As our Collections Specialist, Kathleen Aston’s job is to manage the 16,000-plus items in the Museum’s collections, which include specimens, artifacts and objects running the gamut of natural history. To name just a few, the collections include fossils, shells, rocks and minerals, taxidermy, baskets and items of archaeological significance to early Santa Cruz history.
Kathleen joined the Museum in February 2016 as an intern cataloguing items in the pottery collection and trained with then Collections Specialist Chloe Marquart before assuming her current role in February 2017. Kathleen leads efforts to digitize documentation of collections items and re-inventory the collections, and is the main point of contact for any collections-related inquiries.
“We would really like to open our collections more to the public with a forward-facing digital catalog that can be a reference point and research point,” Kathleen said.
A native of the East Bay, Kathleen first became interested in natural history after attending the Lindsay Wildlife Experience—formerly known as the Lindsay Wildlife Museum—in Walnut Creek. She has a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from Reed College in Portland, Ore., and is working on a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Washington.
“I’m interested in how we relate to objects and how they help us understand things,” she said. “I am excited to be working with the physical collections and look forward to sharing them with our Members and the public.”