried programs into the community. Staff and students met participants in schools, libraries, other museums, and at public events across central Pennsylvania. This approach allowed the museum to respond to local interests instead of relying only on campus visits. It also introduced Penn State to people who may not otherwise encounter the College.

The fourth-grade partnership with the Department of Geosciences and the State College Area School District remained the museum’s largest school program. In the fall, 551 students from 24 classrooms visited the museum. They worked with specimens and exhibits while learning about earth history and scientific inquiry. For many, the trip was an early introduction to Penn State and to a university museum.

Students helped make much of this work possible. They led activities, welcomed visitors, supported school programs, and represented the museum at public events. The experience also served their own education. Students learned how to explain scientific ideas clearly, adjust to different audiences, and build confidence in public-facing roles.

The programs described in this section show the range of the museum’s educational role. They connect schools and community groups with Penn State expertise. They give students practical experience. They also help the museum learn which programs are most useful to its audiences. Continued support will make this work more consistent and easier to evaluate over time.

K-12 and Community Outreach

State College Area School District Fourth-Grade Visits

The museum’s collaboration with the Department of Geosciences and the State College Area School District brought 551 fourth-grade students from 24 classrooms to the museum in the fall. Using fossils, specimens, exhibits, and museum spaces, students explored earth history and scientific inquiry as part of their regular science curriculum. The program provides an early, memorable connection to Penn State while demonstrating how university collections support K-12 education and public service.

Community Learning and Public Access

Public learning reached audiences through school visits, gallery programs, collections center tours, family activities, public talks, special events, and off-site outreach. Rather than relying on campus visits alone, the museum met audiences in partner settings across central Pennsylvania and translated EMS expertise into accessible, hands-on learning.

Major partners included the Nittany Mineralogical Society, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, local libraries, Rhoneymeade, the Penn State Arboretum, Titan Market in Bellefonte, and the Bellefonte Art Museum. Activities built around fossils, minerals, industrial heritage, glass, sustainability, and Pennsylvania geology supported public learning while giving students practice in outreach and science communication.

This work was supported by growing program capacity, student participation, and targeted museum support. The John and Gail Hussey endowment made it possible to develop programming and respond to community invitations. Continued investment in this area will allow the museum to build a robust outreach calendar, document audience impact, and strengthen our role as a land-grant museum serving central Pennsylvania communities both on and off campus.

MANTLE: Student-Led Outreach and Engagement

The Museum Advisory Network to Leverage Engagement (MANTLE), a museum-affiliated student organization, helped carry earth science programs beyond the classroom. Members led activities at campus events and worked with community partners. They also supported the museum’s fourth-grade visits and gallery programs.

Haunted-U was the group’s largest fall event. Six volunteers staffed a volcano-themed activity space that drew 217 visitors. The full Haunted-U program welcomed about 600 people. During Earth Science Week, MANTLE activities reached 71 participants.

In the spring, MANTLE students developed a vertebrate paleontology station for the Nittany Mineralogical Society’s Junior Education Day. More than 300 children and family members took part. The group also organized a Palentine’s Day program and a tie-dye activity with the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation.

MANTLE-supported programs reached at least 863 people in the last year. These activities expanded the museum’s reach while giving students direct experience in science communication and informal education.

Students and Professional Development

Student experiential learning and support is one of the museum’s clearest institutional returns. Interns, student gallery attendants, REU participants, curation assistants, and volunteers engaged in collections, exhibitions, conservation, research, outreach, and digitization activities while gaining professional experience in museum practice and science communication. Work with museum collections gives students experiences that are difficult to reproduce in a classroom. They learn to handle and identify specimens, build reliable catalog records, conduct original research, and interpret evidence for different audiences. They also see how documentation and collections care shape the questions researchers can ask in the future.

Most of the museum’s work begins with collections. A specimen may become part of a laboratory exercise. An artwork may anchor an exhibition. An archival record may help a researcher recover a history that would otherwise be lost. Each use depends on careful documentation and physical care.

Students played a large role in that care. During the year, 19 students contributed 751 hours to collections work. Their projects improved records and storage while giving them practical experience with museum methods. The collections center also welcomed 257 visitors for tours and instruction. These visits opened a part of the museum that most people rarely see.

The collection continued to change through new accessions and loans. Staff completed 17 accessions and managed 18 loans. Some objects came in for research or exhibition. Others traveled to classrooms, partner museums, and public programs. Each transaction required staff to document what moved, why it moved, and how it would be protected.

Much of the year’s progress happened out of public view. Staff and students inventoried legacy holdings, improved digital records, monitored storage conditions, and prepared materials for research. This work can be slow, but it determines whether a collection can be found and used. The pages that follow highlight acquisitions, loans, research access, and the long-term work of making the museum’s holdings more secure and useful.

Selected Acquisitions

The museum completed 17 accessions in FY2025–26. The new material ranged from geological specimens and industrial byproducts to artworks, scientific equipment, and objects tied to the history of Penn State. Together, the acquisitions strengthened collections that are actively used for teaching, exhibitions, research, and outreach.

Pennsylvania Materials and Industrial Landscapes

Several accessions documented the close relationship between geology and industry in Pennsylvania. Slag samples came from Eagle Iron Works, Centre Furnace, the East Broad Top Railroad, and Rock Ironworks. These materials preserve evidence of iron production and transportation. They can support teaching and future interpretation of the region’s industrial landscapes.

Collections for Teaching

New geological material expanded the museum’s options for hands-on instruction. Randy Ploog donated geodes from Van Buren County, Iowa. Field collecting added garnet- and staurolite-bearing Wissahickon schist, along with specimens of the individual minerals. Two fluorescent “Yooperlite” specimens from Wisconsin provide another useful entry point for teaching mineral properties.

A historic Burminco–Penn State rock and mineral kit joined the collection with related educational material. The kit documents an earlier approach to earth-science instruction and can support future work on the history of teaching within the College.

Art, Glass, and Materials Science

The Steidle Collection of American Industrial Art gained two works. Carolyn Domenig Latanision donated her watercolor Coke Oven Shutdown, Bethlehem Steel. Don and Janice Marshall donated Edwin Zoller’s charcoal study of the American Cathedral Glass Plant. The Zoller drawing complements a related painting already in the collection and offers a closer look at the artist’s working process.

Several other acquisitions also grew from exhibitions and student work. Meredith Davenport donated a print made with acid-mine-drainage pigment, along with pigment samples. The material links the Hybrid Zones exhibition to the permanent collection.

Aaron Bossen donated glass objects created through the Penn State Glass Studio. The group includes forms based on fossils and minerals, as well as vessels that demonstrate several glassworking techniques. These objects supported Elusive Glass and now provide lasting resources for materials-science teaching and public interpretation.

Preserving the College’s History

Other accessions recorded the history of teaching and research at Penn State. Woldemar Weyl’s academic regalia adds a personal object associated with an influential glass scientist and longtime faculty member. Coal plugs, slides, and related equipment from the EMS Energy Institute document laboratory practices and regional coal samples.

Collections Stewardship, Access, and Infrastructure

The museum continued long-term work to improve stewardship, documentation, digital access, and the research value of its collections. These investments keep collections discoverable and usable while strengthening the infrastructure that supports teaching, research, exhibitions, and public engagement.

Reimagining Core and Legacy Collections

Ongoing re-curation projects continued to transform core collections and legacy holdings into accessible, research-ready resources. Since 2023, 38 undergraduate students and volunteers have contributed thousands of hours rehousing specimens, improving records, conducting historical research, and expanding digital documentation. The project increases collection usability while providing hands-on experience in museum practice, collections management, and documentation of geomaterials.

Inventory and documentation projects also continued in the Economic Geology Collection and legacy collections. More complete records make it easier to identify specimens appropriate for teaching and learning, answer research inquiries, support loans and exhibitions, and contribute data to broader scientific initiatives focused on mineral resources and critical minerals.

Expanding Access Through Digitization and Documentation

Digitization and enhanced documentation continued to play an increasingly important role in expanding access to collections. Through enhanced specimen documentation, museum staff and students worked to connect physical collections with the information needed to support their use. These efforts improve access for researchers, educators, and students while preserving valuable contextual information about provenance, locality, identification, and historical significance.

This work also positions the museum to participate in larger research and data-sharing networks. Ongoing discussions with research and educational partners both in and outside of the university emphasize the importance of accurate inventories, georeferenced records, and well-documented collections for national critical-minerals research. Digitization extends the value of collections beyond the museum and increases their contribution to regional, national, and international research.

Advancing Research and Educational Collections

Work continued on the Quaternary paleontological assemblage from Hollidaysburg Fissure, one of the state’s most significant biological collections. Staff and students processed, inventoried, and partially rehoused an extensive Pleistocene assemblage excavated by Roger Cuffey and Shirley Fonda. These efforts improve access to an important regional dataset and prepare it for future research on Ice Age environments and faunal communities.

Staff and students also enriched the EMS Museum collections through historical research and documentation, including artist biographies in the Steidle Collection of American Industrial Art and expanded contextual information for specimens, objects, and archives. Better documentation increases the value of holdings for research, exhibitions, interpretation, and public engagement.

Strengthening Collections Infrastructure

The museum strengthened environmental monitoring across collections spaces. New remote sensors provide continuous climate data and send warnings when conditions change suddenly. They can also alert staff to emergencies such as water leaks. Dehumidifiers were added in collections areas and the museum gallery to improve humidity control during Pennsylvania summers.

Physical security also improved. Reorganized access routes created additional secure perimeters around the collections and reduced unnecessary movement through storage areas. The museum also completed an assessment with the University Office of Physical Security. Its findings will help prioritize future upgrades and direct resources toward the most pressing risks.

Strategic Impact

These projects put the museum’s 2025–2030 strategic plan into practice. Better records make collections easier to find and use. Improved monitoring, storage, and security protect materials that Penn State holds for future generations. Digitization opens the collections to people who cannot visit in person, while clear research and loan procedures allow broader use without sacrificing care.

The work is important in its own right. The museum is responsible for preserving collections that support teaching, research, exhibitions, and public understanding. The strategic plan provides a practical framework for that responsibility. It calls for stronger documentation, safer facilities, more consistent policies, improved digital access, and sustainable staffing. Progress in these areas will help ensure that the collections remain available and useful over the long term.

For many visitors, the EMS Museum Gallery in the Deike Building is their first introduction to the College. Art, objects, and exhibitions make earth and mineral sciences accessible. Students use the space for classes and projects, faculty share their work with broader audiences, and visitors can explore topics that may otherwise feel highly technical.

Gallery use increased in FY2025-26. Visitation rose by 7 percent, and organized programs increased by 16 percent. New exhibitions encouraged repeat visits, while courses used the gallery for teaching, discussion, and close observation. Talks, artist presentations, College celebrations, and research events brought together people who might not otherwise share the same space.

The exhibitions approached earth materials and industry from several directions. Hybrid Zones looked at extraction, environmental change, and sustainability in Pennsylvania’s anthracite region. Elusive Glass brought artistic practice and materials science together. Student curators used the Steidle Collection of American Industrial Art to explore industrial landscapes, labor, and local history. Displays in the EMS Library, the Hosler Building, and the Bellefonte Art Museum also reached visitors beyond the main gallery. Together, these projects show how exhibitions can support teaching and research while broadening communication to public audiences.

For years, one of the first points I have made to visitors is that museum collections are not quite like the boxes in your grandmother’s attic. That is mostly true. Like an attic, a museum collection holds the things a community once decided were worth saving: records of work completed, lessons taught, places visited, questions asked, and discoveries made. The boxes of old tax returns have their counterpart in the residue of past Ph.D. projects. Photo albums and movie reels are not completely unlike the teaching and training materials we preserve as evidence of how generations of students learned their trade. However, unlike a family attic, the EMS Museum’s collections do not belong to a single household. They hold the accumulated history, labor, curiosity, and scientific value of a college community.

That difference matters. The specimens, samples, instruments, artworks, maps, field notes, models, and teaching materials in our care are not simply old things waiting to be rediscovered. They are infrastructure for research, teaching, outreach, and public trust. Some objects document the intellectual history of the College, while others are active scientific resources, capable of supporting new questions, new technologies, and new collaborations. To steward them responsibly, we need to know what we have, why it was kept, what condition it is in, and how it can be made useful without compromising its long-term preservation.
Much of the past year has been devoted to this patient work. We have been going through the College’s “attic” with a more deliberate eye: identifying undocumented or underdocumented holdings, reconnecting specimens with the people and projects that produced them, improving how we track collections data, and thinking carefully about the risks and responsibilities that come with long-term care. This is not glamorous work, but it is foundational. Better information about the collections help us support faculty research, prepare meaningful student experiences, respond more quickly to inquiries, and make informed decisions about storage, security, conservation, and access.

This work is also deeply human. Every drawer, shelf, cabinet, and database record opens onto a network of faculty mentors, student researchers, alumni, artists, donors, and community partners. The EMS Museum is at its best when it turns those connections into learning opportunities: helping students handle authentic materials, giving researchers access to specimens, supporting classes that need objects rather than abstractions, and welcoming visitors into the scientific and creative life of the College. Collections become meaningful when they are cared for well enough to be used well.
The goal, then, is not to clean out the attic or hold a garage sale. It is to build sustainable, ethical, and useful collections that reflect the College’s past while serving its current and future priorities. That means balancing preservation with access, security with openness, and institutional memory with new discovery. It means making sure that what we keep is cared for and that what we share is presented with context, accuracy, and purpose.

In the pages that follow, you will see some of the results of this work: new discoveries in old collections, student projects that brought fresh energy to museum practice, exhibits and programs that connected Earth and mineral sciences to broader audiences, and planning efforts that will shape how the Museum serves the College in the years ahead. Our job is not finished, and it likely never will be. That is part of the privilege of museum work. We inherit what others thought worth saving, and we prepare it for people who will ask questions we cannot yet imagine. Thank you for being part of that ongoing work.

Chris Widga

Director, Penn State Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery

 

The mission of the Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum & Art Gallery is to serve the college, University, and broader community as an informed educational and technical resource for science, art, and history of the earth and mineral sciences through the preservation, utilization, and promotion of our diverse collections.

Research at the EMS Museum often starts with an object and a question. What can a tooth reveal about an animal’s movement? What does a mineral’s chemistry say about how it formed? How did artists record the industrial landscapes around them? Museum collections give researchers evidence they can examine again as methods and questions change.

That work crossed disciplinary lines in FY2025-26. Paleontological specimens supported studies of past environments and animal biology. Minerals and earth materials were analyzed for their chemical and physical properties. Artworks and archives helped researchers examine industry, labor, and material culture. Several projects also tested new imaging and characterization methods that could improve future access to collections.

The research described in this section includes work by museum staff, students, research associates, and collaborators at other institutions. It appears in presentations, publications, and collections-based projects. Together, these efforts show that the museum is not simply a place where evidence is stored. It is a place where new questions can be asked of old materials.

Collections: Infrastructure for Discovery

At the heart of the EMS Museum & Art Gallery is something that most visitors never fully see: the collections themselves. These are not static holdings or simply objects on shelves—they are dynamic, working resources that underpin nearly every aspect of the Museum’s role within the College, the University, and the broader community. In this way, museum collections function as a form of academic infrastructure that is essential to teaching, research, and public engagement.

For the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, collections are a foundation for inquiry. They provide raw materials for understanding earth systems, industrial history, and material culture across scales—from microscopic thin sections to landscape-level geological units. Faculty and students alike draw on these resources to ask new questions of old specimens, whether that means revisiting historic mining materials in the context of critical mineral supply chains or reanalyzing paleontological collections to better understand environmental change in Pennsylvania and beyond. Collections allow EMS to extend its research mission across time, linking past investigations with emerging scientific priorities.

At the University level, the Museum’s collections contribute to Penn State’s identity as a land-grant institution. They are shared resources—accessible to collaborators across disciplines and increasingly to global audiences through digitization. Partnerships with departments such as Geosciences, Materials Science and Engineering, and Geography demonstrate how collections serve as common ground for interdisciplinary work. At the same time, they support experiential learning by giving students direct access to real objects, real data, and real research processes. In this sense, collections are classrooms, laboratories, and archives all at once.

Equally important is the role collections play in connecting the University to the public. Donations from alumni, local collectors, and community members continue to shape and expand the Museum’s holdings, reinforcing a shared sense of stewardship. These contributions—whether fossils, industrial artifacts, or teaching materials—reflect the values and histories of the communities the Museum serves. Once incorporated into the collections, they become part of a larger framework that ensures their preservation, interpretation, and accessibility for future generations.

This year’s work highlights an ongoing shift in how the Museum approaches collections—not just as objects to be maintained, but as assets to be actively developed. Initiatives such as re-curation, digitization, and large-scale inventory projects are strengthening the long-term stability and usability of the collections. At the same time, research requests, loans, and collaborative projects demonstrate their continued relevance to both scholarly and public audiences.

The EMS Museum & Art Gallery continued to serve as one of the College’s most visible and flexible points of connection to the University and central Pennsylvania communities. It is a place where Penn State students practice science communication, faculty extend classroom learning, and community audiences encounter the earth and mineral sciences in ways that are immediate and hands-on. Education and outreach are often described in terms of numbers, but their larger significance lies in what they make possible. For the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, these activities turn collections, exhibits, and expertise into public-facing experiences that reflect the depth of EMS research and teaching. For the University, they support Penn State’s land-grant mission by creating opportunities for outreach, experiential learning, and interdisciplinary collaboration. For the community, they open the Museum as a place of access, where schoolchildren, families, alumni, and visitors can explore stories of science, history, and environment through direct engagement with objects and ideas.

That work was especially visible in the Museum’s ongoing partnership with the Department of Geosciences and educators in the State College Area School District. For the second year in a row, fourth-grade students came to campus to explore fossils and earth history as part of their regular science curriculum, giving hundreds of children an early encounter with Penn State as a place of discovery. Just as important, the Museum continued to function as a laboratory for student growth. Interns and volunteers contributed research, exhibit development, collections work, and outreach support. Faculty also used the Museum as a teaching space, bringing classes into the gallery to think about science communication, public interpretation, and the role of collections in understanding the past and present. Taken together, these efforts illustrate how the Museum contributes well beyond its walls: it helps students learn by doing, strengthens connections between the College and the public, and reinforces the University’s role as a trusted cultural and educational resource in the region.

• More than 400 fourth-grade students from 26 State College Area School District classrooms visited the Museum in January, February, and March as part of the district’s science curriculum.