Today@Sam Article

Heritage Magazine: Exploring Hidden Treasures - A Journey Through the Natural History Collections

Jan. 17, 2025
SHSU Media Contact: Campbell Atkins

Sam Houston State University’s Natural History Collections offers a portal through time; the building’s broad range of artifacts and data, which span the globe, eras and countless areas of study, preserve the past as a means to better understand the present.

As one navigates the massive, three-story research facility, surrounded by ageless relics and a pair of ferocious grizzly bears frozen in time, it is important to remember that what you see merely scratches the surface. 

Within the many rooms, shelves, cabinets and cubbyholes that comprise the former high school sit countless specimens, archives and written works, which are utilized to fuel advanced undergraduate and graduate education and research at Sam Houston State University. The operation provides university students and personnel the opportunity to interact and collaborate with a diverse field of experts in one, centralized location.

“Our core is the student and faculty member,” said William Godwin, the facility’s curator. “We are not a museum of “things" so much as we are a museum that serves data to scientists. We work by building relationships and partnerships in science, which begins with SHSU personnel.”

Godwin, a sixth-generation Texan who grew up in his mother’s antique store, has long dedicated himself to placing value on a multitude of “things.” This broad stroke encompasses everything from natural science and ancient cultural remnants to literature and poetry. As an ambassador for the physical past with over four decades of experience in a wide array of collections and museum work, he is the natural gatekeeper for the university’s consolidated treasure trove of artifacts.

“We build and foster partnerships with private collectors who are obsessive experts in their particular areas,” Godwin said. “Then we take those collections and basically feed them to the appropriate faculty member or student.”

The center has established a number of prestigious relationships for the university’s benefit. This includes what has become one of the world’s largest collections of tiger beetles through generous donations from Tony Clifton, an expert who has acquired over 800,000 specimens, as well as Barbara Sumlin, whose late husband William Sumlin also possessed a vast collection of the emerald-shielded insect. 

Sumlin made her official decision to donate her husband’s collection during the summer, choosing SHSU over Texas A&M University.

“This gives us the largest and most impressive collection of those tiger beetles in the nation,” Godwin said. “This leads to scientific partnerships like the one we have with Rowan University’s Daniel Duran, who is leading a powerhouse collaboration of the top tiger beetle experts in the country.”

It also leads to immersive work for SHSU students like Meredith Coffey. The junior environmental science major began work as a student employee at the facility in 2023 and spent a significant time organizing Clifton’s vast tiger beetle donation.

“The opportunities I have had as a student employee are immeasurable,” Coffey said. “I have had a chance to work with specimens that most of the general public will never see.”

Coffey, who aspires to a career promoting sustainability and protecting the environment, assists with the facility’s day-to-day operations, such as curating the vast amounts of donated materials.

“As an environmental science major, curating these collections gives me a real-world perspective on the interactions between humans and the Earth’s natural environment,” she said. “It has been extremely rewarding to be a part of this process.”

Another significant contribution came courtesy of John Pickering, collector and curator of Discover Life, one of the largest online natural databases in the world. In 2016, Pickering made a deal with the university to donate and deposit his collection of 300,000 wasps, which he spent his life acquiring throughout the U.S., Costa Rica and Panama.

“When a collection reaches a significant coverage of a particular subject, we can attract the attention and time of the world’s leading scientists,” Godwin said. “When they come here to work on that, we make sure our students are working with them. This builds resumes, contacts and experience.”

These prestigious collaborations help propel Bearkats to the frontlines of scientific breakthroughs and discoveries; such was the case with Kelsey Jenkins (’18).

Beginning after Hurricane Alicia in 1983, SHSU alumnus and donor Joe Liggio would scour McFaddin Beach on the Gulf of Mexico’s northwest coast. Liggio did this often in search of fossils, but much of what he found was far from the norm. 

“Mr. Liggio’s donation had mostly ice age animals from one deposit that washed up on the beach,” Godwin said. “There were numerous remarkable pieces, such as wooly mammoth and mastodon teeth, camels and giant ground sloths.”

This collection even included bones that were not identifiable upon basic assessment. Godwin contacted SHSU biological sciences professor Patrick Lewis, who cued in Jenkins, a graduate student in his department. Their work became part of a larger study engineered by Christopher J. Bell of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin.

Jenkins and the above mentioned parties collaborated on Bell’s 2020 publication for Palaeontologia Electronica, titled First fossil manatees in Texas, USA: Trichechus manatus bakerorum from Pleistocene beach deposits along the Gulf of Mexico.

“My role was looking at those specimens and creating the images that were used to actually examine their anatomy and piece this study together,” Jenkins said. “It was a unique discovery, as we don’t see many manatees in Texas today.”

Jenkins, who went on to earn her doctorate from Yale University’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences in the spring of 2024, recently began her post-doctoral research fellowship at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.

“We cannot learn about this kind of stuff unless we have specimens. The collections at Sam Houston are indispensable and a great way to teach young adults how to do research,” she said. “You have a broader, more interesting type of research when you have a faculty and staff like this to man it.”

Despite mainly specializing in reptiles, SHSU’s centralized collections system allowed Jenkins to garner experience in other areas of study, such as the seldom-found manatee bones.

“Sometimes, students can get caught in their own research box,” Jenkins said. “But if you go outside that box, you can learn a lot more and consider science and evolution in a much broader way.”

The facility’s largest collection of fossils, however, comes in the form of the Gorody Collection. Celebrated forensics geoscientist, Anthony Gorody, traveled throughout the world to build his prestigious lifelong collection of index fossils, or fossils that help identify particular geological periods. His generous contribution to the university includes over 5,000 fossils, which are expertly categorized and photographed from multiple angles.

“This collection allows us to work with our associate Lisa Tuck, who teaches paleontology to inmates for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice,” Godwin said. “They are not allowed to handle rocks, so the Gorody Collection allows them to have paleontology class through digitized Gorody specimens.”

Gorody’s vast contributions are not limited to fossils. He saw collecting not just as a means of academic pursuit, but as a way of sharing things he loved with others. The diversity of his interests and generosity is showcased on the main floor.

While many universities house their data in multiple facilities under multiple different organizational structures, Sam Houston State has built a centralized hub of scientific research and collaboration. The consolidated effort, which began in 2015, was pioneered and remains coordinated by Jerry Cook of SHSU’s Biological Science department and a Texas State University System Regents’ Professor.

“We are relentless in our pursuit of data. I have a whole crew watching when we take your collection; that’s serious business,” Godwin said. “We are a shopping stall for faculty in many different fields, even history, music, art and criminal justice, to visit periodically and explore research ideas.”

The center’s 2019 grand opening was attended by renowned artist, alumnus and Huntsville native David Adickes (’48), who constructed the giant bust on the building’s grounds. Adickes, who also constructed A Tribute to Courage, the 67-foot statue of Sam Houston that defines his hometown, bought the building to save it from demolition and turned it into an art studio. Years later, he donated it back to his alma mater, along with the bust, for its current purpose. Adickes, who is now 97 years old, attended high school in the building.

The public is welcome to tour the facility, but should call William Godwin ahead of time to schedule a date and time: 936-556-2289.

To read the full version of Heritage Magazine - Fall 2024, follow this link.

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