Curators
The UWSP collection of more than 400,000 specimens from ten scientific disciplines is a wonderful resource to the university community and beyond. The Museum is grateful to have the support of our dedicated faculty members who support our below collections.
Anthropology – The UWSP Museum of Natural History anthropology collections are comprised of archaeological and ethnological artifacts from North America. Additional holdings include ethnological art collections and archival photographs and documents.
Botany – The botany collection is named for Dr. Robert Freckmann, professor emeritus of biology, who taught vascular plant taxonomy and agrostology at UW-Stevens Point for 32 years. The herbarium also has an ongoing affiliation with the state native plant society, Botanical Club of Wisconsin.
Entomology – Our entomology collection contains more than 12,700 specimens across 16 insect orders and 213 insect families, as well as plants damaged by insects. This collection has specimens that date back to the 1920s and also boasts an impressive teaching collection that was largely collected by students.
Geology – Geology is the study of earth’s physical structure and substance, its history, and the processes that act on it. Several thousand rock, mineral, and fossil specimens are contained within our geological collection.
Paleontology – The paleontology collection includes the largest holding of Paleocene fossils from the Almont Site, North Dakota, a significant collection of Green River (Eocene) fossils, a small Eocene collection from the Powers Clay Pit Site in Tennessee and miscellaneous fossils from around the world.
Parasitology – The Stephen J. Taft Animal Parasitology Collection is home to about 22,000 specimens across the diversity of parasite groups. This is a regionally important collection of parasites and includes specimens from rare hosts such as the Greater Prairie Chicken, numerous shorebirds and birds of prey.
Vertebrate – The ichthyology collection is one of the two largest fish collections in the state, containing specimens from roughly 3,000 of the 30,000+ recognized fish species. We house 11,000 mammal specimens and more than 3,000 bird specimens.