Elgin Public Museum offers virtual field trips
The Elgin Public Museum is closed and has canceled its programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but still is staying engaged with its audience.
Education coordinator Sharry Blazier is doing daily "Facebook Field Trips" posts throughout April on themes related to Earth Month, which originally was supposed to feature lots of special programming at the museum.
The Facebook page is getting about 4,000 views a day.
Some of the topics have included: "dino dung," or fossilized dinosaur excrement, as part of the T-Rex replica exhibit; the extinct passenger pigeon, of which the museum has two specimens; and Tillie the Bear, who is in storage. Tillie died after falling off a tree ladder in 1936 in Elgin's Lords Park Zoo, and was mounted and displayed in the museum for many years, Blazier said.
"I am hoping maybe we will be able to bring her back out for the museum's 100th anniversary," she said.
The facility at 225 Grand Blvd. was built in 1906-07 and opened Nov. 12, 1920, as the Elgin Audubon Museum. It changed its name in 1975.
Blazier said she's working on a book about the museum's history that will include stories such as Tillie and the two-headed calf, which was on display until the late 1970s.
"To this day we get questions about, 'Do you still have the two-headed calf?' And we say 'No, but we have a lot of great, interesting things to see,'" she said.
Earlier this year, the city increased its annual museum contribution, from $54,000 to $60,000. The museum had operated at an average annual loss of nearly $46,000 from 2016 to 2019 and heavily dipped into its endowment reserves, but projected a $2,150 surplus for this year. Expenses were slashed from an average $123,000 to $87,950 by reducing staff costs and increasing reliance on board members and volunteers, officials said.
The museum continues to deal with turnover in staff and board members.
Joe Sarr, hired as a part-time coordinator in December, took a full-time job with the Chicago History Museum in February. "Joe was doing such a great job, we just adored him. He felt badly about it but we said, 'You're crazy. You have to take it,'" Blazier said.
Treasurer Phil Steder left the board due to work obligations, according to Monday's museum's newsletter. Board President Georgie Camacho didn't immediately return a request for comment.
The staff now features Blazier, longtime educator Marge Fox and a desk attendant. All positions are part-time.
"We want people to know that we are still here and putting out information out and looking to the future," Blazier said.