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There’s No Place Like Here: Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab at the Rhode Island School of Design

Published on July 15, 2009 in Watch

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(music by Boolar, The Give, animation by JuliaPott)

Walking into RISD’s Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab is an awe-inspiring experience. From the images that I had seen online, I was somewhat prepared for what to expect when I went to shoot this video, but like many that enter the Nature Lab for the first time, I did not anticipate being able to open the cupboards myself, and pull out anything I wanted to look at. The visceral experience of touching a lobster claw that is larger than your own arm is truly a profound thing.

Click on the image above for more of my photos from the shoot.

A Brief History of the Nature Lab

In 1922, Edna W. Lawrence began a long career teaching at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she eventually founded the Nature Lab in 1937. After graduating in the class of 1920, Ms. Lawrence had traveled the world and drew people in their natural surroundings from the West Indies to the Mediterranean. Edna returned to RISD as a drawing instructor and the Nature Lab grew organically in the room where Edna taught students to draw from specimens of the natural world. The Nature Lab flourished with the help of her personal additions to the collection as well as the contributions of the student body, faculty, and staff that amassed during her almost forty years of teaching in that room. Since then it has grown to fill the better part of the Waterman Building, which was RISD’s first schoolhouse building.

Upon Edna’s retirement in 1974, RISD found it appropriate to hire successors — in the form of curators — of the Nature Lab. Ms. Lawrence’s position, after a string of marine biologists, is now held by Karen Idoine, an Agricultural Entomologist. Karen, who thinks of herself as a general naturalist above all else, has held the post for 15 years, and she estimates that, while the official number hovers around 85,000, there are probably over 100,000 specimens in the Nature Lab. Karen is aided by two assistants, Abigail Karp and Rachel Atlas, as well as a host of student aids who keep the Nature Lab ship shape.

All in all, There’s *really* No Place Like Here, so, should you find yourself in Providence, Rhode Island, keep in mind that the Nature Lab accepts weekday visitors by appointment.

While you may not have time to collect over 85,000 specimens, or have room for 10 full size skeletons, much less a mounted moose head, you can still enjoy the antiquated aesthetic that hybridizes biology and art. Check out some of these items to give your space that Nature Lab feel. Similar to the taxonomy of the Nature Lab, I’ve organized the items here into the 5 Kingdoms of Life as described by Robert Whittaker, for your scientific pleasure.

The Kingdom Anamalia

Personally, my favorite line from the video is when Karen exclaims, “…so that people understand that insects are animals, and that spiders are not insects, just that sort of thing.” Yup, we’re animals, people, and so are the red wiggler worms that wiggle around in the dirt all day. Our DNA structure is only marginally different, which is why we are said to belong to the same Kingdom.

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The Etsy Blog

There’s No Place Like Here: Edna W. Lawrence Nature Lab at the Rhode Island School of Design

The Kingdom Anamalia

The Kingdom Plantæ

The Kingdom Fungi

The Kingdom Protista

The Kingdom Monera

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