A Silver Lining
by Carol Bodensteiner
photo courtesy DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge
It’s hard to find the good news in last year’s Missouri River flood, but the folks who care for the Bertrand Collection at the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge are making the best of a bad situation.
Thanks to extensive public involvement, all 250,000 artifacts in the collection were moved to safety before the museum flooded. “Many people who were invested intellectually in the exhibit are now invested physically, too,” says Dean Knudsen, museum curator.
The Bertrand display, including the contents of the Bertrand steamboat, a supply boat that sank in 1865, had not changed in 30 years.
While the museum is closed and artifacts are in storage, researchers will photograph and document all the contents, develop a standardized catalog, and do conservation work on some of the metal objects.
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