Campus, creatures and community: 3 events explore 150 years of life at CU Boulder

"Campus Life" exhibition display of Colorado birds and plant life. Photo by Jo Marras Tate.

As CU Boulder celebrates its 150th anniversary, the university is reflecting not only on the people who have shaped its history but also on the landscapes, wildlife and natural environments that have long been part of the campus experience. The university’s sesquicentennial celebration invites the community to explore the many stories that make up CU Boulder’s past, present and future.

This fall, three interconnected events offer students, faculty, staff and community members an opportunity to experience that perspective firsthand. Supported in part by the 150th Initiative Fund, the Earth Sciences and Map Library and NEST Studio for the Arts, the “Campus Life: 150 Years of Human and More-Than-Human Relationships at CU Boulder” exhibition, the BioBlitz! iNaturalist Workshop and Creature Crawl each highlight the unique connections between people and nature that have developed on campus over the past century and a half. 

Together, the programs encourage participants to see campus through a different lens, one that recognizes CU Boulder as a shared habitat where learning, discovery and community extend beyond human experiences alone.

Looking at 150 years of shared history

At the center of the trio of events is “Campus Life: 150 Years of Human and More-Than-Human Relationships at CU Boulder,” an exhibition on display at the Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences and Map Library through December 2026.

The exhibit explores the shared history of humans and the many plants, animals and other living organisms that have occupied the university’s grounds since its founding in 1876. Through historical maps, animal and plant specimens, photographs, original watercolors and modern cartography, visitors can trace how the campus has evolved and how interactions between people and wildlife have changed over time. 

The exhibition highlights, for example, the prairie dog student protests in the 1970s; preserved animals and plants from the region, part of the CU Museum of Natural History’s education  collection; and the tree planting events that have been happening on campus since its inception. 

Jo Marras Tate, Vince Aquino, Claude Masson and Naomi Heiser with the newly planted ginkgo tree next to Benson Earth Sciences. Photo by Cameron Schofield.

Rather than viewing nature as simply a backdrop to campus life, the exhibition positions it as an active participant in CU Boulder’s story. This active participation during the sesquicentennial began with the planting of a ginkgo tree that will outlive most of us during the next 150 years of CU Boulder history. 

The tree, which was planted next to Benson Earth Sciences in partnership with Facilities Management, is a gift to the Earth Science Department. This species was suggested by Chair Anne Sheehan because ginkgos are “living fossils.” A couple of fossil ginkgo leaves are included in the exhibition, on loan from the CU Museum of Natural History, in which some Earth Science faculty are also rostered. 

“It’s exciting that the library is a place in which all these collections and creations can come together to tell a larger story about campus,” says Naomi Heiser, map librarian and one of the exhibition’s curators.

Whether in the trees that line the pathways, the birds that nest near academic buildings or the ecosystems that continue to thrive alongside a growing university, the exhibition highlights the many ways humans and nature have shaped one another across generations. 

As visitors go down the stairwell at the Earth Sciences and Map Library, they will find a mirror surrounded by pictures of animals, lichen and plants around campus. In this mirror, visitors can see themselves amongst other creatures, reminding them of their place as a part of nature. 

This immersive component was a goal Dr. Joanne Marras Tate, CU Boulder alum, NEST curator and faculty support and engagement program manager at the SPIKE Center for Sustainability Education, had in 2019, when herself and two graduate student colleagues, Robert Martin Buehler and Mathew Sharples, created the “Campus Field Guide: Species Relationships at the University of Colorado Boulder.” 

“‘Campus Life’ is a journey through space, time and ways of relating with the more-than-human world. The hope is that through the many facets of the exhibition, the field guide and the different events, that members of our community learn more about our shared and living spaces at CU Boulder—to know nature leads to care,” says Marras Tate.

The exhibition also invites members of the campus community to contribute their own stories and memories about encounters with the natural world on and around campus, creating a living collection of experiences that connects the past and present. You can submit your own oral stories here, where they will be stored through the library for the next 150 years. 

Becoming citizen scientists through BioBlitz

On Sept. 22, the BioBlitz! iNaturalist Workshop invites participants to document biodiversity on campus using the open-data platform iNaturalist. The workshop begins with training led by Dr. Scott Taylor, professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and director of the Mountain Research Station. Participants will learn how to identify and record observations of plants and animals using iNaturalist, a platform that allows users around the world to contribute biodiversity data.

Following the training session, participants will join a campus BioBlitz, working together to identify species in the area surrounding the Benson Earth Sciences building. Guided by Taylor and Marras Tate, attendees will contribute observations to a growing record of campus biodiversity.

The event directly connects the university’s history with its future. While the “Campus Life” exhibition looks back at 150 years of interactions between humans and nature, the BioBlitz generates new data that can help document the campus environment today. Participants become part of an ongoing effort to understand and preserve biodiversity, contributing information that may benefit future researchers, students and community members. 

Participants are encouraged to explore the “Campus Life” exhibition before or after the BioBlitz, creating an opportunity to connect historical records of wildlife and landscapes with present day observations.

Getting up close with campus wildlife

The final event in the series, Creature Crawl, takes place Sept. 30 as part of CU Boulder’s annual Culture Crawl. Hosted by University Libraries in partnership with NEST Studio for the Arts and the Earth Sciences & Map Library, the event will feature local and ambassador insects presented in collaboration with Butterfly Pavilion.

Visitors will have the opportunity to learn about and engage with the creatures, and for those who are interested, even interact with them directly. The experience is designed to make the often-overlooked members of local ecosystems more visible and approachable while encouraging curiosity about the natural world.

Reflecting on the past, engaging with the future

While each event offers a distinct experience, together they tell a broader story about CU Boulder’s relationship with the land. The exhibition documents 150 years of shared history, the BioBlitz captures the present state of campus biodiversity and Creature Crawl fosters a sense of wonder about the living communities that continue to call campus home.

As CU Boulder marks 150 years of impact, innovation and community, these programs encourage participants to look beyond buildings and traditions and consider another enduring part of the university’s story: the interconnected network of people, plants, animals and ecosystems that have shaped campus for generations and will continue to influence it for years to come.