George and Romie Gunckel: Explorer’s Collection Documents a Thoughtful Passion for World History

by ELIZABETH FISHER

A native of Dayton, George I. Gunckel grew up at 527 West 2^nd Street, an affluent and formative neighborhood in the city.  He was recognized as a member of a pioneering and influential family in the community. Gunckel’s father, Oliver I. Gunckel was considered a “man of affluence in Dayton” and “represented one of the old pioneer families” of the region. His grandfather and namesake, George W. Gunckel, at the age of 83, was depicted as the second oldest pioneer resident in the Village of Germantown in the Dayton Daily News on August 2, 1904. His death in 1909 was documented “as the last [member] of this famous family, which has done so much for Montgomery County.”

Gunckel’s First Post  – Guard Mount at Camp Marahui

It was a flourishing time in military dentistry and an unsettling period in the Southern Philippines. Gunckel and his wife, Romie, spent the first three years in Southern Philippines among the Moro people. The Muslim or Moro population were resistant to foreign occupation since the Spanish-American War. Regardless, the Gunckel’s had respect for the people and culture. Over 260 objects in the Gunckel collection at the Dayton Society of Natural History represent the Philippine culture and Moro people.

Food Basket

Enlistment dental standards, until WWII, “only required enough teeth to bite off the end of the cartridge so that the gunpowder and bullet (ball) could be loaded into a muzzleloader rifle.

Following his prosperous adolescence, George I. Gunckel earned the title of D.D.S. in 1899 from Ohio Medical University, after graduating from Ohio State University and Orchard Lake Military School. One year later, he married “Greenville girl” Romie Elizabeth Turner. After establishing a private dentistry practice, in 1904 he joined the U. S. Army Medical Corps as a Contract Dental Surgeon. Shortly afterward, George and Romie sailed for the Philippine Islands for the next three years. Lieutenant Colonel Gunckel served as a dental surgeon for the U. S. Army Medical Corps from 1904 to 1919.

Brass Gong

Gunckel concluded his military service after WWI and traveled the world with his wife during retirement. They eventually returned to Gunckel’s childhood home in Dayton, where they resided until his death at 61 on April 17, 1937.

After his final retirement from dentistry, George and Romie Gunckel traveled worldwide visiting places like Alaska, the American Southwest, Western Indians, South America, and Mexico.

Bamboo Harp

In 1946, Mrs. Romie Gunckel transferred the Gunckel collection to the Dayton Public Library Museum, or Dayton Society of Natural History (DSNH) as we know it today, in memory of her husband. These included Japanese samurai armor, Spanish armor, swords, spears, baskets, musical instruments, shields, woven garments such as sarongs and sashes, and much more.

 

Samurai Armor. Left Shin Protector

Romie sold their home to the American Red Cross during WWII and returned to Greenville where she passed away on September 6, 1948.

Elizabeth Fisher is Collections Manager and Registrar for the Dayton Society of Natural History.

 

 

 

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Complete Your Holiday Shopping List at the Discoveries Gift Shop at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery!

ANGELA M. SHAFFER

Are you still searching for the perfect holiday gifts for your friends and family? The Discoveries Gift Shop at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery offers thousands of educational, fun, and unique items for everyone on your list! Whether you’re searching for hands-on science and robot kits, striking rock and fossil specimens, colorful plush pieces, or even a Star Wars™ Death Star™ serving platter, we’ve got you covered!

Our knowledgeable, friendly Guest Services staff is always happy to help you choose the perfect gift. Visit us anytime the Museum is open (9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday); you may shop anytime in the Discoveries Shop without paying general admission.

Just in time for the busy holiday shopping season, here are some of our most popular items and staff favorites, organized by price. Happy holidays!

Stocking stuffers under $5.00

We have a plethora of fun stocking stuffers at affordable prices. A perennial favorite is astronaut ice cream, in delicious flavors like mint chocolate chip and cinnamon apple wedges. Other bestsellers include bright Ty™ plush clips for accessorizing backpacks and jackets, sparkling crack-open geodes and amethyst and citrine specimens, earthy rock and mineral dig kits, slimy Mars mud and Pluto plasma,  and slippery water snakes—all priced at $4.99 or less!

Stocking stuffers under $10.00

You’ll find lots to of unique plush pieces in the Discoveries Shop, and we carry several smaller pieces, including super-soft otters, meerkats, and sloths. If you’ve got a little one who loves to play with diecast toys, we’ve got those, too, including trains, police cars, planes, and tractors. You can fill a branded drawstring bag with rocks or magnet stones to give to a young geologist, or you can gift a robot claw to a young explorer!

Gifts under $20.00

We carry a wide variety of DIY science kits for less than $20.00, so stock up for all of the budding astronomers, paleontologists, and scientists on your list! Just in time the holidays, new Ty Gear™ plush backpacks are available in a variety of styles. You’ll also find ant farms, large plastic dinosaurs, mermaid-and fairy-making kits, and backpacks full of themed diecast toys!

Gifts under $50.00

For less than $50.00, there are several truly unique options in the Discoveries Shop. The Inclocknito and Spy Science Money Safe kits allow kids to keep their treasures safe, while our brand-new Scientific Robot kit offers many experiments and learning opportunities in one convenient package. Dinosaur table lamps offer a cool way to light up the night, and impressive pizza and space station playsets will bring hours of imaginative play to the creative kids on your list. And don’t forget the large Ty™ Beanie Boos™ and Beanie Babies™, which promise hours of colorful cuddling fun!

Adults

What do you buy for the guy or gal who has everything? A Bigfoot action figure or scarf, of course, or perhaps Star Wars™ salt-and-pepper shakers or that Death Star™ serving platter! Pass the time by completing a puzzle featuring the periodic table of the elements or beautiful gemstones; keep the time with a cool galaxy-print (or, yes, Star Wars™-themed) wall clock. Cozy socks in a variety of fun animal designs help keep cold winter feet warm; cold winter mornings are made a little more bearable when hot coffee or tea is sipped from a handwarmer animal mug. And office work always goes a little faster when you have a woodpecker stapler or otter tape dispenser by your side.

Visit the Discoveries Gift Shop today and let us help you choose the perfect holiday gifts!

Angela M. Shaffer is the Senior Manager, Guest Services and Database Management at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery.

Legendary Shawnee Chief Tecumseh Inducted Into Dayton Region’s Walk of Fame

ANDREW SAWYER

The last week of September has been celebrated as American Indian Week in Ohio since 2014 when the Ohio General Assembly voted to publicly recognize American Indian communities and their history in our state. An additional acknowledgment of Ohio’s American Indian heritage took place recently in Dayton as well. Since the City of Dayton Bicentennial in 1996, the Dayton Region’s Walk of Fame has set out to recognize outstanding individuals and groups for their enduring personal or professional contributions to the community, nation, and the world. On Thursday, September 28, the Dayton Region’s Walk of Fame inducted their first American Indian into that group, Shawnee Chief  Tecumseh.

         Legendary Shawnee Chief                   Tecumseh

Born in 1768 in southern Ohio, Tecumseh grew up during an era when the newly independent United States was expanding into the Ohio Valley homeland of the Shawnee and other indigenous tribes. This expansion was opposed by American Indian tribes in the region including the Shawnee, Miami, Delaware, and many others, who joined forces in the late 1700s to defend their homelands. The signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795 ceded southern Ohio to the United States. After this, Tecumseh was determined to keep what land remained for the Shawnee in Ohio, and if possible to reclaim land that had been ceded.

The Meeting of Brock and Tecumseh: War of 1812 Bicentennial – C.W. Jeffereys

With this in mind Tecumseh, along with his brother Tenskwatawa (The Shawnee Prophet), reassembled a confederacy of American Indian tribes who fought against previous U.S. expansion and joined forces with the British in the War of 1812 in hopes of accomplishing those goals. Tecumseh’s death at the Battle of the Thames in October of 1813 ended those hopes, but he continues to be remembered as a brilliant military strategist and organizer. Ultimately the U.S. forced the removal of the Shawnee and other tribes from Ohio to “Indian Territory” in what are now the states of Kansas and Oklahoma.

While Tecumseh’s vision of maintaining tribal territory in their Ohio homelands may not have succeeded, his hopes for the survival of the Shawnee did, and many of them were in Dayton to celebrate his rightful induction into the Dayton Region’s Walk of Fame.

Andrew Sawyer is an anthropologist and archaeologist. He is the Site Director of SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park in Dayton, Ohio.

 

 

Boonshoft Museum’s Educator Open House Helps Make Your Classroom Too Cool for School!

By BLAIRE M. H. BARTISH

The days are getting shorter, the weather is starting to cool down, and the 2017-2018 school year is beginning! Another nine-month season of all things academic is upon us, and some of the hardest workers on the planet are gearing up to get back to the grind.

We at the Boonshoft know how hard teachers work. We are constantly in contact with educators of all kinds- from Preschool to High School and even College! Their never-ending sacrifice is evident in their love of learning and their dedication to their students. In order to show gratitude and support to our favorite public servants, the Education Department at BMD is hosting its second annual Educator Open House (EOH).

This year’s EOH will take place at the Museum on Thursday, August 31, from 6-8 pm. Since teachers tend to spend a lot of their own money on things for the classroom, complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served from the ever-popular Brock Masterson, and fantastic raffle prizes from United Arts and Education, Mary Kay, Shawnie Haskell Licensed Massage Therapist, Highlights Magazine, and the Education Department at the Boonshoft will be available.

The night will feature a variety of program samplings from BMD, sister sites SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park, Fort Ancient Earthworks and Nature Preserve, and the Montgomery County Solid Waste District. Interested in learning how your students can become experienced water-quality specialists? Stop in and watch Robin, our Senior Coordinator of School and Teacher Services perform a demonstration from our Pond Study program. Want to know how your students can spend a day living like ancient civilizations? Talk to Jack at the Fort Ancient table about the Explorers Workshop. Need help figuring out which grants your classroom is eligible for? See Karen at the Education Desk for help getting things like Exhibits-to-Go in your school at no cost.

The EOH is great for middle school and high school teachers as well. Many people tend to write BMD off as a “children’s museum,” however, we have a variety of interactive programs for older students, such as looking at parent-child traits of fruit flies in our Genetics and Heredity Workshop. Your pupils may be too big to go down the slide, but they are never too old to be captivated by science!

As always, the Educator Open House is free to attend, but registration is limited and required. Reserve your spot now at https://dsnh.regfox.com/educator-open-house.

We hope to see you there!

 

Blaire M. H. Bartish is the Manager of School and Public Programs at the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery.

So You Want to See the Total Solar Eclipse This August

By JOE CHILDERS

Chances are you’ve heard that a rare astronomical event is happening on August 21; a total eclipse of the Sun.  Not only is it rare (there hasn’t been one visible from the Miami Valley since 831 CE), it is also spectacular!  Indeed, eclipse expert Fred Espenak,  who has been under the moon’s shadow more than twenty times, says “In rating natural wonders, on a scale of 1 to 10 a total solar eclipse is a million.”

 

Total Solar Eclipse In France 1999   (Luc Viatour/wwwLucnix.be)

 

From Dayton this August we’ll see a deep partial eclipse—close, but no cigar.  We will get to see a total (or totality) solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, but if you’re impatient or don’t want to risk bad weather, you’ll want to travel down to Kentucky or Tennessee to see this year’s eclipse.

Here are three things you need to know:

1. Do not expect to find a hotel, campground, or any other kind of accommodations whatsoever within driving distance of the eclipse path.

When it’s been forty years since the last American total solar eclipse, people who have been looking forward their entire lives to this got their reservations in early—up to three years ago!  So plan to sleep in your car, if at all.

2. Do expect that traffic will be horrible that morning.

Everyone else who realized at this late date that there are no accommodations available will be driving in the morning of.  The eclipse happens around 2:30 p.m. or so in the afternoon, varying a little by location. You want to get into the path of totality many hours before that, lest you risk being stuck in traffic outside of totality.

3. Do know that the eclipse is definitely worth taking a day off work, pulling the kids out of school, and putting up with nasty logistics to go see in person!

One cannot overemphasize how impressive a total solar eclipse is.  Photographs like this one do not do it justice.  Everyone has a limited number of opportunities to see a total solar eclipse in their lifetime, and everyone who sees one remembers it for the rest of their life!

                        Solar Eclipse Map Across Kentucky                       (GreatEclipse.Com © Michael Zeiler 2014)

So my suggestion is this: plan to drive down in the pre-dawn hours of August 21, map out state highways that are less likely than interstates to be congested, and plan to see the eclipse from a box-store parking lot or a similar easily-accessed location.  But if you decide to stay in the Miami Valley, come on down to the Boonshoft Museum that day for all sorts of fun, eclipse activities for our partial eclipse!

Visit https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com for more on this topic.

The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery Salutes International Migratory Bird Day

Arctic Tern

By STEPHANIE HYLINSKI

On Saturday, May 13, the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery will be celebrating International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD). IMBD was established in 2000 to raise awareness about migratory birds and to encourage people to help protect their habitats. International Migratory Bird Day is celebrated across the Western Hemisphere since many birds move between North and South America.Migration is the seasonal movement of animals from one area to another, and birds migrate to find better resources. Migration occurs on a large scale; all or most of the birds living in the area move as a flock. Of the more than 650 species of birds that breed in North America, more than half are migratory.

Birds migrate to find better food and nesting sites. Birds that live and breed in the Northern Hemisphere move south for the winter. Winters in the Northern Hemisphere are cold and there are not many sources of food available; like seeds, fruits, and insects.

Bird-watching at the Boonshoft

Birds migrate south to escape the cold and find better food resources, and then return to the north to breed. Birds that nest in the Northern Hemisphere tend to migrate northward in the spring to take advantage of growing insect populations, budding plants, and an abundance of nesting locations. Also, because of the earth’s tilt, days are longer in the Northern Hemisphere than in the Southern Hemisphere during the summer. Longer daylight hours mean that the birds can spend more time searching for food and feeding their chicks.

Not all birds migrate. For example, you probably see cardinals in your backyard in the summer and during the winter. Some birds migrate short distances, like moving across states. Around 350 bird species that live in North America migrate from the United States and Canada to wintering grounds in Central and South America.

Migratory Birds In Winter

The Arctic tern is famous for its migration; it flies from its Arctic breeding grounds to the Antarctic and back again each year, which means they fly about 40,000 miles every year. The long journey ensures that this bird sees two summers per year and more daylight than any other creature on the planet. The average Arctic tern lives about thirty years, and will travel 1.5 million miles during its lifetime, the equivalent of a round trip from Earth to the moon over three times!

For more information on International Migratory Bird Day, check out http://www.birdday.org/.

Falcon Cam Update – April 21, 2017

By LIZ TOTH

The falcon eggs hatched!

On Saturday, April 15, egg shells could be seen on the ledge, but the female spent almost all her time on the nest preventing a view of what was beneath her. By Wednesday, we were able to get a good view of the chicks and all four eggs have successfully hatched!

Falcon Shells to the Side

The chicks seem to be doing well, and both parents have been very attentive, feeding and keeping the chicks warm.  When they are not able to be seen they are safely tucked under the female.  She broods the chicks, keeping them warm with her body until they are about a week old and they can maintain the correct body temperature on their own. 

She has special featherless brooding patches that allow the warm skin of her body to press right up against the chicks and keep them warm.  This behavior is easy to see from above.  It looks like she is wiggling quickly back and forth, but she is snuggling her brooding patches down on the chicks.