Thomas Campbell, former director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, once described a museum as “a place you can come to escape, where there’s authenticity, there’s uniqueness, there’s calm, there’s physicality.”
The Sam Noble Museum in Norman, established in 1899, has a history that spans almost 120 years.
This includes being designated The Oklahoma Museum of Natural History in 1987 and receiving the state’s first National Medal from the Institute of Museum and Library Services in 2014.
The current docent of the museum’s “Natural Wonders” exhibit, Howard Haynes, is a part of the Sam Noble history, despite his self-described status as a latecomer, arriving at the museum in 2012.
Unlike some temporary exhibits, the “Natural Wonders” is a permanent fixture.
“It essentially is a thumbnail version of the state of Oklahoma, the present state of Oklahoma. And the present biology,” Haynes said.
As a docent, Haynes interprets and explains the exhibits to the museum patrons, and as he puts it, “explain the upshot of the whole thing.”
Haynes decided to become a docent in 2012 as the monotony of retirement began to set in. Haynes recalled two of his acquaintances constantly encouraging him.
“(They) were forever telling me I ought to go be a docent at the museum,” he said.
With a strong background in biology, and multiple degrees in biology and zoology, along with numerous years of instruction, Haynes said he believed being a docent would help him in “keeping abreast of things” and reinforcing what he already knew.
The Sam Noble Museum is different, Haynes said, because there is “very little of the glass case type thing that you usually see in exhibits,” but rather the it manages to achieve a “nice combination” of visitor interaction while still maintaining grandeur.
The museum has an impact on Norman, he said. It has visitors of all ages, who all approach the museum differently. From younger and adolescent children who “get a quick view of things,” to adults who want a more wholistic understanding and “want to know the details,” Haynes explained.
In addition, the Sam Noble Museum is among one of the most visited tourist locations in Norman. Haynes said he is amazed that people not only travel from other states, but from other countries just to visit the Sam Noble Museum.
“It’s a museum that is easy to visit and is designed in such a way that you can visit it in an afternoon or as long as you like and continue to pick up new information and new ways of looking at things,” Haynes said.
