Join us at 5:30 pm on August 29th for “Paper Tigers & Biblio-Beasts: Natural History Through the Ages” as evolutionary biologist Dr. Prosanta Chakrabarty speaks about natural history, modern fieldwork, and the role of research collections – in both book and animal form. Chakrabarty is Associate Professor and Curator of Ichthyology of the Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science, Department of Biological Sciences. The talk is part of the museum’s “Night at the Museum Series,” and highlights the significant natural history holdings in LSU Libraries Special Collections. This special collaboration is presented in association with the exhibition, “Paper Tigers & Biblio-Beasts: Creatures in the Collections,” on display in Hill Memorial Library through September 16, 2017.

Visitors will have an opportunity to participate in a question and answer session after the talk. In addition, members of the staff of the LSU Museum of Natural Science will be on hand to show and discuss selected specimens from the permanent collection. All are invited to view the exhibition “Paper Tigers and Biblio-Beasts” before the program.

The LSU Museum of Natural Science houses premier research collections - among the largest and most diverse in the country - that supports the following disciplines: mammalogy, ornithology, ichthyology, herpetology, paleontology, archaeology and anthropology, genetic resources, palynology, and science education.

The E. A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection, housed in LSU Libraries Special Collections, is one of the most prestigious of its kind, with particular strengths in New World botanical and ornithological illustration. Books on display here, and many of those in the current exhibition, “Paper Tigers & Biblio-Beasts: Creatures in the Collections,” are drawn from the McIlhenny collection.

The program is free and open to the public. For more information, visit lib.lsu.edu/special.